H.O.R.S.E. Heart Story: Autism, Horse Therapy & Hope

I received the following must share, horse therapy story starring 9 year old, Sam via an e-mail from Susan O'Neal, an amazing volunteer for Helping Others Reach Success & Excellence (H.O.R.S.E.). We ran her email by Sam's mom to make sure all the facts are straight. Other than a few minor tweaks, the post below is the email I received from Susan. I found out that the H.O.R.S.E. foundation calls these personal testimonies H.O.R.S.E. Heart Stories. Thank you for letting me share Sam's H.O.R.S.E. Heart Story on my blog!

Grab a tissue and get ready for another inspiring horse therapy/autism miracle:

Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 2:41 PM

I came across your blog about The Horse Boy. I was at the book signing event too with some people from H.O.R.S.E. an non-profit that provides equine assisted therapy to kids on the autism spectrum.

I have been volunteering for them for years but this summer I actually got to do some real hands on work. I volunteered at the week long Camp Round Up. It was an amazing experience.

I contacted Rupert Isaacson to follow up about the movie opening and to tell him about our camp. We are going to try to do some kind of a benefit if we can get the movie shown here in KC.

I took lots of pictures and really got to know the kids and the amazing volunteers. We had 10 kids but one boy, Sam, really stole my heart.

Sam’s mom called us about Camp Round Up. Sam is 9 years old and is on the autism spectrum. He is a very active kid but he is developmentally delayed. Sam communicates with single words that are forced out with great effort. He isn’t toilet trained, he has never asked to use a public bathroom.

She didn’t think we would take him but she was hoping. She didn’t have high expectations, she just wanted him to get to be in the fresh air and do a little riding. Sam did therapeutic riding weekly at another location. Brenda said we would give it a try. Zena's note: Brenda Wright is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of H.O.R.S.E.

I was checking in campers on Monday morning when Sam and his mom arrived. Sam spilled out of the car and took off running. I told two high school volunteers to chase after him while his assigned volunteer Mike, (the father of an autistic boy) and the staff talked with his mom. She looked apprehensive but mostly, she looked exhausted. She said Sam would be happy if he just ran around outside and chase bugs all day. She seemed a bit nervous about leaving but she saw we had lots of volunteers and we had her cell phone number. She planned on staying close by.

I have to admit, I was worried. So was Mike. Sam just ran and ran. It was scary to me. We were at a ranch with horses that belonged to other boarders, equipment around that could be dangerous if he fell on it and cornfields to get lost in. If we let him out of our sight for a moment, who knew what could happen.

It took all three volunteers assigned to him that first day. The girls got him figured out. They would play a kind of freeze tag if he got near a dangerous situation. They also played human wall. Luckily, Misty and Alexa are premiere soccer players and had the energy and stamina to keep up with him. We just couldn’t spend the week running after him though. I began to wonder… if he would chase bugs, would he chase bubbles? I went to my bag of tricks and gave Misty and Alexa some bubbles. Sam was captivated.

Once he calmed down and began to focus we were getting somewhere. Athena, the horse professional came over and started mirroring his behavior to get his attention. Eventually she made eye contact and invited him to ride. Once on the horse, everything changed.



The next day, we had a horse ready for Sam when he arrived. After a few minutes of trotting, Athena would lead him to the camp circle to participate in the morning song ritual.

Sam participated in the activities and even joined other kids in water play. He was giving us high fives and seemed to be enjoying the group. He would run through the sprinkler, then run to us for approval. And then it happened, he came up and said something to us. At first we weren’t sure what he was trying to tell us. Then we realized he needed to go to the bathroom. Any mom who has ever potty trained a child knows how exciting that is!

Sam’s mom was shocked when we told her that Sam used the bathroom. Although he has used a public toilet before, he has never asked to use the toilet, public or not. This was a huge breakthrough!

We were all having fun with Sam and Sam really seemed to be enjoying himself. He has a special connection with the horses though and that is where he was most at ease. The horses seemed to like Sam too, you can see it in the pictures.

Sam started weekly therapy after camp. His mom said that his communication is improving, he uses verbs now. I can’t help but think we have a little bit of a miracle unfolding here.

I bet you will be able to pick Sam out in the video showing our week:

Susan O’Neal

The Horse Boy Moment

@MySpyderWeb, a powerhouse Kansas City blogger, sent me a Twitter direct message in mid-March about pre-ordering The Horse Boy book with a link to the documentary clip. I knew nothing about the book or documentary.



After watching the clip, I understood why @MySpyderWeb sent me the link. She had been experiencing little 140 character glimpses into our family's autism journey and our new joy with horseback riding therapy.



My husband and I began reading the book and nodding our heads with Isaacson's (@TheHorseBoy and yes, the tweets are from Isaacson, not a ghost twitterer) first few chapters on their family's experience with Rowan's tell-tale autism signs: the tantrums, the loss of focus, the loss of words - the feeling of losing your child more and more each day into the autism world of blank stares.

For us, the first part of The Horse Boy brought back a lot of raw emotions and an appreciation for the long, hard fought journey that got us where our family is today, but that story - our story - is another post.

A few Thursday ago, I was suppose to be flying to Chicago for the SOBCon kick off with the Chicago Social Media Club. For some nagging, mother's intuition reason I decided to book a Friday morning 6(gulp):15 a.m. flight instead.

So Thursday morning, I'm driving to meet my husband for lunch, listening to NPR and Isaacson was being interviewed by our local station, KCUR, about The Horse Boy. It just so happened he was in Kansas City promoting the book and speaking that evening at Unity Temple sponsored by a local bookstore, Rainy Day Books.

It was too late to get a sitter for the evening, so my husband and I decided I'd go alone to see Isaacson. As I was leaving, our 10 year old, autistic son "L" asked to join me. I'm not sure if my husband or I was more shocked by L's request. We explained that it was going to be an hour of the author telling the audience about his book and it would be all adults. We explained it might be boring. What we didn't know is our son had looked through The Horse Boy focusing on the pictures documenting the Isaacson family trip to Mongolia.

Our son, L, said, "I'm suppose to help Rowan. I need to go meet him."

We explained most likely it would only by Rowan's dad, Mr. Isaacson, and our son shrugged and said, "The dad will do."

So our 10 year old, high functioning autistic son and I headed to Unity. We talked on the way about autism as he flipped through the book. L told me he wasn't happy about all the "not nice" terms that some people have about autism and all the "stuff" that is associated with it, and that people think it needs to be cured.

I told him that our family felt so amazingly blessed with our autism journey and didn't see autism as needing to be cured. We just wanted to make sure he has every opportunity to live life to the fullest.

On one hand, I felt sad that he understand the label baggage but on the other I thought he's moving toward typical acknowledgment.

When we got to Unity, I said a little prayer that the evening would go ok. Ya just never know what L is going to say or do.

I was picking up our Rainy Day book before we walked into the Unity temple auditorium. Our son spotted Isaacson and walked right up to him and started talking and they conversed for quite a bit before I came over and introduced myself as L's mom and asked L to introduce himself.

"Hi, I'm L and I'm autism. I'm here to help your son."

Isaacson looked at me.

"L is high functioning and was diagnosed at 2 1/2. He's 10 now. Looks like L and Rowan have a lot of similarities. And L loves horses as well."

Isaacson talked with us, well actually he and L chatted about horseback riding, Mongolia and their family journey. Isaacson (looking at me) asked L if he'd like to bring his family to their family horse camp outside of Austin. I nodded.

L said something about it being too hot in Austin in the summer but absolutely in the fall. Isaacson agreed, with a smile, that the fall would be much better. It appeared that he had become just as smitten with L as we are. I just stood back and watched our son's magic and took in the moment.

We broke away so Isaacson could take the stage. L asked a few insightful questions during Isaacson's talk. Afterward, we went to stand in line to get Isaacson's autograph in the book. L asked why we needed another book and I said we would give it away. Then I realized I hadn't taken any pictures so I began looking in my bag for my camera not noticing that L was writing in our book.

L said, "He's giving away all his books, he needs a book."

Still digging through my purse, not looking up, "No, really, hon, he has plenty. This is what an author does...signs the book he wrote for his readers."

"Um, Mom, I'm giving him this one. I wrote him something."

I look up, "Let me see"

L had scribed (and I wish I had written it down so I could get this exactly right):

Trust in
your son
Trust in
your heart
and
your troubles
will be
gone

The search for my camera went bye-bye and I just tried to keep my eyes from welling up, "Ok, son, I think that's a great idea."

When it was our turn, L very proudly handed the L inscribed book to Isaacson, "This is for you."

Isaacson, "Oh, L, will you sign it and I'll give this to Rowan."

"Good idea because I'm here to help Rowan."

Isaacson asked for contact information so we could stay in touch. He said he only knew me as L's mom. I handed him my business card, showed him my twitter handle and put my personal email on it.

L and I walked (or I should say floated) to our car as L was on cloud nine...I think I was on cloud eleven. He was talking a mile a minute about how he was the only one that gave the author a book and how cool that was and how much the author needed that book and how he was going to help Rowan. We called my husband and L went on and on about the amazing time we had. After about five minutes of chatting, L handed me the phone and the tears started coming, "Oh, hon, I wish you could have been here to see our son. I can't talk now or I'll start crying (and added for L's sake) happy tears."

L said, "Mom, I agree with Mr. Isaacson"

"On what, sweetie?"

"Autism is an adventure."

And that - those four words from my son's mouth - that's why I needed to stay in Kansas City that Thursday night.