I’ve got a couple of stories that I want to tell you about what recently happened to me in Australia and New Zealand -- because this new book is about people, and my organization is encouraging me to do more of what I used to do a long time ago. That was to work with kids, particularly kids that are in a lot of trouble: drug users and abusers of the law. I took this trip to Australia and while I was in Australia, I got to the city of Brisbane. While there I asked, "Is there a youth prison in this city?" and they said, "There certainly is, a large one, The John Oxley Youth Detention Center."

I said, "Well I’d like to go there and I’d like to spend two hours with the toughest of them. I would like to have those that have committed murder, armed robbery, grievous bodily harm, attempted murder."

They agreed, and I went there and I met nine young male human beings. I told them that, “each city that I visit I look out across that town, and I know that somewhere in there, there’s a building with noisy doors and barbed wire around the outside and it’s called a youth detention center. But I’m here to tell you it’s a prison. In there there’s good kids and each of you nine is a good kid. You’ve done bad things. But each and every one of you is more precious than all the horses in the world and you have the right to a piece of life outside this prison. I want you to make sure that you give yourself the chance to have that life.”

"Listen to me," I said. "Who is your worst enemy?"

"My father."

"And yours?"

"The cops."

"And yours?"

"The gang down the street."

“And yours? And yours? Who’s your worst enemy?”

Each of them told me who their enemy was and I asked them to tell me where their worst enemy was? Well, they’re outside and you’re inside. That makes you the loser and you’re the loser because you allowed violence to come into your life. Each and every one of those nine was in there because of a violent crime. They all thought about it and I used my videotapes to show them the horse and at the conclusion of it I really had them talking to me. I gave them a chance, each one, to come shake my hand and talk to me for a minute or two privately. There was a big tall boy down at the end, a handsome man of nineteen years of age. He told me that at fifteen he fathered a child and at sixteen he killed the child’s mother and he was in there for twenty years. Then he told me about the abuse that he suffered as a child and he hugged me. We talked about what he might do to get his life right.

The next evening I did my demonstration and while I was up there on my signing stand I looked out and I saw some of the guards that were there the night before. I didn’t know they were coming, and I got off my stand and I said hello to them. Out from behind the guards came my young man. He had things on his wrist and on his ankles too that looked like big computers. He introduced me to the director of the John Oxley Youth Detention Center Brisbane, Australia, the director that I hadn’t met before.

The director said, "Mr. Roberts, I don’t know what you did with those kids, but this young man came into my office after you left. He started a twenty-four hour job for me because he convinced me that he had to come here tonight, that I had to see this and that I had to meet you. He convinced me that you had something worthwhile and that he wanted to start a committee inside that prison to get violence out of the lives of the inmates."

I almost fell over!

He said, "I told that young man, ‘You’re in prison. You’re not going to do any demonstration with some horse.’"

"But," he said. "I brought him. I had to call the governor; I had to fill out a hundred forms. But he’s here and I want you to come back. I want you to help us some more."

I will go back.

We went from there to New Zealand and I went down to Christchurch. I went to the Christchurch Youth Detention Center. It’s bigger, a lot bigger, and they’ve got some real toughs there. Sixty-five percent of the inmates are Maoris. Those are the native Islanders. They are wonderful people, but they have suffered some of the worst prejudice that you could ever hear of. They are now criminals, a lot of them. Some of them are the Mayor of the town and the President of the bank, but a lot of them are in prison. I had twenty-six there. Half were girls and half boys. They came from different parts of the prison and that was tough. I don’t want to do that one again. I’ll do them separately because the byplay in there was unbelievable. They belong to different gangs. It was incredible. As I started to work, I knew that I had to go to work hard. I only had a couple of hours and I needed to get their attention. I began to get their attention. I essentially used the same logic that I used with the ones in Brisbane and did it work! I gave them the opportunity to say goodnight to me and they came.

When I got right down near the end, I looked up and there were three young Maori people standing in front of me: two girls and a boy. They were all standing there with both hands out and a green stone in each of their hands. I’ve studied the Maori and I know what that green stone is. It’s a jade-like stone that they find along the coast. Every family goes out and they chip these big stones off and they carve them into little stones that go around your neck. Every Maori baby gets his green stone. It is carved in such a way so that you know the family, you know the history. It’s their religion. It’s their life. Their green stone is their life and there were three of them holding a green stone.

"We want you to have our lives. We want you to take our lives and our energy with you in your mission."

"I can’t take your green stone. I know what it is. I can’t take it. Please. I want you to put your green stones back on, and go hit life with all the gusto you can. I’ll come back and I’ll help you to get it right, but I can’t take your green stones."

They went off to one side and I wished away the last couple to go. All of a sudden those three were back in front of me again. They said, "Mr. Roberts, we have come to an understanding today that we’ve never had before. Each of us does believe that we’re precious now and we’ve had a little vote. We’ve decided that you have to have one green stone, so you don’t know which one of us is giving up our green stone."

But one girl was standing in the front and a girl and a boy were standing to the sides of her. The girl in front had a green stone [which she gave to me]. Now I have my green stone, and I will keep it for the rest of my life. I will go back and I will see to it that she has another green stone (or he, because I’m not sure which one it was). But I want them to be outside and alive because they’re just as important as your children, my children, and these horses.