Monty Roberts Certified Instructor

Attunement, Partnership, Respect

“A good trainer can hear a horse speak to them. A great trainer can hear them whisper”

— Monty Roberts

Guiding Principles

  • Attunement

    “Sense of being heard, being seen, feeling felt, and getting gotten” – sarah schlote.

  • Partnership

    The collaboration of horse and trainer through building of trust, commitment to non-violence, the promise of honoring their voice, and the recognition of all “tries”.

  • Respect

    To approach each horse as a partner via responding to their asks, communicating with compassion and understanding, and by allowing the horse to guide the process.

“To truly support a horse to change, we must first form a partnership to explore why the behavior is there in the first place” - HHH

Hollister’s Approach to Training

Hollister is a Monty Roberts Certified Instructor. His approach to training is based on connection, trust, partnership and non-violence. He practices within the paradigm of attunement-based training. Though Hollister’s foundation is in Monty Roberts and Mark Rashid’s methods, he is a perpetual and avid learner of all disciplines and methodologies as a forever-student of horsemanship. He has spent time learning from other trainers such as Ray Hunt, Carson James, Tom Dorrance, Sally Swift, Warwick Schiller and others.

Hollister has found great success in communicating with horses on their level through attunement to their needs, wants, and asks. His approach is a mixed blend approach of Natural Horsemanship with a strong emphasis on Positive Reinforcement to help shape behavioral change and growth. A firm believer that fear based training teaches the horse what not to do. Attunement based training allows the horse to teach themselves what to do.

The old ways of forcing compliance and dominance do not lead to partnership and attunement.

Hollister’s Interview with Monty Roberts

From 2021 to 2023 Hollister did a series of internships at Monty Robert's ranch in Solvang CA, Flag is UP Farms. While there, Monty asked Hollister to do an interview for the Queen of England’s 70th Jubilee. This video is an excerpt from that conversation.

“And what exactly do you whisper in a horses ear?” Her reply was, “Oh, it’s not what I whisper into the horses ear, it’s what he whispers in mine.”

— Lucy Rees

I had the privilege and honor of spending five days learning and working with Hollister and witnessing his masterful leadership and expertise through a gentling wild horse program at Monty Robert's ranch. Hollister is exceptional with teaching the essential physical skillset when gentling wild horses.  The behavioral skillset that he instilled over the course of the program was life changing and applicable to all forms of relating, whether that be with humans, horses or other animals. Patience and forgiveness are some of Hollister's greatest horsemanship traits which I saw when he worked with the Mustangs. I personally experienced Hollister's training unfold before me as I gentled and led multiple wild horses and mustangs over the days I worked with him, it was absolutely unprecedented and I would jump at the opportunity to do it again! Hollister is just a wonderful human! - Stacy Amundson

TESTIMONIALS