I was just quoting the article you posted:
"The researchers believe that the training outcomes were achieved as a result of ‘pressure-release’ and not the ability of the trainer, or a remote control car, to mimic horse behavior.
“Put simply, pressure-release works because the horse finds the pressure applied unpleasant and therefore the removal of the pressure rewarding,” said Henshall."
Monty Roberts was the first “natural horsemanship” guru to appear in the UK, largely because the Queen arranged for him to work on some of her horses. It was an eye-opener, perhaps because it appeared more systematic than the methods used by the old “nagsmen” (professional horse breakers) who had largely disappeared by the 1990s. The UK army does still use some of Robert’s techniques but we have also moved on.
I recall being in a tent at Badminton Horse Trials, with an older woman standing beside me, both watching a video of someone, presumably Monty Roberts, working with a young horse straight off the open range. I was completely fascinated. At the end of the video, the older woman sniffed loudly and stated “Ridiculous! We would never allow a horse to behave like that. It should have been properly handled from birth.” Which, in a way, was true in the English context. We don’t habitually have such free range horses. But still useful lessons to learn and Monty Roberts was a pioneer, regardless of his feet of clay.
Not me, I didn’t post any article.
And you need to read that quote again. They weren’t positing that p-r is a good method, because, as stated, it’s more flooding than horse behaviour.
My granddad was a buckaroo, a trick rider, a jockey, and drove trotting horses. I never, ever saw him being unkind to an animal. This was in the early to mid 20th Century.
Monty didn’t invent anything except for the Myth of Monty.
Yes. Littauer, and those who learned from him, all taught that the rider sets the speed, the gait, and the line and the horse maintains it.
Riding (in general) is pressure release.
Depends.
That covers a helluva lot of territory.
One could describe waterboarding as pressure-release, for example.
Or riding down a mustang for 24 hours and then announcing how he’s ready to ride. I’m sure he felt a huge pressure release when he finally got a break.
When MR first started being a public figure, they had a documentary of his new method of gentling feral horses.
They ran horses in a chute, filled it with grain until only the horse’s head was sticking out and when the horse was paralyzed in there, could not move, MR would make a big scene of walking up to the horse and patting it around the head.
Grain is heavy, when people fall in a grain bin they die quickly, it pushes down on your body and you can’t breathe.
Figure how those horses felt, they were not learning much when terrified in that situation.
They didn’t show the horse once out of the chute and being “gentled”, stopped at MR making a big production of MR being able to approach the horse and rub it around the head.
We who were watching were not impressed.
Having myself in our riding center, as the test pilot, started over three dozen feral horses under saddle, I know you don’t need to intensely “flood” a horse’s senses to gentle them.
That is not a situation a horse is going to learn much, counterproductive to teaching anything.
You are teaching that people are really life threatening scary and never to be trusted, not the best way to start a relationship.
MR made also a big production of “helping” a race horse trainer?
During the years we were at the track, when MR name came up, all you saw were 
and a few choice expletives.
Seems that MR would use examples of really bad trainers to then build himself as the god given best gift to poor abused horses.
MR used to brag about his new ideas to training at the gate?
Track people used to say, you don’t want MR around when starting colts out of the gate, he will get someone killed.
I don’t know how much was people not liking his arrogance, or his at times crazy training stunts, but I would take into advice that all is not ok when it comes to MR and his self promotion as a great trainer, or believe much of his tall tales.
Or Klimke. I watched a video of one of his clinics eons ago. Rider on a lovely horse. Klimke told him to quit nagging horse with his legs. Rider stopped and horse stopped. Klimke said " I knew that was going to happen. The horse must continue without you urging him on until you tell him otherwise." So not a new concept.
I saw that many years ago, I did not recall MR being involved.
However, Temple Gradin came up in the context, on how the pressure on the body helps (some) autistic persons to calm and concentrate. So much so that some used cattle chutes or ace bandages to achieve the desired effect.
Linda Tellington Jones also comes to mind with her facial massage.
LTJ is an unsung hero in my book. Using her methods we were able to teach some clueless horses where their feet were. All four of those horses came from a farm where they never had the opportunity to travel over things on the ground. Really weird to see them stumble and bumble endlessly over cavaletti. They didn’t seem to relate their feet to items on the ground.
A disciple of MR’s tried his round pen join up trick on my friends tb. Guess which one gave up? 
The point of join up isn’t to tire the horse out until they submit. The point is to drive them away (establish that you are the more dominant one in the herd of two) and then when they show submissive behaviors (lowering the head, licking and chewing, coming in on the circle, slowing down), you then soften your body language to be less dominant and allow them to join up with you. It takes varying amounts of time with different horses and a lot of people miss the cues and end up driving the horses away from them much longer than they should.
This is a horrific account of horse torture.
We used to watch RFD TV, when we had TV. MR made a big production of rubbing a horse between the eyes. “See? He really TRUSTS me!”
I have yet to meet a horse who didn’t enjoy being rubbed between the eyes. My husband thought it was hilarious, because he rarely sees the horses and when he does, he rubs them between the eyes.
Sorry it wasn’t something more grotesque, like your jumper example. Perhaps it’s all relative.
But these were horses that, for the most part, weren’t even 2. Rather than getting their ears up and gaining their attention by crinkling a candy wrapper or whistling to them or whatever, swinging a knotted leather shank several times like a lasso and then whomping-- not “bopping”-- them on the bridge of the nose for no other reason than to instill fear is not a minor thing. For the super well bred babies, it was done a half-dozen times a day for about a week. I hated myself for being such a fan girl that I followed his orders, took his money and did it. It was wrong. It was cruel. It caused pain and fear. That’s hardly an accolade for The Man Who Whispers to Horses.
I brought an unstarted three year old to a MR clinic to be used as a demo horse about 22 years ago. We were asked to come early so MR could evaluate the horse before the clinic. My horse happily went into the covered arena and into the round pen. Someone chased him around for a few minutes. And my horse was accepted to be used in the clinic later on.
Well, my horse was no dummy, so when he was brought back in for the clinic, he was like hell no, I am not going back in that round pen where I was chased around. lol My horse was also very desensitized. He and another three-year-old were my first foals and received a ton of handling. It took ten minutes to get him in the round pen. They tried everything to scare him in, even a plastic pool. He finally went in.
The rest of the session with my horse did not go great, they could not bridle him. They tried for a while. And so ended up riding him in a halter. I always called him the horse that beat MR. He was never a difficult horse. But he was quite smart. He was a super col tb/perch I bought at 6 weeks from a nursemare foal rescue.
In that picture both of them look like they are not sure they like what they see.
MR seems to be thinking “you big oaf!”, horse is “you think?”. 
Horse seems to do a Muttley Laugh.
Monty claimed in his book that he was a stunt double for Liz Taylor in National Velvet; this claim has never been authenticated, and he is not listed as the stunt rider in the movie. He would have been 9 years old.
Rex Baker, Johnny Carpenter, and Alice Van Springsteen are noted as the film stunt doubles.
So… why promote it? Why write about it in a book when you know people will try to check its accuracy?
The other claim is the one regarding his involvement with The Horse Whisperer, where he claimed to be Nick Evans’ inspiration for Tom Booker. This was debunked by Evans - not sure if he did so intentionally - when he credited Buck Brannaman with being the inspiration for the book’s character, and later a technical expert for the movie. Buck was a stunt double in the movie, along with his horse Pet. This was verified by Robert Redford and in an interview with Nick Evans at the conclusion of an old version of the audiobook (I think, from memory) where he talks about Buck.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
