Monty Roberts travels the world promoting a non-violent method of educating horses. But his equine friends still occasionally manage to surprise him.

FIVE THOUSAND people couldn't believe it. A man regarded by many as the world's ultimate horseman had been bundled over by an errant horse in front of their eyes.

Watching the famed American horseman Monty Roberts get knocked off his feet and into a gate wasn't what the crowds at Mystery Creek on Saturday night had paid $50 to see. They knew the horses coming into the ring were less than perfect but most expected them to offer little more than token resistance before folding under his apparently miraculous techniques.

Instead a drama erupted. A gasp was followed by a tension-filled hush. How would Roberts react? Was he shaken? Could he get the horse back under his control? Or was he really just a fake and his methods nothing more than new-age garbage?

Roberts stood up, looking a little shaken but still calm, and returned to the task of trying to convince Special, a small but feisty Kaimanawa horse, to stop bucking riders. Special became more difficult but he had calmed down a little by the end, accepted a rider reluctantly and left looking as if eventually he would mend his ways. It appeared to be a small victory to Roberts but a victory nonetheless.

Monty Roberts, 65, in Hamilton last week to perform one of three New Zealand shows as part of a worldwide tour to demonstrate his methods, has gained fame in the past six years. The Californian developed his techniques more than 30 years ago, partly after watching in horror the strong-arm ways his father used to break in horses. His ideas remained on the fringes of mainstream horse circles until 1989.

"It was then that the Queen of England asked about me," Roberts said. "She saw what I did, endorsed my techniques, started getting her own horses done that way and my life changed."

A few years later Roberts' book The Man Who Listens To Horses, which was an autobiography combined with details of his methods, became a hit around the world.

He has also, less happily, become identified with the novel and movie, The Horse Whisperer _ but has since distanced himself from them. The book's author, Nicholas Evans, consulted Roberts a great deal but went on to have his hero using techniques Roberts couldn't stomach. One scene in particular, where the character ties a horse's leg down with a rope until it submits, is contrary to everything Roberts believes in.

The term "horse whisperer" doesn't match Roberts' techniques anyway as his methods rely more on body language than speech. He uses his understanding of body language _ the horse's and the way he positions himself relative to the horse.

At the demonstration he had the horses brought into an enclosed ring. He first used a lead on the horse which he said rewarded it for good behaviour and caused problems when it didn't.

He would get a horse to move around the ring until it recognised he wasn't a predator and then used a series of gestures and body positions to encourage it to come to him.

Having apparently gained the horse's trust, he worked quietly away at achieving the task set him.

Roberts said his methods were a huge contrast to traditional techniques, where physical restraint was a much larger part. Some "horse breakers" _ including his father _ have been known to tie up a horse's legs or sometimes tie them to posts in an attempt to drill them into submission. But according to Roberts, "violence is only for the benefit of the violator and it comes back to you in the form of more violence".

Most horse educators in the Waikato don't go to the extremes of some traditional breakers, and they probably wouldn't regard their ways as violent. But many don't go as far down the path of non-restraint as Roberts does.

Mary Evans, of Raglan, was convinced after providing a Kaimanawa filly called Queenie for Roberts to work on.

"I've had quite a few Kaimanawa horses," she said. "Most of them I didn't have any problems with, but I've hardly been able to touch her for a year. "But what he did with her was amazing. All those people who say he's a fake didn't see what this horse was like."

But not everyone who attended was a convert by the end of the show.

Cambridge racehorse trainer Bruce Macdonald, speaking before Roberts' fall, thought the show was circus-like and was concerned spectators would leave thinking Roberts' form of education was easy and then get injured trying to do the same thing at home.

Even more sceptical was a full-time Waikato horse educator, who did not want to be named.

"He does some good things but every horse he had in the ring he taught some bad habits rather than good habits," he said. "We are all out to help the horses relax but there are much safer ways to do this than he does. And I wouldn't agree that everything he does is necessarily non-violent."

At least one notable horse handler watching the show was on Roberts' side.

Lou Cole, wife of prominent Te Kauwhata racehorse trainer Tony Cole, has been using Roberts' techniques since reading The Man Who Listens To Horses four years ago and swears by them.

Among the horses she has reared is Travellin' Man, one of New Zealand's best sprinters.

"I'm not strong enough to go picking a scrap with young horses, so when I read Monty's methods I was keen to try them," she said.

"It's worked fantastically well. I had one horse done in 90 minutes this way and though it's usually not that quick it does the job much more quickly than traditional methods and the horses are much easier to handle.

"We want horses that our children can lead around without any problems and this does it for them. Hopefully his methods will become much more common."

Roberts' techniques are now taught at four schools around the world. One of them is in Hamilton, set up by Leigh Wills after she learned his techniques in England and California.

The school, linked to Waikato Polytechnic, is not full-time. Wills runs about six courses a year, most of which are only a week or two long.

"People in Waikato have showed interest and we've usually filled the courses up," Wills said. "We were having a little trouble filling next month's course but we shouldn't have any problem after the show."

And what did Wills make of the fall?

"I was amazed. I've never seen Monty knocked over before. It just shows that all of us, even Monty, never stop learning."