Horsewoman, breeder, trainer, sculptor, mother, and partner. For nearly seven decades, Pat Roberts built a remarkable life beside legendary horseman Monty Roberts and found her own way of capturing the spirit of the horse.
The equestrian world lost one of its most recognizable figures on July 31, 2026, when legendary horseman Monty Roberts died at the age of 91. Known around the world as “The Man Who Listens to Horses,” Monty devoted his life to a philosophy of horsemanship built upon communication, trust, and cooperation rather than force.
Much has been written about the man and his revolutionary Join-Up method. But beside him throughout that extraordinary life was another horseperson whose story deserves telling.
His wife, Pat Roberts.
Horsewoman. Breeder. Trainer. Artist.
And his partner in nearly everything.
The old saw tells us, “Behind every great man is a great woman.”
I beg to differ.
Beside every great man is a great woman.
And Pat Roberts is certainly that.
A LIFE BUILT TOGETHER
Pat and Monty shared roots long before they shared a life. They were born in the same California town and attended the same school and college. Curiously, Pat says they never actually dated while growing up.
Marriage brought horses into the center of their life together. Eventually, the couple built Flag Is Up Farms in Solvang, California, opening its gates in 1966. The 154-acre farm became a renowned Thoroughbred training operation and, ultimately, the home from which Monty’s ideas about horsemanship would reach the world. Today, the property continues as California Horse Center on Flag Is Up Farms.
Flag Is Up Farms in California’s Santa Ynez Valley became both a family home and the center of the Roberts’ life with horses.
But this was never simply Monty’s farm.
Pat was his partner in its operation and a serious horsewoman in her own right. While Monty traveled, she ran the farm, and her life became intimately entwined with the breeding, training, and exhibiting of horses. Monty later credited Pat with helping design and run their Thoroughbred farm for more than 50 years.
And horses were only part of the family they created there.
Together, Pat and Monty raised three children of their own and, over the years, opened their home to 47 foster children. Many remained connected to the Roberts family long after leaving their care.
When Pat was once asked about their relationship, her answer was wonderfully simple:
“We have always been partners.”
Perhaps that says it best.
PAT THE HORSEWOMAN
Long before Pat Roberts sculpted horses, she knew them.
Not merely as beautiful forms, but as living, breathing animals.
Pat was an accomplished horsewoman in her own right. She bred, trained, rode, and showed horses, including four generations of champion Quarter Horses. Years spent working with them gave her an intimate education in the subject that would eventually define her art.
Among the horses Pat bred herself was Black Design, affectionately known as “Blackie.” Together, Pat and Blackie competed in working cow horse events in California and Nevada, winning numerous buckles and a trophy saddle.
Pat knew horses from the saddle and from the ground. She knew the shift of weight before movement, the tension and release of muscle, the turn of an ear, the balance of a body in motion, and the almost imperceptible moment when stillness becomes action.
It was an education no art school could quite replicate.
And eventually, everything Pat had learned from horses found another form of expression.
FROM HORSEWOMAN TO SCULPTOR
Pat did not begin her artistic life with formal training or grand ambitions.
When she and Monty moved into their home in 1966, Pat began painting. Later, at Monty’s encouragement, she tried sculpture, taking a six-week course at Santa Barbara City College. After producing her first figure, she wanted to sculpt the subject she knew best.
A horse, naturally!
That proved more difficult.
Fortunately, family friend and noted Western artist Jack Swanson showed Pat how to construct the armature she needed. She later studied with Swanson and other accomplished Western artists, including Mehl Lawson and Grant Speed. Pat has credited Swanson’s early encouragement as particularly important to her development as a sculptor.
What began as artistic curiosity became a remarkable second career. Her bronzes would eventually find homes in private and public collections around the world.
And among them are several particular favorites of mine.
THE HORSE IN MOTION
Equus in Flight
A study in power and suspended motion, Equus in Flight captures the quality at the heart of Pat Roberts’ work: the sense that even a horse cast in bronze might move again at any moment.
Miss Tessie
In Miss Tessie, Pat turns her horsewoman’s eye toward character as well as conformation, capturing the individuality she found so compelling in her equine subjects.
Shy Boy
Pat’s portrait of Shy Boy, the wild mustang whose remarkable relationship with Monty Roberts became known around the world.
There is something about Pat’s horses that refuses to be completely still.
That is intentional.
“Horses and sculpture are all about movement.”
Pat has explained that her task as an artist is to capture a moment in time while preserving the sensation of movement. Even an animal depicted standing still must continue to move in the viewer’s eye to feel truly alive.
Looking at her work, it’s easy to understand what she means.
But one sculpture in particular brings Pat’s lives as horsewoman, artist, and wife together beautifully.
THE MOMENT OF JOIN-UP
The Moment of Join-Up
Horse and horseman meet in a quiet moment of communication in Pat’s sculptural tribute to Monty’s celebrated Join-Up method.
And who better to capture it than Pat?
She understood the horse.
She understood the method.
And she certainly understood the man.
There is even a wonderfully domestic story hidden behind the sculpture.
While Pat was creating The Moment of Join-Up, she began noticing curious little alterations to her work. Bits of the figure’s belly would disappear. Clay would mysteriously appear around his shoulders.
The culprit?
Monty.
Apparently, even being immortalized in bronze was no reason to relinquish artistic control completely!
Pat eventually confronted him about his clandestine improvements. The story makes the finished sculpture all the more endearing. Behind an image that came to represent Monty’s celebrated relationship with horses was something much more intimate: a wife sculpting her husband, and a husband apparently unable to resist a little unauthorized self-editing.
An edition of The Moment of Join-Up would eventually enter Queen Elizabeth II's personal collection at Windsor Castle, where her friendship with Monty and support of his work helped introduce Join-Up to an international audience.
Quite a journey for a woman who began with some blank walls, a few how-to books, and a desire to make art.
HEART & SOUL
Heart & Soul
Horse and rider become a single sweeping form in Heart & Soul, a fitting expression of the partnership between human and horse that ran through both Pat’s art and her life.
Perhaps the title says more about Pat Roberts than was ever intended.
Her sculptures were never simply studies of horses. They were created by a woman who had spent a lifetime knowing them.
And for nearly seven decades, she shared that life with Monty.
Together they built a farm. They raised a family and opened their home to children who needed one. They built a life around horses, and each found a different way of expressing what those animals had taught them.
Monty’s found expression through communication and training.
Pat found another expression in bronze.
Not behind the man.
Beside him.
Pat, Monty, and the horses.
A love story, indeed.
DISCOVER PAT ROBERTS SCULPTURE
Explore Pat’s equine and Western bronzes, her story, and more of her work at Pat Roberts Sculpture.
ABOUT JANET WINTERS
Janet Winters is the writer and rider behind The Barngoddess Chronicles, where a lifelong passion for horses meets history, travel, culture, country life, and the occasional mystery. An equestrian whose pursuits have taken her from the show ring to the hunting field, she is also the author of the Ivy Snow Mystery Series.