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5 min readThe Man Who Listens to Horses
Monty Roberts, the internationally renowned horse trainer who died last week at 91, built his life's work on a simple observation he made as a teenager watching wild mustangs in the Sierra Nevada: horses have their own language, and if you learn to speak it, you don't need to break them. "Break is a very good word," Roberts told Terry Gross in 1997. "It's been used for about six thousand years now to describe the procedures used to cause a horse to accept saddle, bridle, and rider." Roberts called his approach "starting" rather than "breaking," and the core insight was that the most powerful tool for gaining a horse's cooperation is not pain but the horse's own deep fear of isolation.
The Language of Flight Animals
Roberts discovered that horses, as prey animals, have a built-in social discipline system. The most severe punishment a horse can experience is being sent away from the herd. "The isolated grazer or flight animal is smorgasbord for the lion or the tiger or the grizzly bear," Roberts explained. "They're very upset with that." He watched wild mares use this mechanism to discipline adolescents—sending them out, then allowing them back in once they showed submission.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:15) **Introduction: Monty Roberts's Life and Philosophy** - David Bianculli introduces Monty Roberts, the horseman who died at 91, famous for his non-violent "join-up" method based on horse language.
- 2 (02:03) **Conventional Training vs. "Join-Up"** - Roberts describes his father's brutal methods and contrasts them with his own philosophy of "starting" a horse.
- 3 (04:48) **Horse Language: Sending Away and Inviting Back** - Roberts explains the core of horse communication: using isolation as punishment and specific body signals to request cooperation.
- 4 (08:26) **Learning from Wild Mustangs** - Roberts recounts how a wild horse race led him to observe and learn the raw, untainted language of wild horses in Nevada.
- 5 (10:57) **Key Insights: The Matriarch and Ears** - Roberts details the first signs of horse language he noticed, focusing on the mare's role and the expressiveness of ears.
- 6 (13:09) **Working with "Problem" Horses** - Roberts reframes the concept of problem horses and shares a case study of the filly Song of Africa.
- 7 (17:00) **Stunt Riding Career** - Roberts discusses his past as a Hollywood stunt rider, including his specialty and techniques.
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Also, jazz critic Martin Johnson reviews Jason Moran’s record of Duke Ellington tracks, and John Powers reviews Tony, the Anthony Bourdain biopic that focuses on his first time working in a kitchen.
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