The Method
Disclaimer
The Horse Boy Method™ is not intended or offered as a cure for autism. Ameliorative effects may or may not occur. The method was found to be very useful with Rupert's son Rowan and with other children subsequently. We simply follow what worked for Rowan and others but there is no guarantee of outcome.
By participating in a Horse Boy Method session or training or applying them at home you accept full personal responsibility for any injury or death that can follow any equine activity. The Horse Boy Foundation accepts no liability.
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Many children on the spectrum benefit from sensory therapies. The horse itself can be an excellent therapist and therapy environment all in one. Smaller children often love to spend extended periods of time lying full length on the horses back. They often derive great comfort from this, and stimming often stops in this situation. In my experience this is best done with no saddle or a pad with vaulting surcingle while the horse quietly grazes.
Having an adult and child riding together is the most effective method for gaining communication verbal or otherwise.
Perhaps the most important survival skill a human being can learn is how to take another person’s perspective. So what does that mean exactly? It means knowing when someone is lying or telling the truth. It means learning to recognize and react to moods. It means knowing that other people think differently to you and adjusting your behavior accordingly.
You can often take advantage of the fact that the child’s learning receptors have been engaged by the motion of the horse. This is largely a matter of personal intuition and it helps to know what the child’s interests are, but I will give some examples.
This is all about letting the child lead. Most of us grew up being directed by adults at all times. Many adults therefore feel that unless kids are directed most of the time they will ‘run wild’. Well guess what… an autistic child has already run wild and if you try to impose too much on them from the outside you will either drive them into their internal world or convince them that you are somebody to be avoided.
We are not here to teach riding. Some autistic children will naturally emerge as riders. Others may not. This is the same for all children of course. Most children, however, autistic or otherwise, often seem to benefit from time spent with social animals who have kind temperaments. The name of the game here is communication.
What do you do if a child exhibits no interest in the horse? Sometimes a child isn’t going to respond to horses at all. It’s relatively rare but 100% of human beings are never going to respond to 100% of the same stimuli. That said, many children on the spectrum can take longer to process information than we might ideally desire.
Remember that the person that knows the child best will be a parent, grandparent, sibling or other trusted individual.
If the child’s occupational therapist, speech therapist, ABA therapist or other type of therapist is willing to attend the sessions and try their techniques while the horse is involved – or even in the playrooms with the other animals, on the trampoline etc., then you have a chance to incorporate some non-equine related techniques that may already be working for the child. You may have a chance to reinforce them or add to them.
It is always worth exploring all these techniques where stumbled upon by a certain trial and error process and to some degree reflect the equestrian interests of Rupert Isaacson who pioneered these techniques with his son Rowan. However it does not end here. There are many equestrian disciplines. It seems reasonable to assume that many of them can offer some therapeutic value if approached with that intention, and a spirit of curiosity and enquiry.
Laughter is verbal. Laughter is communication. Laughter is a language that transcends verbal skills and promotes trust. So be funny. What makes a kid laugh? Usually potty humor, physical comedy, and anything that seems to challenge adult rules and regulations. How many times have you gone into a barn and encountered a tense, competitive atmosphere? How many times have you heard back-biting about this person or that person? How many times have you encountered an almost military environment of barked orders and general grumpiness?