The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son
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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 crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected?THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story--of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time. Publishers Weekly In this intense, polished account, the Austin, Tex., parents of an autistic boy trek to the Mongolian steppes to consult shamans in a last-ditch effort to alter his unraveling behavior. Author Isaacson (The Healing Land) and his wife, Kristin, a psychology professor, were told that the developmental delays of their young son, Rowan, were caused by autism. Floored, the parents scrambled to find therapy, which was costly and seemed punitive, when Isaacson, an experienced rider and trainer of horses from his youth in England, hoisted Rowan up in the saddle with him and took therapeutic rides on Betsy, the neighbor's horse. The repetitive rocking and balance stimulation boosted Rowan's language ability; inspired by the results, as well as encouraged by such experts as Temple Grandin and Isaacson's own experience working with African shamans, Isaacson hit on the self-described crazy idea of taking Rowan to the original horse people, the Mongolians, and find shamans who could help heal their son. The family went in July, accompanied conveniently by a film crew and van, which five-year-old Rowan often refused to leave, and over several rugged weeks rode up mountains, forded rivers and camped, while enduring strange shamanic ceremonies. Isaacson records heartening improvement in Rowan's firestormlike tantrums and incontinence, as he taps into an ancient, valuable form of spirit healing. (Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Part One1 The Seven-Year Child 72 Into the Inferno 163 The Horse Boy 354 A Time for Dreams 50Part Two5 The Adventure Begins 676 Lords of the Mountains, Lords of the Rivers 827 Mongolian Brother 978 West with the Rain 1139 Fits and Starts 13110 A Father's Mistake 15011 Rowan 1, Fear 0 16012 The Van Boy 17513 Repairing the Wind Horse 19314 The Heaven Horse Lake 20715 Guinea Pigs of Moron 221Part Three16 Into Siberia 23517 The White Ibex 25118 Farther Up and Farther In 26219 The Ghoste at the Top of the Mountain 27620 A Hawk in the House 28521 Interview with a Shaman 30122 Miracle at the River 31623 Four Minutes and Fifty-two Seconds 329
