MOST Californian cowboys spend their lives around horses and many have just about hung up their boots when reaching into their ninth decade on this earth but not so, iconic American horseman Monty Roberts who, at 82, is still working flat out in his stated quest to leave the world a better place for horses than he found it.

Every day is choc-a-bloc for the man who had his last day off nine years ago. A snapshot of his hectic schedule reveals everything from German film crews filming at his Flag Is Up Farm as part of the Lomitas success story; interspersed with a phone call from one of the most advanced human behavioural scientists in the USA, following by a global conference call on equine welfare before he packs his bag for his long flight to Heathrow ahead of his European tour.

Forget either whispering or roaring.

Monty Roberts does neither; he’s a man refreshingly not afraid to tell it like it is – in short, he simply calls it as he sees it.

With no other agenda to forward than the ultimate good of the horse, Roberts freely speaks his pin sharp mind, the steady definite voice clear as a bell, the confidence expressed in his opinions backed up by countless days of hands on experience with horses – and people – of all kinds. Whether it is horses or humans who arrive at his gate for help, some carrying more baggage than others, all are essentially searching for a connection based on that most elusive of qualities – pure trust – and Roberts has expertly honed himself to deliver that in spades every time.

Audiences around the world have now witnessed almost 12,000 horses and ponies of all shapes, backgrounds and sizes which have gone through his public demonstrations including the 3,128 classified by their exasperated owners as non-loaders. Some persistent detractors think it all looks too easy to be true. There are no games, no magic tricks, no food lures, no drugs. Sceptics can be forgiven as with Roberts at the end of the rope, his seamless expertise does indeed make it look easy.

“You get up in the morning and try to do more each day. That’s the way it is going,” said Roberts of his packed schedule. “It’s great there is huge interest in me coming to Ireland. I’m just doing the one date; several in the UK and I have a lot of work to do with the Queen’s young racehorses which I’m very much looking forward to.”

Of all the disciplines he has worked with over the years, Monty immediately rates polo as the discipline that most needs his Equus training following by racing. “Polo needs it the most, I’d rank it No 1 and the racing industry is right in there a close second. I have not spent nearly as much time as I would have liked to in Ireland or the UK over the years but I think that Ireland’s horsemanship has changed almost more than any other country.

“I believe that’s happened because the Irish are hands-on grounded horsemen. They don’t need to see things twice to catch on. I found that in Ireland, my words went deeper quicker than many other places.

“Racing globally is very regulated. It was horrific what they were doing in some countries with the starting gates, everything from long whips to twitches. Ireland was forceful enough with their horses too but quick to catch on when shown methods that work. Here in the USA, there has never been one rule change regarding the whip. Yet the number of strikes per race has fallen about 60%. That’s because those kids up there riding are listening to all the latest training, methods, research. Some 80% of accidents with racehorses occur when the whips come out and the horses duck and dive. But overall, yes, I feel it is going my way but I have to leave a team behind to carry on; I have a legacy I want to see continued after me,” said Roberts.

FORGET FORCE

Violence or forcefulness with either horses or people has no place in that legacy.

“Think of it as seeing it from the other guy’s side. Try to think of the way the horse sees it. For example, you go to Newmarket training grounds and the starting stalls are all facing away from the stables. You hear them all saying they wished the horses would go up the hill the same way they come back down. I say put the stalls facing towards their stables and they’d perform 100 times better. I did that with gates on my place about 40 years ago, turned things around to suit the horses, tried to see it from their eyes and it worked. Those kind of things slip through.”

Years into his journey to help horses and educate people to his Equus Join-Up system, Roberts admits to still being “stopped cold” at many of the abuses still going on with horses in the world today.

“There is no question that there is things going on that just stop you cold. It is 2018 and we are still doing these things! There is abused horses, ponies and donkeys across the world. Some in poor countries, some in the richest countries in the world.”

A segment of horses and ponies are suffering in more affluent societies from being over-cared for, essentially cut off from their nature of grazing and allowed free paddock time.

“Some horses today are actualy over-cared for with rugs, boots and beautiful stables but no time or freedom for their nature. The owners of those horses are usually good students who can adapt and change. Some professionals are less good. Ireland is full of that tradition, people following on from what their Daddy did without question but they are grounded people who can change and do change when they see another way working. As long as people don’t use violence, I say let them do it their way too.

Monty Roberts with a young horse wearing the famous Dually Halter

THE EYES HAVE IT

“However I have learned through my years, my decades now, that the horse – a flight animal – cannot lie. They are not wired to lie. They only respond to how we are. Their response is only for two separate goals. They want to survive and to reproduce. That’s all they can plan or hope for. The horse cannot lie. No flight animal trusts a predator. They don’t want violence; they don’t eat another species; all they want is to survive and reproduce. If a horse comes to you of his own free will, he must trust you. We have to earn that trust.

“Our eyes, just like predators, are in the front of our heads. The horses, a prey species, has eyes set on the side of the head. We cannot snap our eyes onto the flight animal. Hard eyes locked on will make them go away from us. I’ve worked with a family of deer for some 44 years and I can touch and make contact with 14 of them now. It took me two years to understand that about the eyes and I owe that to the Grandma of the group. If I snapped my eyes on her, she was gone for a week. The night I got it right with my eyes, angled them, she allowed me to touch her. I jumped into my pick-up and straight down to the round pen to try it with the horses. The eyes truly are the windows to the soul. Some clinicians laughed at me but it gradually took hold. It works every single time.”

It’s well documented that Roberts suffered a violent childhood at the hands of his alcoholic father and that experience and his ability to move on from it has seen many in the psychotherapy world seek him out for advice and help when it comes to human suffering. He and his wife Pat have raised their own family and a small army of foster children, the lives of whom were positively transformed.

“Vets (army war veterans) suffering from post traumatic stress have lost all their trust. I do a lot of work with them now. They come here and they don’t even trust themselves, not their families, nobody. The horses don’t trust them either. I work with them. I tell them what to do in the round pen; how to behave and the horse will come to them and when the horse comes to a veteran, believe me, those people fall to their knees many of them because they just can’t believe it. It’s very emotional, you can’t believe the stories they have been through. It’s a huge mistake to label it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it should be called PTSI as it’s an injury, not a disorder. Injuries heal and a disorder tends not to heal and those things are critical to let the world know about horses and what they can do for people.”

HURTFUL

Currently in the United States, there is no live slaughter of horses and it’s a debate that raged – and still rages – hot and cold today. For anyone who may think that no live slaughter saves horses from suffering, trauma and death, the opposite has turned out to be the case in the States.

YouTube is full of horror videos of horses, some badly injured, all terrified, being shipped for days on end from America to the slaughter houses in Canada or Mexico. Such sickening scenes make it hard to understand how a country synonymous with such an extraordinary tradition and culture of horsemanship from the ground up could allow it to go on in the face of the evidence.

Roberts is unequivocal on the subject.

“The no kill policy in the USA today is a disaster for horses. Let me tell you for me to oppose what Bo Derek was doing, and of course, she thought she was saving these horses, it was so hurtful to my career. People were saying “Monty Roberts wants to kill horses”. I was hammered for it. I don’t want these horses to be shipped to Mexico or Vancouver. It’s horrible. There is no easy answer but one thing is for sure, death is something that none of us are going to escape.

“Quality of life is the best answer to this question. Give horses reasonable quality of life and be responsible for that life for the time they are here with us. I have a graveyard here. I’m not allowed bury the horses here anymore because the rules changed but when their quality of life is gone, I want to be the good shepherd. It’s not easy but you have to take responsibility for that life, right to the end.”

Without doubt, Roberts is still a man very much on a mission.

His is a relentless quest to pass on his methods, his extraordinary know-how, to others right around the globe.

“I hope as I finish out these years that people will come to respect me. Horse & Hound named me as among the top 50 horsemen of all time which I’m proud of. I’ve participated in 48 world level disciplines, competitive and non-competitive, a record I think will never be broken. I was the first person to haul (transport) horses standing at a 45 degree angle as it’s more comfortable and secure for them. I was in India as I’m one of the Brook Ambassadors (Brook Equine advoctes for working equines globally) and after seeing 8,000 horses tied up in one valley, all for sale, each tied to the ground under a burning sun, no shade, sporadic watering, more than ever I felt something had to be done to improve the plight of horses around the world.

“My clinics, my demonstrations, advice, tips, you name it, it’s all online for people to see, either for free or for less than a stick of gum mostly. My goal on this earth is to leave the world a better place for horses than I found it.”

Check out Monty Robert's official website

NEWS: Due to popular demand, a second date has been added to Monty's Irish tour, at Cavan Equestrian Centre this Sunday, March 25th.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 25TH