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Summary: Why take human relations advice from Monty Roberts?
Comment: By now, probably most of you have heard of the scandal about James Frey's Oprah Book Club bestseller, "A Million Little Pieces." As it turns out, the book, published as an autobiography, has been disclosed by thesmokinggun.com to be fiction.
Debra Ristau, coauthor of "Horse Whispers & Lies", the expose about her cousin, said that many people have contacted her with regard to the Frey issue's relevance to her book and Monty's own allegedly false autobiography.
She and her mother Joyce Renebome have now (Jan. 31, 2006) returned their book to their website. Some used print copies are still available through Amazon.com. Apparently, the authors also plan to copy their documentation for their book to the web, which will be a herculean task, due to the volume of material they collected.
See the book HORSE WHISPERS & LIES complete and online and free at http://www.horsewhispersandlies.com/index.html
From the home page:
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Monty Roberts: "The Real Horse Whisperer?"
His best-seller, "The Man Who Listens to Horses," was sold as NON-FICTION. (Random House 1996)
Like James Frey's, "A Million Little Pieces," Monty's memoirs are not even close to the truth. Worse, Monty accuses his parents of heinous acts to make himself the hero.
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Summary: An Extraordinary Legacy
Comment: Monty Roberts' "Horse Sense for People" is a good book about an extraordinary person. Rising above his own abusive childhood where he suffered 71 broken bones by age 12 from his father's beatings he has shown that his Join-Up method with horses can be used to "tame" unruly children. He and his wife Pat raised 47 foster children plus three of their own. Roberts said, "I had show there is a better life if you get rid of violence."
Roberts turned the horse world on its head and gained international fame when he developed a technique called Join-Up based on communicating with horses using their natural body language. He says communication among humans and horses enables Join-Up and has identified 187 signs with which he can communicate with a horse. He says, "The language of the horse is the language of gestures. It is a gift we all have."
Roberts has trained over 70,000 wild horses and usually gets and out-of-control horse to accept saddle, bridle and rider in 30 minutes. He learned to "listen" to horses by paying attention to the way they communicate with each other with their ears, eyes and body postures. An essential part of Join-Up is the breakthrough moment when a horse bonds and nudges him.
Now 70, Roberts rode his first horse at age three, won his first riding trophy at age 4 and spent most of his life working as a competitive rider trainer, winning four world championships and training hundreds of stakes-wining racehorses.
Roberts is the author of three best sellers including the book "The Man Who Listens to Horses" that sold 4.5 million copies. He wrote the book at the urging of Queen Elizabeth II who invited Roberts to train her equestrian staff. His work inspired "The Horse Whisperer" a best selling novel by Nicholas Evans that was made into the movie starring Robert Redford.
Roberts travels the world giving lectures and demonstrating his techniques. Much of the money from his non-profit organization goes to local charities and communities he visits. He also holds dozens of workshops at his "Flag is Up" farm in California for corporate executives (representatives from over 200 corporations attended the past decade), businesses, educators, social workers and other leaders who want to create conditions that foster trust, cooperation and partnership to improve efficiency, motivation and satisfaction.
For years the educational authorities were skeptical about Roberts' discipline methods until a failing British School adopted his practices in a last-ditch attempt to evade closure. The results were spectacular. In less than four years the Kingshurst Junior School in Solihule was transformed into a center of excellence. The 290 pupils with 40% special needs children love going to school now.
Roberts, a grandfather with a cowboy hat, is now inundated with requests for help from schools all over the world. For discipline he uses signed contracts titled "A Road Map to Excellence" that outline the effects of children's positive and negative behavior. Roberts says, "Before they act they must know the consequences of their actions. Contracts allow kids to manage their own lives. It's about assuming responsibility...there is no such thing as teaching-only learning."
Roberts discovered that many people who cry or faint when the horse nudges him in Join-Up have experienced mental or physical abuse.
Roberts says people, like horses, perform better in environments that "request" rather than "demand" where they are willing partners.
Central to Roberts' horse training methods is the complete elimination of physical and emotional violence. He says, "The more you use pain, force and coercion, the more the horse holds back and tries to fight."
Roberts admits that applying pain may result in obedience and compliance but says it is ultimately counterproductive as there is no choice. Teaching through partnership allows the freedom to choose and produces a sense of accomplishment that is more productive than force and intimidation.
Roberts has performed his horse-gentling techniques before hundreds of thousands of people around the world. He says, "Remaining cool and getting out of the punishment business is critical to having an effective relationship with horses and children."
Customer Rating:
Summary: horse sense for people
Comment: This book is an easy read for people interrested in horses- combined with people recoveries. It speks about respect and engaging into the language the person/horse concerned already speaks. It may be revolutionary to people who have a past of/in violence (verbal or physical) even if its just at low levels. It helped me makeing sence of a whole bundle of feelings, ideas, perseptions and ideals. This book does contain one chapter which speaks very direct and hosistic about one particular case of child abuse. Wich is defnetly R18!!! Usefull read in my view as a future Social Practitioner.
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Summary: Entertaining and informative, but schmaltzy.
Comment: I enjoy self-help/psychology books, and was intrigued by his idea of using body language to communicate with horses. I haven't read any of his other books, so the information about Equus (the language of horses) was new and completely fascinating.Roberts' main method of transferring his horse ideas to people is by telling heartwarming 'communication' stories from corporations and by telling heartwarming anecdotes about how he saved yet another troubled teen's life with his kind and steadfast nature.
As much as I can admire someone who starts horses in less than half an hour, and as much as I can agree that it's better not to hurt defenseless animals, extrapolating these theories to "violence is never the answer" makes me roll my eyes.
It would be better if he had stayed with specifics and not tried to lay down a world-guiding philosophy. Because when you get right down to it, if the question is serious enough, (Like, "should the South secede from the Union") violence is the only possible answer.
The stories are interesing enough to make up for it, but I could have done without the self-congratulatory air. Like actresses who write diet books, people who write about what they don't know often embarass themselves.
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Summary: Join-Up and Social Reform
Comment: Less Horse, More PeopleI'm not that interested in social reform, so I liked this book least of the three written by Mr. Roberts. It's about applying Join-Up principles to people, at all levels of society. Philosophy is interspersed with stories of the author's experiences with remedial horses and people. Key statements are 'Violence is never the answer', 'Violence is always for the violator and never for the victim', and 'No one of us was born with the right to say 'you must or I'll hurt you' to any other creature, animal or human'.
The book is not clear on exactly what it means by violence. (Page 68: -quote- All of this raises the question, "How do you define violence?" It's a very difficult question with no simple answer. -endquote-) 'Coercive Violence', is my best guess. I am unsure if the nonviolence statements were meant to extend to human self-defense.
The author himself describes man as 'fight', horses as 'flight'. Thus, they're very different. It seems logical that horse-human analogies must fall apart eventually, specially if you believe (as I do) that people are moral beings and can choose to do right or wrong in ways that horses cannot. The book also gives brief opinions on a few subjects that really deserve thorough study and discussion before conclusions are drawn; firearm restriction, criminal incarceration, tracking devices for offenders, spanking.
*Content Note: Parents getting this book for pre- or young teens should know that it includes a vivid story of sexual abuse, told in the victim's words.
If you are looking for information on horses and Join-Up, I suggest you buy Mr. Robert's other fascinating books "The Man Who Listens to Horses" and "Shy Boy". Give "Horse Sense for People" a test run at your library before parting with cash.
These are my personal opinions only and you may react to the book quite differently. This review is not intended in ANY way as a detraction of Mr. Monty Robert's fine work with horses or even of the application of some "Horse Sense" (common sense?) to people.
