New Film Reveals Unlikely Bond Between Queen Elizabeth and 'Horse Whisperer' Monty Roberts: We Were as 'Close as Could Be'

The 'fantastic relationship' between the two horse lovers plays out onscreen in an illuminating new documentary, out this month

A new documentary film brings to life the extraordinary friendship between Queen Elizabeth and a cowboy from California.

Monty Roberts, famously known as the "Horse Whisperer," reflects on how he introduced his training methods to the U.K. and the world, with the support of the late Queen Elizabeth, in The Cowboy and the Queen, premiering in theaters on Sept. 6.

The film delves into the extraordinary connection between the two horse lovers, who, despite coming from vastly different worlds, were both profoundly shaped by the impact of the Second World War. The pair became so close that Roberts was invited to the final, deeply moving moment of her funeral at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle — an invitation that cemented their closeness.

Over more than three decades, the Queen and Roberts bonded over a love of animals and a desire to see horses trained more humanely after Roberts’ techniques came to the attention of Queen Elizabeth in 1989.

"I started all of her horses and I trained her people and her horses. It was a fantastic relationship — as close as it could possibly be,” Roberts tells PEOPLE.

He continues, “You have no idea how long I have felt that it’s important that horses live with us human beings without violence. And that goes back to early teenage years. The world thought you had to break horses, and the Queen didn’t think that.”

When the Queen heard of Roberts’ techniques, she asked if she could meet him — and summoned him to demonstrate his methods at Windsor Castle in front of members of her family and her often skeptical courtiers and staff.

“Yes," he says of crossing the Atlantic at the monarch's invitation. "You always say ‘yes’ to the Queen."

The first horse of the Queen’s that he was asked to prepare to be saddled up and trained was ready to accept a rider in under 30 minutes, he says.

Seeing the success of Roberts' methods, Elizabeth urged him to go out and spread the word, and, he says, without her patronage many people would not have heard of him or changed their training methods.

The director of the illuminating film, Andrea Nevins, tells PEOPLE she started out wanting to talk to Roberts about the Queen’s love of dogs — after all, one of her corgis later in her life was, in fact, named for Monty himself. Monty came down in that parachute with her,” Roberts says with a smile, recalling the fun James Bond-style skit at the opening of the London 2012 Olympics. “Monty was not an easy dog. I had fun working with him.”)

But Nevins found that Roberts' journey was more compelling than her initial idea, and the director switched gears. "When we started this the Queen was still alive, and we fully expected she might go on forever like everyone did. He wanted to be able to tell this story in a way that your grandfather might do around a campfire,” she says of the timing.

Nevins was surprised at the bond between the late Queen and Roberts. “One is a monarch and a very old version of monarchy that doesn’t quite exist anymore. The other is a cowboy in that very American sense of independence," Nevins tells PEOPLE. "But they came together in a very different way, a very modern way where they used very feminine ways of looking at the world than might have otherwise been accessible to them.”

“Can you imagine a kid who grew up in rodeo grounds in old fashioned western California getting to meet the Queen of England?" she adds. "His world was very circumscribed, too.”

They were united by a key philosophy, she believes. "If you approach with respect, you get a much bigger version of that person or animal than if you approach with fear or intimidation," Nevins says. "They saw eye-to-eye on that.”

In explaining the special bond Roberts and the Queen shared, Nevins believes Elizabeth "always had a fascination with pushing boundaries, which is not something she was allowed to do very frequently." She adds, "There is something about California and the great American West that had a particular fascination for her. It was remarkable to watch her when she came to California and meet Ronald Reagan."

Nevins adds, “She saw the technology and the innovations in California. That seemed to give her a great deal of delight. And there was something about Monty pushing this boundary that seemed to fascinate her. There was a sense of newness.”

Related: Queen Elizabeth's Horse Trainer Talks About Emotional Moment at Committal Service: 'It Hit Me'

The lesson of the documentary, Nevins says, is "that two people who are very, very different can come together and learn something basic, beautiful and practical and then be able to share that with the world as a guide. It was a gift to tell this story, and I’m so glad I caught both of them when I did.”

To the delight of the Queen in her later years, Roberts extended his methods to helping people with mental health challenges, especially veterans suffering from PTSD. “I believe if you can do that with horses, you can do that one-on-one with people,” Roberts says.

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Almost exactly two years ago, on Sept. 19, 2022, Roberts was among mourners at the funeral of the Queen. "Our relationship was as close as it could possibly be," he tells PEOPLE. "She had her husband and all of that, so it wasn’t that kind of relationship. I loved her to death, and I think she loved me too.”

The Cowboy and the Queen is in theaters beginning Sept. 6 and streaming on MasterClass starting Sept. 12.

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