I believe it's called Join Up. There are a score of "trainers" making big bucks off programs like this - Pony Boy (who, by the way, rides poorly!) and a bunch of others. Isn't it Monty Roberts who walks around with his fat belly shoved into a white suit???
Anyway, each and every trainer than has created a "system" has good points and bad points. It's up to the horse owner/rider to sort out the good and what works for their particular horse. My daughter rides her 17 hand Thoroughbred with a string around his neck - ala' whats-their-names. Only problem is when she tried their fancy training methods (some other idiot was paying for it) her horse tried to kill her for waving a big whip around him. You just gotta' read this stuff with an open mind.
PS we have about 35-40 students, a lovely "flock" of school horses and a barn full of owner's horses and they are all well behaved and well loved - without sticking to any one trainer's book. You know, I can't say that for all the riders however....

Personally...I think he's full of it...I heard from a friend that she saw him at midnight the night before a demo at Equine Affaire in Mass....he was roundpenning a problem horse until it was in a full lather, eyes white and about ready to climb out of the pen he was so terrified...Monty just kept running the horse in circles. The next day I saw the demo, and the horse was still terrrified...Monty swore to the crowd he had never worked with the horse before. Left a bad feeling in my heart for sure. I had to leave the demo I was so upset...he attached these pom poms to the back of a saddle and ran the terrified horse around in circles. There was nothing soft about his method...no feel.

This is all my personal opinion...but having seen him at a couple of demos I am not the least bit impressed. If you want to see true horsemanship in action, and see what FEEL really is, watch Leslie Desmond (one of the best in my opinion...she leared from Bill Dorrance), Buck Branaman, Mark Rashid, Harry Whitney, Ray Hunt...they were doing this stuff WAY before Monty Roberts every joined the Natural Revolution.

Read True Horsemanship Through Feel if you want to discover what FEEL is...it changed everything for me. Run don't walk to see any of the horsemen/women above. Mark Rashid is based in CO, and he is one of the most amazing horsemen I have ever seen.

All the best,

Lisa

Monty seems a little star struck too. yeah he might be able to turn a problem horse around in one setting but how effectively? I prefer quality over quantity (time in this case). Buck B. definately has my vote. Check out his Book: "Faraway Horses". Its about his life and how he came to being the trainer is now. Parelli is great too.
Tara

Thank you very much!

You have all been very helpfull.

Mr. Roberts did not invent "join-up". He learned it from his own father who was actually a very kind and decent man. The procedure was an old one already well known by many horsemen. I inadvertently stumbled onto the method myself when I was a kid...too bad I didn't realize I could use it to become rich and famous.

Mr. Roberts' message is warm and fuzzy and makes people feel good. Many folks have said that his advice has helped them with their horse handling problems. One must acknowlege those positive aspects.

However, it seems that Mr. Roberts has not lived his life according to the mantras he espouses such as "Violence is never the answer."

You can learn more about Mr. Roberts by reading the book "Horse Whispers & Lies" full and complete online at www.horsewhispersandlies.com .

Some people are so upset to learn that their idol is, after all, merely human, and so they attack the authors of the book.

I've done a bit of research and am satisfied that Horse Whispers & Lies is the truth and that Mr. Roberts, although an excellent horseman, is perhaps not the most excellent human being.

The "join-up" procedure itself, more properly called "hooking on" as it was known before Mr. Roberts coined and trademarked his own term, is not suitable for use with every horse. Sometimes it can be a useful starting point in horse training. And that is all it is.

Not even Mr. Roberts himself has been successful with every horse that he has attempted to use the method on. That's a fact.

Neither did everyone beat their horses until Mr. Roberts showed us the error of our ways, LOL!

And NO, the Tom Booker character of the book and film "The Horse Whisperer" were NOT based on Mr. Roberts. Nicholas Evans denies that on his own website's FAQ! Evans does credit Hunt, Dorrance, and Brannaman. Buck Brannaman consulted for the film and doubled for Robert Redford in it.

I have read his book and seen some of his clinics on TV. I have even incorporated some of his techniques into my training methods. I really like the round pen as a training device. It is so much easier to start out a young horse or warm up a seasoned horse. I do not know how I ever servived with out one. I use to lounge but I do not anymore unless I am out where I do not have a round pen.
I have gotten horses to do many of the signs of joining up but have never gotten one all the way in. But the working of the horse in "Monty's style" has worked out very well for me. I trained a Quarter Horse stallion with Monty's method and he is now my favorite horse to ride. He is as calm as can be. I am contributing his calmness and good riding ability strictly to him (the horse). Not to me (the trainer). I have been traininig for quite a while but I am no pro. I like to ride and do a little open show stuff but mainly trail ride.
I am planning on going on a trail ride later this week. I am trying to debate on where to go. I have been riding in this area since I was a kid so I am getting a little bored. But it is still going to be a good time.

Me and my husband recently bought Monty's DVD on how to handle a spooky horse. We learned a lot from it! The only "negative" thing I can say is that we both thought it was for dealing with adult spooky horses - instead it dealt with one yearling. However the DVD is worth seeing.
I have not met Monty in person so I cannot say if he is sincere or not but from his books and the DVD I have seen he does seem to practice good horsemanship. You can check out his web site at:

www.montyroberts.com/

My Grandpa was a jockey and later a horse trainer. He taught the old way - rough and "cowboy" if you know what I mean? There are things he did (using spurs for example) I do not agree with but frankly some of the things he did worked. There is something to be said for some of the old fashion methods.I think it depends on the horse... I have found a balance of old and new ways in horsemanship works best. You want your horse to respect you NOT fear you. You want to show affection to your horse but not let him/her think they can push you around.
I just bought a new horse last week. She is a sorrel Quarter Horse trained in team penning and neck reining. She is beautiful and well mannered! I will post some photos of her soon.
Best,
Ayshah

I've seen Monty Roberts a couple of times now at Equine Affaire in Pomona.

What I saw did not in any way recommend him to me as someone worth listening to on the subject of training horses. I found him to be unprofessional, uninformative and even duplicitous. It was clear to me that he was a showman who was there to try to make money off of me, not a teacher hoping to share his knowledge.

1) He was more interested in selling than in teaching, and the horses were only there as props. He treated them even more peremptorily than he treated his helpers.

2) Neither he or his kids/students/paid trainers/acolytes showed any appreciable feel for the animals they were working with. At a minimum I expected to see skills on a par with the average "horse trainer wannabe". I was very disappointed.

3) He didn't demonstrate any appreciable technique: For example, instead of showing us how to teach a horse to spin, he brought out a champion cutter that *someone else* had trained, and spun it a few times without explaining how or why the horse was able to do it. All he offered was that he "wanted to show us what a good one looked like".

4) He used equipment that was inconsistent with most accepted "natural horsemanship" practice: in particular, a snubbing halter with a wire in the flash band that could choke down on the horse's nose (which he had available for sale in his booth if audience members cared to buy one). This device is mostly not used by competent horsemen except in extreme situations because, like a war bridle, it tends to make a horse want to flip over. It's also almost always unnecessary if one does one's homework properly with a horse. Like many tools, it can be viewed as the last resort of the careful, or the first resort of the incompetent or the impatient.

5) Out of an hour presentation, about 10-15 minutes involved discussing the training of horses. He filled the rest of the time by playing music, showing off famous horses, *singing a song he wrote* and reciting his curriculum vitae repeatedly for the audience.

6) He used TEN MINUTES of his presentation time to air his personal ire at the way he was introduced because the MC forgot some of his titles and credentials.

7) He mislead the audience about what he was doing: during one exhibition I saw, he ran a horse around the round pen a few times and then went and stood by the gate of the pen. The horse, of course, when pressure was removed promptly made a beeline for the gate. Monty trumpeted this to the audience as evidence that the horse had "joined up" with him. The horse, on the other hand had never exhibited any of the behavior of horses when they hook on: the lowering of the head and "negotiating", giving an ear or turning the head, turning to face, or even coming directly to him.

8) When trailer-loading one horse, Monty military-marched him back and forth a few times, tried to drag him up the ramp and when that didn't work, he put the snubbing halter on him and hauled on him, the snubber clamping down tightly on the horse's muzzle. When the horse still wouldn't load, he had his helpers close fence sections behind the horse until the horse was being forced into the trailer. When the horse STILL wouldn't load, Monty called for more helpers to help put more force behind the fence until the horse was SHOVED into the trailer. If any reader of this post is unclear on how egregious this technique is, I refer them to Bill Dorrance's marvelous book "True Horsemanship Through Feel".

9) At one of the presentations, his manner suggested that he was either drunk or hung over. He most certainly wasn't behaving in a way one would associate even with a professional showman, much less with a caring, career trainer of animals.

These are only the things I personally witnessed. I can't speak for anyone else's experience of the man.

If someone is looking for good guidance in a traditional "natural horsemanship" style of training horses, some reputable people I have ridden with and developed high opinions of are: Ray Hunt, Buck Branaman and Peter Campbell. These folks clinics aren't cheap. Nor will they hold your hand as a student. They're oldschool cowboys who've found a better way to make a living as clinicians and they still evince an attitude that you are responsible for yourself and if you're there to learn, then study until you figure it out. You also won't get near as much out of their clinics if you don't attend on horseback. However, if you do... and if you work at what you learn from them until you own it for yourself, you'll find that you've gotten on the path to becoming something of a horseman.

Just my opinion,

-- Mack Mackenzie