March 1 Program
Rupert Isaacson of the Horse Boy Foundation
Rupert Isaacson spoke to us about how he came to found The Horse Boy Foundation, which is a central Texas based nonprofit that offers therapeutic and educational services to families with neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive conditions free of charge. When his son was diagnosed with autism, Rupert tried to understand autism. He spoke to Temple Grande, who told him to do three things - follow his son, do activities in nature, and let his son move. Rupert found that following these guidelines, he was better able to communicate with his son. He also found out that his son was communicated more when riding a horse. Rupert adopted a school curriculum to teach his son one-on-one. Can show teachers how to set up a classroom with movement and balance activities to get learning going among all students. Children do not need to suffer to learn!
The Houseboy Foundation's main center serves children from a 150 mile radius of Austin,TX, and it has also trained and set up regional centers offering the same service throughout the USA, Canada and many other countries worldwide. The Horse Boy Foundation works by first calming the child's overactive nervous system, and then using specific movements to activate the learning centers of the brain. Once this is achieved, it teaches the whole K-12 curriculum in a way the child can easily take in, whether in a classroom, homeschool, domestic, or clinical environment. They use horses, small social animals, and a variety of play equipment and can even tweak a regular classroom to provide what is now regarded as the cutting edge of kinetic learning.