This is the second part of a four-part series about Horseboy. Part One was the interview with the director of Horseboy, a documentary about this family.
This part is about the viewpoints of the mother of Horseboy aka
Rowan. It is about her responding to Rupert's decision to take a family
trip to Mongolia, making the documentary and what's in the future for
the family after the publication of Rupert's memoir, "The Horseboy: A
Father's Quest to Heal His Son." (This will take you to a page with information on the memoir and the trailer for the movie)
Part Three, which will follow in a day or two, will be an interview
with Rupert. The interview is done - it's the introduction which has
given me some writer's block.
Part Four will be a review of Horseboy. I have made a point
of not reading the book yet because it's hard enough to separate what
the family said in the movie and in the first interview (in person) and
the second (by email) without confusing what was said in the book.
This series was originally planned for a few weeks ago but then my apartment was burgled and when they stole my laptop computer they also took away forever my extensive interview notes.
The Isaacson family was kind enough to let me re-do the interview via email. I thank them enormously for letting me do that.
You can get a sense, from this great brilliant blog piece
of how some families and others with autism are responding to this
book. When I visited the family and center I was surrounded by families,
some impressed at the progress being made by kids around me (one hopped
in my lap mid-interview) probably due to being around nature and
animals.
During those three hours I spent probably an hour of it talking with
Kristin and so I decided to split the resulting interview into two
parts, one from the perspective of Horseboy's mother and one of his
father. This made sense on several levels so I decided to stick with
that.
She jokingly calls herself the "sane one" of Rowan's parents. Rupert
has great ideas, but when he says things in the movie like, this is a
paraphrase, 'Maybe the shamans really did heal their son,' she'll say,
'Essentially, does it matter what made him better? No, what matters,'
she said, 'Is that he is NOW better.' Sure enough, when I visited, he
was not the boy at the start of the documentary having hours-long
tantrums, but rather someone showing me his pet rabbit and politely
asking his mom if he can have some juice.
The following is an email interview with her. She alludes at one
point to New Trails Center - that is the name of the center they opened
so others can, like them, let their children with autism spend time in
nature, with animals, and hopefully progress. Details of the center are here.
Scott: You told me about making a pre-emptive speech which I
found fascinating. Can you tell me what you say, and why, when, for
example, going on a flight with Rowan?
Kristin: I used to say (don't need to anymore) "Excuse me. I'd like
to just let you all know that my son Rowan is autistic. I will try my
hardest to make sure he stays calm and quiet during the flight but if he
gets very loud or upset I hope you'll understand."
How many animals and of what types do you have in your home?
Does Rowan have relationships with all of them? Why do you think animals
seem more trusting of Rowan versus, say, people who are not autistic?
Right now we just have our cat "Scubby-kitty" and our horse "Clue."
We just recently moved our pigmy goats to New Trails because they were
escaping here, but he certainly has a close relationship with them -
"Stella" "Oreo" "Annie" "Whimple" and "Alexander" (he named them all
except "Whimple," who I named because when she was born it looked like
her ears were a nuns whimple.)
Rowan loves all animals, even the five scorpions we caught and were
going to flush down the toilet but he kept them in a cage and was
fascinated with them. I'm not sure why animals respond so well to him.
I've heard from other people who work with animals and special needs
kids a similar story. I suspect it has something to do with the fact
that all mammals have a care-giving system (largely oxytocin and
opiate-based) that allows us to give and receive nurturance. The
behavior of a child, especially one who seems vulnerable rather than
dominant, probably engages that system for animals.
I know Temple Grandin asked us if Betsy was pregnant (flooded with Oxytocin) when she first encountered Betsy and in fact she was.
I asked a friend to read the book and ask any questions she
wanted posed to you: One of the things mentioned at the end of the book
was a trip to Africa to continue the shaman rituals for the next few
years. Have you made those trips? Details?
We went to Namibia last summer and spent a week with Bushman shamans.
It was arranged by our good friend Megan Bieslie, an anthropologist
who works with Bushmen in Southern Africa and lives in Austin. We also
had Besa, a powerful shaman who Rowan is named after (Rowan Besa
Isaacson) come in from Botswana (Rupert is banned from Botswana because
of his human rights work). We brought along Michel to film it all, and
it was wonderful. We didn't see the immediate changes like in Mongolia
but he's continued to make slow, steady progress (almost like it helped
recharge his batteries).
As a parent, one of the things that most spoke to me was how
the diagnosis of PDD/NOS completely changed your hopes for your child
and family. Now that you've been through this life-altering healing
journey, how has your hope changed again?
We're very hopeful that Rowan will lead a happy, productive life. He
wants to be a zoo-keeper and I'm sure he will be able to accomplish
that dream - whether that means becoming a wildlife biologist or simply
feeding animals at a zoo. I'm also hopeful that he will be able to
marry someday, since he's such a handsome, charming, charismatic guy!
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