Monty Roberts' 86th birthday riding Nice Chrome

Freedom of Choice in Learning

"Horses will always seek a safe place." — Monty Roberts

The concept of choice is the heart of my training system. Horses will always seek a safe place, and once you understand this basic tenant of what motivates horses, which is survival, you can set up training situations that allow the horse to learn through freedom of choice.

One should never force the horse, but allow the horse a choice. It is not right to say “you must” to the horse, but to request. Using my methods, it is absolutely essential that the horses are allowed to move of their own free will. For example, I use a Dually Halter to encourage the horse to stay with me, but I do not restrain it by tying. In every way I attempt to treat the horse in such a way so that I cause as little elevation of adrenaline as possible.

Let’s take, for instance, the number one remedial problem on earth, where horses are concerned. Every horseman has experienced a time when it seemed impossible to get a horse to load on a trailer (float). Wherever I go on the face of this earth, I will find people agonizing over this issue.

More than ninety percent of the horsemen of the world feel that they can pound a horse into submission. They are of the opinion that they can frighten the horse sufficiently so that he chooses the trailer rather than the whip. The fact is, they do. It takes a good deal of time, stresses the relationship the person has with the horse and usually leaves them in an unhappy state.


In demonstrations, I show people that, with the use of their language and an intrinsic approach, requesting instead of demanding that the horse enter the trailer I can usually accomplish this procedure in a matter of a few minutes. When completed, the horse chooses to load himself and is in a contented frame of mind.
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