by
John Dolan
Horse Trainer Monty Roberts will have his day in court to explain why a horse in his care for nearly six months comes home and nearly kills its owner in less time than it takes for flies to land on the manure heap.
The self-proclaimed “Man Who Listens to Horses” wasn’t listening too closely when the owners of a mustang said their horse desperately needed behavioral training for its skittish nature. Roberts’ farm manager Crawford Hall took the horse under his wing and instead of properly training him, he arranged to have the horse taken for walks around the property. Then, Hall sent the horse home, duping the owners into believing they now had a safe horse. Soon after, the horse trampled one of its owners, sending her to the hospital with massive injuries to her legs. As the injuries primarily entailed soft-tissue damage, there was nothing they could do. They sent her home with a ton of Vicodin and she spent five weeks in bed in agony. Her doctor and, later, a plastic surgeon confirmed that her crushed calf muscle cannot be healed; nor can the nerve damage, nor can either of her battered knees, or the scars. She’s lucky the horse didn’t kick her in the head. She’d be dead.
In discussions that followed, Monty Roberts’ people admitted that the horse wasn’t trained and the reason for it is that “mustangs can’t be trained”. For those not familiar with Monty Roberts, the man who only thinks he listens to horses, this is a man who claims that he has based his training philosophy on the observations of wild mustangs and who even allegedly “captured” one for a BBC documentary depicting that philosophy. Now to have your farm manager and your own attorney-son, Marty Roberts, admit that mustangs can’t be trained, one can only wonder about the massive fraud being perpetrated not only on the victims in this case but on the entire world! The lawsuit against Monty Roberts and his clan did not come lightly, say the horse owners, but only after Monty Roberts defrauded them, repeatedly lied about it, then denied all responsibility toward the injured woman.
Updated info: During the trial, Monty Roberts himself claimed that “mustangs can’t be trained”. He denied he knew anything about the mustang, saying he was out of town most of the time, even though the couple had been told that Monty himself would be training the horse in addition to his farm manager, and even though Monty’s son said he passes ALL business by his father.