The Horse Boy: A Memoir of Healing

by Rupert Isaacson

Paperback, 2010

Call number

618.92

Genres

Collection

History

Publication

Back Bay Books (2010), Edition: Illustrated, 400 pages

Description

When his son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson was devastated, afraid he might never be able to communicate with his child. But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor's horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected?

User reviews

LibraryThing member maggie1944

I just finished reading [The Horse Boy] and I guess I'll give it 3.5 stars. I think the author, his wife, his editors, and whoever else helped him decide what to put in and what to leave out of this book made an error on the side of conventional wisdom.

This is the story of a family with an autistic

boy who made a trip to Mongolia to connect with horses and shamans.

The father was definitely a horse person, and found that his autistic son did have an ability to connect with horses. The father also had some connection with shamans in Africa and so his quest to take his son to shamans was not completely made up without some realism. When first introduced to some shamans the boy did connect and did show some improvement in behavior, so the idea had some foundation in this family's reality. However, having traveled to some less developed corners of the world I know how daunting such a trip can be and I believe the author skimped in telling the hard parts of the story.

The book was about 300 pages and I think I would have been happy to read another 200 pages to get a little more detail in the ups and downs of the trip.

In the end, it was a sweet book full of the love this family had for their boy, and happily did have some good news in the boy's growing ability to deal with life in a more functional way.

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LibraryThing member EowynA

Fascinating! This is the story of a man who takes his reluctant wife and autistic son to Mongolia to see if the shamen of the horse people and the reindeer people could cure their son of the problems associated with autism.

The author is from South Africa, and works mainly as a travel writer. His

wife is an American, and they live in Texas. Rowan is their son, diagnosed with autism at age 3. Rowan is given to tantrums of shrieks and wild flailing arms and legs at the slightest provocation - dozens of times a day, refuses to be toilet trained, is high energy, has little language other than echoing a word or phrase from the videos he watches obsessively, and shows no connection to other people, but he is interested in animals. In other words, he requires constant supervision, and provides little of the joy a parent expects from a child.

One thing the author did was host some Bushmen who were to speak at the UN about the lack of a homeland, and the author accompanied them to a "Shaman's conference" in California. In the course of that, there was some laying on of hands, and Rowan seemed to be less violent for a time. But then he regressed. One day, he got away from his father during a walk /run in the woods, and ended up in the corral of a neighbor with horses. Rowan threw himself down at the feet of the lead mare, who instead of being her irrascible self, instead started licking and chewing - in essence, submitting to him. Rowan laughed with delight.

The author got permission to ride the horse with his son on the saddle in front, and Rowan seemed to get better during the rides -- words were sometimes used in a manner appropriate for the context (Run!), fewer tantrums for that time, and so on. From this was born the wild idea of taking Rowan to see the shamen of the horse people. And that meant a trip to Mongolia. This is the story of that three-week journey. They had a rough time, but they returned with a child who was not an imminent danger to himself or others.

The book is a fascinating journey into another culture halfway around the world, and into another way of looking at life from both the perspective of a shaman, and that of the parents of an autistic child.

Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member Twink

I really enjoy a good biography or memoir and The Horse Boy did not disappoint.

When Rupert and Kristin's son Rowan is diagnosed with autism, they try everything they can think of to help him. Nothing seems to be bringing their boy back to them. Until the day when Rowan runs into a neighbouring

pasture at their home in Texas and straight at a horse named Betsy. Hot on his heels, Rupert is terrified that his son will be injured. Instead, the unexpected happens - Betsy puts her head down in submission to the boy . Rupert, a former professional horse trainer, encourages this interest. Father and son begin riding together. Rowan's behaviour is markedly changed during interaction with the horse.

In addition to horse training, Rupert is "the founding director of the Indigenous Land Rights Fund, a non-profit organization that helps threatened and displaced indigenous tribes obtain tenure of their ancestral land." He has participated with the shamans of Botswana in healing ceremonies. (He's also an award winning author)

Could these two seemingly disparate interests help his son? He believes that they can. Kristin, Rupert, Rowan and an entire film crew set off to Outer Mongolia and Siberia. Much of the journey will be on horseback to visit the shamans of these areas and see if they can help Rowan.

And that's as much as I'm going to give you......

I listened to this in unabridged audio format. The reader was the author himself. And I don't think the story would have has as much impact for me if it been anyone else. Isaacson was born in England. I enjoyed his accent. His heartache, anguish and happiness are conveyed through his voice. Life with Rowan and all that goes with it is projected through his narrative. The screaming, the repetitiveness, the coping mechanisms employed by both Rowan his parents. The love for their child. I was so caught up in this story and the possibilities that were offered.

The Horse Boy has been made into a film and is a Sundance 2009 selection and has won other awards as well. Definitely one I want to watch. The Isaacsons have started a foundation in Texas that pursues the horse/autism connection.

This one goes on my best of 2009 list. Highly, recommended.

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LibraryThing member porch_reader

My book club is reading this one for September. I knew very little about it when I started reading it, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot.

This is the story of Rowan, a young boy who has been diagnosed with autism. As his parents, Rupert and Kristen, search for ways to help him, they grow

increasingly dissatisfied with the options that are being presented to them by numerous doctors and therapists. Rupert figures out that Rowan loves riding horses and seems to have a real connection with them. He also takes Rowan to a gathering of shaman and is amazed at Rowan's reaction. These two events encourage him to explore a trip to Mongolia, where Rowan can be treated by some of the most powerful shaman on earth.

The trip through Mongolia is not easy. But as Rupert tells the story, we learn a lot about the challenges of raising an autistic child and about the contrasting perspectives of Eastern and Western medicine. Rupert tells the story very honestly. I found myself cheering everytime Rowan made progress - making his first friend, answering his first why question - and sad at each setback. The book also includes beautiful description of the Mongolian countryside and Rowan's encounters with the animals there - including some adorable baby reindeer.

I found this an interesting, heartwarming story. But I read it from the perspective of someone who does not have the experience of raising an autistic child. I'm not sure how the book would be viewed by someone with more experience in this area.

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LibraryThing member ladycato

I approached this book with equal measures of curiosity and trepidation. My eight-year-old son is autistic. The subject of autism is personal for me. I was concerned that this book would be New Agey and wishy-washy and that they were trying to cure their child. There is a world of difference

between "healing" and "curing," and I was relieved right away when Isaacson made that distinction. They didn't want to take away their son's autism and make him a stranger, but they did want Rowan to cope with and exist in the world. They wanted a child who wouldn't tantrum in frightening ways or defecate all over himself.

I get that. My son's autism isn't as severe as their Rowan's condition, but I spent two years going through that potty training hell. I get that desperation.

Therefore, I understood that when their son connected in a profound way with their neighbor's horse, that they were willing to explore that in a spiritual way and do something beyond the standard therapy. Their journey leads them to Mongolia and out into Siberia. Some of the things done by the shamans made me wince, as they seemed abusive--the whole family gets flogged by one shaman, though their son gets the gentlest measure--but the journey is utterly fascinating. That's really one of the amazing things about the book. It's not merely about a family's struggle with autism. It's a journey into one of the most remote areas of the world, where Soviet concrete crumbles and Reindeer People wander the taiga. It's about how shamanism hid away during the communist years but didn't die completely. Sure, some of their traditions aren't quite so appealing (like medicine made of every part of the reindeer, including poop) but it's still just plain fascinating.

The take away at the end is very rational, too. The journey completely changed their son. Rowan emerged as a boy who could make friends with other children, who could ride his own horse, and could handle his own bowel movements. Isaacson doesn't make any grand claims that the shamanism or magic did it; it may have been the journey itself was the turning point, and what an incredible journey it was.

Now I want to watch the documentary about their experience to see how well it matches what's in my mind.

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LibraryThing member Eye_Gee

I liked this book more than I thought I would. It was very well-written. From the first page I was into the story. And what a story! I won't recount the story line as that's been done before, but I will say that it was an interesting read, to say the least. It's part medical story/mystery, part

travel journal, part adventure story, and ALWAYS an unflinchingly honest personal account of a family's efforts to help their son. Anyone interested in autism, non-Western healing,the beauty of Mongolia, or who just loves memoires will enjoy this book.

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LibraryThing member lkarr

Good. Entertaining

LibraryThing member Jerod12001

Horse Boy
Do u every like reading about autism? I admire the author with his courage to write about autism and horses. I like this book because it has many great details. It also talks about when the father and son gets to go riding on the horses and the son gets to know the horse well. Children

with autisms would become friends with any animal as if it was an family member I would like the author to write about amnesia. My favorite character is Rowan because he fall in love with the horse and that’s what people like him do. The book has 114 reviews on amazon.
AUTHOR Robert Isaacson was born in London. He is married to a women named Kristin and they had a son named Rowan. This book has 114 reviews on Amozon.

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LibraryThing member Thomas_Cannon

A powerful story of parents taking their son on a journey to be freed of his autism. The boy has a special relationship with horses. The journey is an impossible one, but when done with child with autism, it becomes almost impossible

LibraryThing member Thomas_Cannon

LibraryThing member nfmgirl2

This was my first audio book, and I wasn't sure whether I would like an audio book. It still remains to be seen how I'll feel about a fictional audio book, but I most definitely enjoyed listening to a non-fictional audio book.

I listened to this audio book while I worked, and I LOVED it. It was

insightful, intriguing, impassioned, and touching. I found myself tearing up more than once during the story of Rupert, wife Kristin and autistic son Rowan. Very stirring story and highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member countrylife

Rupert Isaacson is a travel writer, who happens to have a son with autism. His memoir of their efforts to heal Rowan is a beautiful piece of writing, taking the reader along their journey from a neighbor’s land in Texas, where they discovered a link between horses and autists, to Outer Mongolia,

the birthplace of horses and shamanism. From rude people, depressed economies, to helpful, caring people, and the beauty of the land, the author’s writing shines through.

”… the view required more than mere looking at. Homage had to be given, for here was where one great ecosystem ended and another began. At this mountaintop the great grasslands of the steppe gave way to the beginning of the taiga, the great Siberian forest, the largest forest in the world which stretches all the way from the Pacific Ocean in the east clear across Russia to Scandinavia in the west. I stood in the last of the great, continent-sized meadow that is the steppe and gazed at the forest wall. It was like facing an army. An ancient army. Its charge, its presence, was palpable. The sound of the wind in the trees was like the sighing of God’s breath.”

About shamanism, I don’t know what to think; I have not walked in his shoes. Mr. Isaacson believes that it was a great help for his son. And for this reader, who knew only the very most rudimentary facts about autism, his quest was very interesting to read about – from educating themselves about what to expect with autism, how to deal with the problems that accompany the condition, to his quest for a cure.

”Healed or cured? There was a difference. Long ago I’d given up wanting him to be cured. Cured as in not being autistic anymore – for that was part of his essence. But I did want him healed. If there was anything Kristin and I wanted to say to the shamans, it was Please let him come back toilet-trained. Please let him no longer be held at the mercy of his tantrums, of his wild-storm nervous system. No longer hyperactive, with that incessant edge of anxiety that was like a fist around the heart, always ready to close suddenly and hard.”

Informational and beautifully written. 3.6 stars

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LibraryThing member TerriBooks

An interesting story of how one family dealt with their autistic son. The decision to travel Mongolia on horseback and visit local shamans was certainly an unconventional treatment. I was a little uneasy about the attitude toward the shamans -- it felt like they were just being used, without any

attempt to understand or internalize the spirituality of the religion the author was so blithely ready to appropriate as a purely functional, therapeutic treatment.

However, it was interesting to get an inside look into the desperation of a parent with an uncontrollable child, the hopes and disappointments, the sense of shame and guilt, the need to stand up for their child when other people are condemning them as bad parents. I will have more sympathy, I think, with the families who include children with autism.

This was a fast-moving, attention-grabbing book. There were really no places where I felt, as I so often do with memoirs, "move it along, already!"

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LibraryThing member judithrs

Horse Boy: a Father’s Quest to Heal his Son. Rupert Isaacson. 2009. I picked the audio version of this book up at Cracker Barrel to listen to on the way to Kansas. The author narrated the book and that lent a personal tone to the reading. The son is diagnosed with autism when he was a toddler.

The author, travel writer and superb horseman and his wife a psychology professor tried everything they knew to find help for their son with no results. When they noticed some improvement after they took the boy to a gathering of shamans and more improvement when the boy met a neighbor’s horse, the father decided to take the boy to Mongolia so he could ride horses and meet several different shamans. This is the story of his almost miraculous recovery. Pat and I watched the documentary that was made of the trip and it was excellent. Proceeds from the audio will go to horse camp for children with autism.

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LibraryThing member PaperbackPirate

The Horse Boy is the story of Rupert, his wife Kristin, and their son Rowan, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 1/2 years old. They struggle with different suggested methods to help his autism, which were not only costly but seemed to make no difference with his speech delay, his inability

to connect with others, and his habit of pooping his pants. In fact, his therapy seemed to be making his uncontrollable tantrums even worse.

Rupert is a journalist who, if I remember correctly when Rowan was about 4, was working on a story about Bushmen from the Kalahari Desert who were struggling with their government over land rights. Some Bushmen healers performed a healing on Rowan and he showed marked improvement for a few days after.

Rupert also noticed that his son had a strange connection to animals. Rupert was raised around horses and noticed that whenever Rowan approached a horse it immediately dropped its head in submission. Between the Bushmen healers and the horses he gets it in his head to take Rowan to Mongolia on a healing journey, because Mongolia is the birthplace of the horse and known for its powerful shamans. He even consults Temple Grandin when he comes up with the idea to see what she thinks. She basically tells him he should do it because so little is known about autism and at the very least it can be eliminated as something that doesn't help.

The bulk of the book is the family's journey (when Rowan is 7) through Mongolia on horseback and in a van as they visit various healers. The shaman are so thankful for Rupert's faith in them because when China occupied Mongolia the Mongolians could have been jailed just for having a drum. After the communist era, shamanism had died off somewhat and has only recently made a stronger comeback.

I won't tell you what happens during their quest to help Rowan but the story really struck a chord with me. It was heartbreaking to see what parents of an autistic child go through, and amazing to learn what the Shaman say and do for Rowan.

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LibraryThing member CassandraLynne

AMAZING! EXTRAORDINARY! I loved this book! Rupert Isaacson takes you on an adventure to Mongolia and gives you a window into his life as a parent of an autistic child. Mr. Isaacson shares his doubts and fears about the trip and his son openly. You share moments of hope and despair, excitment and

embarassment with the desperate father. You travel on horseback beside them day after day, watching the sunsets, being eaten alive by bugs, and enjoying the company of your friends. Rupert's writing in exceptional, descriptive, and interesting. He has a tendency toward run on sentences but they are quickly overlooked as you read his descriptions of the Mongolian landscape or his son. Rowan has such a connection with animals, horses especially. I volunteer at a therapeutic riding center for children with mental and physical disabilities. It's amazing to watch them grow and change and do things that doctors told them they couldn't. Following Rowan's story was just like that. I revelled in the challenge and the joy and in the end I felt the satisfaction that accompanies overcoming what everyone else says is impossible or crazy. Rowan is an exceptional boy. And this is an exceptional story. Definately something I would recommend to anyone with an open heart and mind.

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LibraryThing member NelehW

Rupert Isaacson embarks on a journey from his home in Texas to cross Mongolia on horseback in a quest to find a cure for his son's autism. This is an epic episode in the lives of this small family and their supporters. Isaacson gives an honest, humourous and heart rending portrayal of parents

dealing with disability. The cross-cultural exchange and the healing techniques of the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the shamans of Mongolia are fascinating and challenging as is the journey itself.

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LibraryThing member faith42love

I would really like anyone interested in this book to watch the trailer to the Horse Boy movie for an idea of just how wonderful this man is. HORSE BOY the audiobook is a memoir written and read by the author Rupert Issacson. This book was touching, compassionate, educational and awe inspiring. If

all children were loved the way Rupert loves Rowan there would be no war. His love is just that strong and it soars throughevery word he put into this book.
There are many things people who do not have deal with autistic children could never know. I work at a residential home for children and I have worked with a number of children on the spectrum, but I still learned so much from this book. I learned new words like Echolalia "the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person."and stimming or self-stimulating. I also learn about Mongolia and Shamanism. Personally, I am very open and understanding when it comes to faith and the things I learned about both Shamanism and Buddism were very eye opening. For example, Budist teach the idea of self-compassion or looking at yourself with the not so critical your your look at others with. Very enlightening.

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LibraryThing member Thomas.Cannon

Fewer