Monty Roberts has been to New Zealand around 16-20 times in the last 30 years.  Long before his current fame he was involved in the racing industry.  He has been sending horses to New Zealand since 1968 when he shipped Sharivaree to Alton Lodge.  Sharivaree was supposed to have been a breeding stallion but arrived in New Zealand and blossomed into a highly successful racehorse with the help of Colin Jillings. The association with New Zealand has continued ever since.

Roberts' involvement with the racing industry has also continued and his work with a horse called Prince of Darkness brought about the design of the barrier blanket.  This device, which helps horses with a fear of the barrier stalls, is now used around the world, extensively in Britain and Australia and is showing up more frequently on the racetracks of New Zealand.  Word of his work with horses spread as far as the Royal Household in 1988, when the Queen read an article about him and sent a representative to California to view a demonstration.  Apparently, the representative was impressed and an invitation was extended for Monty to go to Windsor Castle and demonstrate his techniques with some of the Queens horses.  He has received a royal endorsement and toured the United Kingdom on several occasions at HM's encouragement.

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Monty was most recently here as part of an Australasian tour of 'Join Up' Clinics.  Both Australia and New Zealand were sellouts with the Australian clinics in front of record crowds.

 

During these clinics Monty introduces himself and works with 'problem' horses to demonstrate the 'join up' technique and solve specific problems such as loading.  The initial demonstration is usually with an unbacked or unhandled horse and demonstrates how understanding a horse's natural inclinations to take the path least uncomfortable to it and to accept direction from a 'herd leader' can be harnessed to have a horse backed without any violent struggles or frightening gadgets within a short time. 

The basic technique initially involves running the horse around a circular pen (round penning).  A plain rope is used instead of a whip and is snaked out behind the horse to direct it in alternating circles around the pen.  The horse is initially enthusiastic with this gratification of his natural flight instinct but the rope doesn't allow him to slack off so he soon begins to show signs that he'd really rather have another option.  The other option is to stop and come in to the person at the centre of the ring, if he's not serious about this new compliance the horse can simply be sent out to do a few more laps around the pen.  This is a very basic lesson; running around like an idiot is uncomfortable, being with the person is comfortable.  And so the lessons go.  From start to first ride is usually around 30 mins and at each step the horse has made its own decisions rather than being bullied or forced.

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I've found it interesting reading some of the articles and reviews of the 'Monty Roberts show' in some other publications, I get the distinct feeling that there are a lot of sour grapes out there.  Maybe the clinics are too showbiz for some peoples liking, but then they are catering to big audiences.  There also seems to be a backlash from some of the horsie 'establishment', those who seem to resent the increased interest in and publicity for kinder horsemanship and in particular appear to dislike the tag 'natural' horsemanship.  I haven't worked out whether this is just some resentment of the publicity Monty and the others (Pat Parelli etc) get, or whether there is just a touch of defensiveness over people who've taken up riding and horses without the obligatory generations of horse background, questioning the ways that horses are treated. 

For myself, while I'm not one to be impressed by hype and publicity or American style showmanship, I could certainly live without some of the terms used.  But as a new rider I'm interested in all ideas and techniques and am pleased to see anyone who tries to improve animal welfare and change some entrenched ideas of horse training through coercion.  Perhaps the media attention to natural horsemanship will help the non-riding population be aware of horse welfare issues and in turn create pressure to change practices such as the heavy high shoes and chains put on American 'walking' horses or the recent practice of stretching quarterhorses necks the night before a show, or even the practise of shaving horse's whiskers off for shows.  Apparently,  generations of 'down-to-earth horsemen' haven't stamped out these stupid practices and surely they're involved in the administration and judging of many events. 

       

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