The 2009 Special 5-Day Clinic with Monty Roberts in California

The Monty Roberts International Learning Centre at Flag is Up Farms in California is ably run by a highly trained team of instructors, however, Monty Roberts himself spends a large part of his year away from home, touring the world to promote his horsemanship methods and help people and horses face to face. This means that there are currently very few opportunities for Monty to give in-depth clinics at home on his ranch. So few, in fact, that he held only one Special 5-day clinic this year, which we have just been privileged to attend.

While we knew that Monty Roberts was going to be teaching us himself, we didn't realise this would be an incredible, full-on 9am-5.30pm -including lunchtimes - for the five-day stretch. Forty students from around the world gathered at Flag Is Up for the most amazing, in-depth Masterclass and learning experience - and each and every one of us left the course a better, more enlightened horseman.

Each morning started at 9am sharp with Monty bang on time and keen to get started. There would be a question and answer session from the day before, then a fascinating talk by Monty on his philosophies and methodology. It's worth saying that every single student remained rivetted all day every day, until the last minute of the evening, and if the sessions over-ran past 6pm - no one was complaining. Monty is so knowledgable and charismatic that it was impossible to be bored for even one second and we all set about learning as much as we possibly could. He and his wife Pat provided lunch for us all at his home every day and, while we were relaxing, he took more questions and answers so no time was wasted.

Flag Is Up Farms is an eclectic mix of horse interests, on many levels. There is a racehorse breeding and training programme; a quarantine centre; a Willing Partners programme where horses are trained up as perfect riding partners; a rehabilitation programme for abused horses; a socialising programme for wild mustangs; and the International Learning Centre itself which binds all of this together with teaching Monty Roberts methods to students from around the globe. The ranch is open to visitors most days and runs many programmes from corporate development and leadership training, to the full range of horsemanship courses from Join-Up starter clinics to the Intro Course, Advanced Course and the Instructors Internment. Currently, there are 26 instructors around the world.