The QUEEN ELIZABETH Only I Knew

A NEW DOCUMENTARY TELLS THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN COWBOY'S FRIENDSHIP WITH THE ROYAL

- Fortune Benatar

The firsts 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 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.