The Horse Boy. {{forumTopicSubject}}

Hey folkens!

The Horse Boy Foundation is the brainchild of Rupert Isaacson, and grew out of his experience with his son Rowan’s autism…

In April 2004 Rupert’s son Rowan was diagnosed with autism. At first Rowan seemed unreachable. However, whenever his dad took him into the woods behind their house his tantrums and stimming would relax. Contact with nature seemed to calm Rowan’s dysfunctions.

One day, Rowan ran away from his dad and got through the fence into their neighbor’s property and in among his horse herd. Rupert, a lifelong horseman and ex - professional horse trainer, had been keeping his son away from horses – thinking him unsafe around them.

However, that day he witnessed something extraordinary. Instead of trampling this squirming, babbling little child lying on his back among their hooves, the horses backed off gently. Then the boss of the herd, a mare called Betsy, came over and began to lower her head in front of Rowan, to lick and chew with her lips. This is the sign of equine submission.

Rupert, Rowan’s dad, had never seen a horse voluntarily make this submission gesture to a human being before. Clearly something was passing between the horse and the little boy.

So Isaacson talked to his neighbor Stafford, who owned Besty, and got the key to his saddle room. For three years father and son rode every day through the woods and fields of Central Texas and – first through Betsy, then spontaneously, Rowan began to talk, to engage with his environment and other people.
In 2007 Rowan, his dad, and mother – Kristin Neff, a psychology professor at the University of Texas – took a journey across Mongolia on horseback, going from traditional healer to traditional healer, shaman to shaman, looking for healing. They went out with a child still tantrumming, still un-toilet trained, and cut off from other children. They came back with a child no longer tantrumming, toilet trained and able to make friends.

Rupert wrote a book about his family’s adventure, and also produced a film which documented the trip. Both are titled The Horse Boy.

After returning from Mongolia, the Isaacson family started the Horse Boy Foundation to help make horses and nature available to other children, autistic or not, who might not otherwise have access to them.

Jeg er igang med at skrive om et projekt, og skal også skrive en side om The Horse Boy.

Har jeg forstået det ret sådan at det handler om Rowan har autisme? Og at han praktisk talt er umulig, udover når han og hans far er ude i skoven sammen, fordi det giver ham en ro. Og at han stikker af hjemmefra engang til naboen der har hesten Betsy, som underkaster sig frivilligt - også begynder deres eventyr sammen der, og han udvikler sig når han er ved Betsy . Altså at han bliver mere snaksalig og fortæller hvad der sker omkring ham osv?


HVIS det er rigtigt - er der nogen der gider og tage et tjek på om jeg godt kan skrive det jeg havde tænkt mig at skrive til det?