I attended a Monty Roberts Join-up Demonstration in Oklahoma City Thursday,
August 26th. When I read your original post, I assumed that you were
describing a normal rope halter nose band that he was yanking on. After
seeing the demo, it is clear that Monty Roberts is a "horse trainer", the
horses did what he wanted them to do, but in my opinion the mechanical aids
he uses remove him from the "horse wisperer" category and perhaps even from
the non-violent trainer category. The halter has a double rope fashioned
over the nose, attached to one side of the halter solidly , over the nose,
and then through a ring on the other side of the halter. The lead rope is
then attached to the mechanical halter. The result is a device that puts
pressure on the bridge of the nose according to the force of the horse
backing up or if it is not backing up then you can "jerk" the lead rope to
get the same effect. The head tossing and attitude of the horses definitely
indicate that this is not a "non-painful" process. These halters are for
sale at the demonstration, or through his web page for $45.00. so it does
not seem to be his intent to hide the use. He also uses a "buckstopper",
another mechanical aid where a small rope is tied around the horses head
like a halter with the bottom string going around the gum above the teeth.
A small rope is then tied to the first at the poll with the other end tied
to the saddle, as the horse attempts to drop its head to buck, guess where
all the force goes. He says he has never had any permanent injuries, just a
purple (bruised?) mark that will go away in two or three days on the gum.
The bottom line in several of the demonstrations was to teach the horse to
not go backwards. The mechanical halter was definitely successful, sometimes
with a lot of rearing, especially when his assistant was working with a
young horse outside the round pen in preparation for trailer loading. The
"bucking " specimen(demo horse) fell heavily with the "buckstopper" in
place and a lot of fear from the dummy Mr. Roberts was getting ready to put
on its back. It was close to the fence and thankfully, the floundering did
not result in any apparent permanent injury. Again, to repeat, he is a
horse trainer, and he was successful in getting the horses to perform. He
is just not my cup of tea. Lara, I also do not want to offend but the
training methods and natural horsemanship are too important to all of us for
us not to discuss, not just the demonstrations. but where this trainer is
taking natural horsemanship.
