Design & Style, Community & Government

The Cowboy and the Queen

Lesson time 01:24:57 min

This film teaches how to win influence by challenging convention and become a better leader by listening. “The Cowboy and the Queen” is part of our curated, three-part documentary collection.

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The Cowboy and the Queen

A Documentary by Andrea Nevins

Rebel cowboy and friend of the Queen, Monty Roberts fought brutality with nonviolence—and won. In this groundbreaking documentary, Roberts tells the story of how he earned global influence by doing things differently.

Preview

00:00:00:00 - 00:01:24:03 MONTY: Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Now he's happy. The traditional way of dealing with a horse is to break a horse. Easy. You break their spirit down until they don't fight back anymore. Easy, easy, easy. Uh. I believe that violence isn't the answer. Woah. Woah. All right, let's try that again. Let's get a little bit better. If you’d have asked me. 00:01:24:05 - 00:01:46:12 MONTY: Do you think this world could really change in your lifetime? Easy. I would have said absolutely not. I could never have done it on my own. They would have buried me. But when the Queen of England called, she completely changed my life. 00:02:03:20 - 00:02:18:07 NEWS ANCHORS (VARIOUS): Monty Roberts revolutionized horse training, taming horses using a silent language of kindness. You would think that if Roberts made good on his method, people would flock to him like a modern day Doctor Doolittle. 00:02:18:08 - 00:02:44:17 NEWS ANCHORS (VARIOUS): But Roberts has his critics for years, horse trainers either ignored Roberts or were openly hostile. But all of that changed when his work came to the attention of a lady who lived overseas and owned a few horses. Queen Elizabeth's lifelong love of horses was well known, and although she lived in a palace, she felt at home in the stables. 00:02:44:19 - 00:03:16:17 NEWS ANCHORS (VARIOUS): That passion led to an unlikely friendship with a California cowboy. The American West had long held a fascination for the queen, and one of her most intriguing young American friends has been the horse whisperer, Monty Roberts. He had a really deep understanding of her that many other people didn't see. An emotional day as the world says goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch. 00:03:16:19 - 00:03:28:18 NEWS ANCHOR: Thousands of guests gathered for the state funeral, including world leaders and a renowned horse trainer from Solvang, California, Monty Roberts. 00:03:58:14 - 00:04:11:07 MONTY: There's some more coming in. This is the Princess. 00:04:11:09 - 00:04:44:06 MONTY: She's a diva. Every day I visit these dear. Deer are ten times flightier than any horse. And if they're that flighty, when you do something wrong, you pay a big price for it. These deer show me what behavioral traits there are in the flight animal, and it's very helpful for my horse training. 00:04:54:15 - 00:05:22:13 MONTY: This road right here, 50 years ago, an arborist was teaching us how to plant acorns and little cups. And I said, Well, one day I'd like to have a canopy over this road. And he looked at me and said, You will never live long enough to see a canopy over this road and have a canopy over this road all the way down. 00:05:54:03 - 00:06:04:19 MONTY: These days we're taking in these abused horses and training them so that they can be adopted rather than going to the dog food factory. 00:06:18:07 - 00:06:37:20 TRAINER: So today we're working ...

About the Instructor

Monty Roberts revolutionized a brutal industry with his new, nonviolent approach to horse training. This controversial and compassionate method won him a friendship with Queen Elizabeth II, global recognition, and the ASPCA Lifetime Achievement Award. In this groundbreaking documentary, Roberts teaches how to win influence by challenging convention—and lead by listening.

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