Monty Roberts wants American racetracks to level the playing field and let the fastest horse win without the whips.
Horse training with Monty Roberts
The whip is always the number-one selling piece of equipment around the world. It amazes me that we have dealt with horses for approximately 8,000 years, yet failed to learn that the whip is probably the most ineffective tool.
© 2015 by Roberts archives
Roberts was the leading consignor to Hollywood Park Two-Year-Old Thoroughbreds In Training sale from 1973 â 1986. He was also a Director of the California Thoroughbred Breedersâ Association (CTBA) and founder of the California Thoroughbred Sales, an arm of CTBA from 1984 â 1998.
He wrote The Man Who Listens to Horses in 1996 at the request of The Queen of England and the book remained on the New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks. In 2002, Roberts included this article in his textbook From My Hands To Yours: lessons from a lifetime of training championship horses
A Look at Tradition: Techniques I Find Questionable
I explore many concepts in this book that I consider to be acceptable. These are heartfelt, well-thought-out practices that every student of my work will want to understand. But I think it is also appropriate for me to identify training techniques that I find questionable, not to point a finger of blame, but to give you an idea of just how much my concepts vary from what is considered traditional.
I believe it will be helpful to identify the training procedures that I consider unacceptable, and against the horseâs very nature.
It is with that in mind that I have created a chapter for those things that I suggest that you eliminate from your training routines. This chapter of this book will deal with three of the most often committed errors against my conceptsâuse of the whip, single-line longeing, and feeding by hand.
There are, in my opinion, no bad horses. Equus, the flight animal, simply cannot be born bad. If a horse is bad, he has been made that way by people. The knowing trainer will endeavor to study those actions likely to cause a horse to go wrong.
The Whip
Since the publication of my first book circumstances have caused me to be present at many of the worldâs largest equine gatherings. Most of these events include a very large section best described as a trade show. Hundreds of booths display both new and old innovations from the world of dealing with horses. I find them quite educational. new discoveries in tack design and inventions in the area of equipment of husbandry fascinate me.
It was during those visits that I saw literally thousands of people carrying whips purchased at the trade show. According to tack shops, the whip is always the number-one selling piece of equipment around the world. It amazes me that we have dealt with horses for approximately 8,000 years, yet failed to learn that the whip is probably the most ineffective tool.
If our goal is to create resentment in a horse, then I suppose I would have to change my view, but if cooperation is sought after, the whip is certainly the wrong choice of equipment.
Recently, I was asked to write an essay on the use of the whip in the racing industry. I did, and have decided to include it in this bookâ¦.(continues) http://www.montyroberts.com/shop/books/from-my-hands-to-yours/
Here is a link to an excerpt on the website:
http://www.montyroberts.com/book-excerpts/the-whip-in-racing/
About Monty Roberts
Monty first gained widespread fame with the release of his New York Times Best Selling book, The Man Who Listens To Horses; a chronicle of his life and development of his non-violent horse training methods called Join-Up®.
Monty grew up on a working horse farm as a firsthand witness to traditional, often violent methods of horse training and breaking the spirit with an abusive hand. Rejecting that, he went on to win nine world's championships in the show ring. Today, Monty's goal is to share his message that "Violence is never the answer."
Roberts has been encouraged by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the award of the Membership in The Royal Victorian Order, as well as becoming Patron of Join-Up International. Other honors received were the ASPCA "Founders" award and the MSPCA George T. Angell Humanitarian Award. Monty is credited with launching the first of its kind Equus Online University; an interactive online lesson site that is the definitive learning tool for violence-free training.