Inside Queen Elizabeth’s Unlikely Friendship With an American Cowboy: ‘She Was Very Amusing’

The first time American horse whisperer Monty Roberts met Queen Elizabeth II, he didn’t recognize her. “She was in the stable grooming a horse, and I thought she was a lady groom,” he exclusively tells Closer. “I was talking to her for a while, and I realized that the people around were sort of acting in a different way. Then I took a hard look at her, and I realized, ‘My God, this is the queen!’”

That moment in 1989 would become the start of a warm but unlikely friendship that would last until the monarch’s 2022 passing. A new documentary, The Cowboy and the Queen, explores their relationship and how Monty and Elizabeth’s love of animals has helped change the world. (The film is in theaters now and is available to stream on MasterClass.)

Elizabeth, a lifelong animal lover and horsewoman, invited Monty to England to demonstrate his techniques for training horses without whips and pain. “Her Majesty, it turns out, had always wanted a nonviolent way to deal with horses,” explains Monty, who began looking for better ways to communicate with horses as a child. “I had a father who was very violent with me, and that helped me to move away from violence and to become a student of the
minds of horses.”

To some, Monty’s methods were controversial and something that needed to be stopped. “A lot of people used violence to train horses. Their position was that if things went my way, they’d be out of business. I had a lot of enemies, but the queen advised me not to listen to the people who were against me.”

Queen Elizabeth and Monty Roberts Formed a Unique Friendship

As an American, Monty tried to be respectful of the royal protocols and traditions around the queen — sometimes comical degree. “Every time she would come to talk to me, I would take my cowboy hat off,” says Monty, 90, who recalls that Elizabeth finally told him it wasn’t necessary. “She said, ‘If you’re wearing a uniform, you don’t need to take your hat off.’” Monty replied that he didn’t think his Western riding duds qualified. “She tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I dub this your uniform!’”

Over the years, the friends shared “probably 200 phone conversations,” says Monty, whom the queen also knighted. “She considered me to be a close friend.” That friendship allowed Monty to see a side of the queen that only her family and other people in her inner circle knew. “She was very amusing and very intelligent,” he says, noting that Elizabeth had a gift for sizing up a horse and giving it a name that matched its personality. “They would turn out to be exactly what she named them,” he says.

The stoic face Elizabeth presented to the world was only one small part of her personality. “I think most people would be surprised by her humanity and how real she was,” he says. “I really admire how she lined up with me against violence towards animals.”

Elizabeth even named one of her corgis Monty. “He was a difficult dog, and Prince Philip had me work with him every time I came over,” recalls the trainer, who admits he misses Elizabeth greatly. “I know she’s up there waiting for me,” he says. “We had an incredible relationship for 33 years.”