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MONTY ROBERTS, SHY BOY \/ Buellton, California \/\/ 2005 \/\/\/ Photo by Dan Tuffs<\/p>\nBEFORE Monty Roberts weighs in on racing\u2019s most contentious issue he wants to make one thing clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I can tell you, straight forward: I love horse racing,\u201d Roberts says. \u201cIt allows the most incredible athlete on four legs to go faster than he\u2019s ever gone before to win the biggest race he\u2019s ever won. And that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you have to whip him to feel like you\u2019re getting the most out of him, to me, that\u2019s not exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts is now 90 and as he sits in the classroom of his Californian ranch after a lesson in which he demonstrated his unique approach to educating young horses. Roberts is still teaching, even getting in the round pen, getting his hands on new horses. The new horses circle him one way, then the other \u2013 one eye and ear locked on the man in the middle of the yard \u2013\u00a0and eventually approach Roberts during his famed \u2018Join-Up\u2019 technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He still looks every bit the classic cowboy: the blue heavy cotton shirt and red neckerchief with silver buckle that has become his everyday staple. His blue eyes still sparkle under his broad-brimmed white hat. Perhaps the only sign of his advancing age is that he is wearing a pair of comfortable, slip-on Skechers sneakers \u2013 rather than leather riding boots.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t surprising that Roberts believes the whip is not necessary in racing given the philosophy he teaches here at Flag Is Up Farm, near Solvang, in the Santa Barbara region of California, is one of non-violence \u2013 there are no whips, twitches or spurs on this property \u2013 and the Monty Roberts International Learning Center prefers the term \u2018horse gentling\u2019 to horse breaking.<\/p>\n
Roberts is quick to point out that he doesn\u2019t believe the whip is cruel\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0he just doesn\u2019t believe it is effective at obtaining best effort from a thoroughbred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, I never thought horses were in great pain because of the whip,\u201d Roberts explains. \u201cEspecially with the types of padded whips they use now. It was more the mindset of a jockey that is moving his body in a way, and hitting the body of the horse in a way that I believe is making the horse run slower because of all of that activity that is happening on his back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts\u2019 call for not just whip reform \u2013 but its removal from the sport \u2013 isn\u2019t some anti-racing outsider\u2019s view. Roberts has some serious credentials in the sport and his influence flows through racing\u2019s modern history and far beyond the borders of California.<\/p>\n
MONTY ROBERTS, SHY BOY \/ Buellton, California \/\/ 2005 \/\/\/ Photo by Dan Tuffs<\/p>\n
From Australia through Asia and Europe, Roberts\u2019 teaching has informed racing\u2019s culture through some of its leading figures. In Hong Kong, the former 13-time champion jockey-turned-trainer Douglas Whyte is a Roberts disciple, as is the Apprentice Jockeys\u2019 School riding coach Felix Coetzee. Even the Jockey Club\u2019s long-time CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who first met Roberts in 1991, has spent many hours with \u2018The Horse Whisperer\u2019 \u2013 although to be clear, none of that trio has ever expressed a wish that the whip was eradicated from the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roberts\u2019 remedial work has been with some of racing\u2019s most beloved and talented equine rogues, from Pakistan Star at Sha Tin \u2013 who, following a Roberts consultation, won two Group 1s after stopping mid-race 10 months earlier \u2013 and helping Chautauqua\u2019s reluctance to step away at the start. But perhaps Roberts\u2019 greatest project was the German great Lomitas.<\/p>\n
Pakistan Star stopped mid-race and Chautauqua didn\u2019t even want to start his races but Lomitas didn\u2019t want to go into the barriers at all. After some Roberts magic Lomitas returned from a racing ban to take German Horse of the Year in 1991.<\/p>\n
Before that Roberts had earned what was then a small fortune in the thoroughbred game through pin-hooking \u2013 buying yearlings at auction and then using his unique style to educate the horses, then selling at a profit as \u2018ready-to-run\u2019 two-year-olds.<\/p>\n
Roberts\u2019 records for the 18 years between 1973 and 1990 show US$19 million of sales at a 43 per cent profit. His purchases included the 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, who he bought for just US$40,000, and 11 other stakes winners.<\/p>\n
So why did Roberts not dive headlong into racing? Surely there had been big money offers. He even preferred unpaid work at times, including, most famously, for the late Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n
There was a practical aspect to Roberts stepping back from the sport\u00a0 \u2013 the ready-to-run sales shifted east from Californa to Kentucky and Florida. But really, it was never about the money for Roberts, then or now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great question,\u201d Roberts said when asked why he did not devote more time to racing. \u201cFirst of all, I never dreamed I was going to be worth four or five million dollars. And when I was worth four or five million dollars, I didn\u2019t need to go and race and travel around. I had been in competition all my life. And so it wasn\u2019t the excitement of competition that got me anymore. It was the excitement of doing the right thing so that I could show people that violence wasn\u2019t the answer. That was my motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Roberts understands the reality of racing and what pays for prize money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always comes down to betting and turnover,\u201d Roberts says. \u201cBut I think you have to set that aside when making a decision on the whip.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wants racing to \u201cdo proper research\u201d and look to the countries where the whip has been outlawed or carried only as a safety measure \u2013 namely Sweden, Denmark and Norway \u2013 and chart if there has been safety issues or a noticeable drop in turnover.<\/p>\n
Dennis Madsen, head of horse racing for the Swedish Racing Authority, told Thoroughbred Daily News in 2022 that racing in Scandinavia has seen \u201cless interference\u201d and \u201crarely dangerous situations\u201d since the whip was banned, with horses running straighter and cleaner. Crucially, betting has not suffered \u2014 total handle on Swedish Thoroughbred racing has actually increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any negative impact on the betting,\u201d Madsen said.<\/p>\n
The contrast with Hong Kong is stark. This season, the Jockey Club introduced new whip guidelines preventing riders from striking horses on consecutive strides before the 100-metre mark. The changes were met with opposition, most notably from eight-time champion jockey Zac Purton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like it. I don\u2019t agree with it,\u201d Purton told the South China Morning Post of the changes. \u201cI think everywhere around the world that they\u2019ve brought a whip rule in, turnover has gone down and participation has gone down. I think it\u2019s the wrong thing to do. We\u2019re the best racing jurisdiction in the world and we should have just continued to play our game. If you\u2019ve got the best house on the street, you don\u2019t change it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts believes this kind of clash highlights the need for collaboration. \u201cWe should bring experts from tracks all over the world. I wish they would come here and watch my work \u2014 these are intelligent people, they could easily see that I found a way that nonviolence gets a horse closer to a win than violence does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only does Roberts believe that the whip isn\u2019t effective, his theory that horses run \u201cinto pain\u201d means it slows them down and is sometimes dangerous in the way it causes interference when horses veer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you strike that horse, let\u2019s say left-handed, and you\u2019re at the hundred yard mark from the wire, and you do this, that horse\u2019s left ear will go toward that strike. His eye will go toward that strike. And he will lean toward that strike. And that slows him down before he gets to the wire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, without whips, a horse and a jockey still win the race,\u201d Roberts says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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MONTY ROBERTS \/ Flag Up Farm, California \/\/ 2025 \/\/\/ Photo by Idol Horse<\/p>\n
When Roberts speaks these days he does so with an acute sense of his mortality. He credits God for his gifts and speaks about what he wants to leave behind at the farm, where his daughter Debbie is a driving force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some wise human beings out there who would say, \u2018well, why don\u2019t you take all this knowledge and use it for yourself? You could be a $10 million owner in no time at all\u2019,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I don\u2019t want to do that.\u00a0I want to show them how things can be done without violence and I want the school and this farm to continue. I want those kinds of things rather than earning a lot of money from pushing a horse to his limit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed it would work from the very day I started it all,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd it has kept working.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
The Story Of Lomitas<\/p>\n
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Related<\/p>\n
Hong Kong Jockey Club Confirms Change To Whip Rules<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Yutaka Take And Christophe Lemaire Talk Safety And Whip Use<\/p>\n![\"Yutaka](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5526.jpg\")
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