What is Monty Roberts's view on violence in horse training?

Monty Roberts's opposition to violence in horse training is the philosophical core of his public advocacy and the motivation that he describes as driving his entire career — the conviction, rooted in his personal experience of a violent upbringing and in his observation of wild horses, that force is not only unnecessary in horse training but fundamentally wrong in its disregard for the horse's nature and dignity. Roberts has been among the most publicly vocal advocates for the elimination of violent training methods in the horse world, testifying before legislative bodies, working with animal welfare organizations, and consistently using his platform to argue that methods involving pain, fear, and force are both ethically indefensible and practically inferior to communication-based approaches. His public demonstrations are explicitly positioned as evidence for the thesis that violence is unnecessary — if a horse can go from untouched to accepting a rider through communication rather than force, the argument that force is required is falsified by demonstration rather than by argument. Roberts has extended his anti-violence advocacy beyond horses to the broader question of violence in human relationships, drawing parallels between his approach to horse training and approaches to human education and parenting that prioritize communication and understanding over punishment and fear. This extension of the horsemanship philosophy into broader social advocacy has made Roberts a figure who resonates with audiences well beyond the horse world and who is invited to speak in contexts — educational conferences, parenting seminars, corporate leadership events — where his specific horsemanship methods are less relevant than the principles of communication and relationship they are based on.