Girls, Aspergers, and ... horses?

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I've read in a couple of places that it's stereotypical for girls with Aspergers to be obsessed with horses. I was and I mentioned this to my psychologist and he said is was a dead give away! I was so obsessed with horses I could draw an extremely good likeness from memory (of course I've only ever ridden a horse twice in my life). I still have a soft spot for them (I even have drew a couple last year) but I'm no longer obsessed. I have a soft spot for dogs but didn't obsess over them like I did with horses. So what is with this stereotype? What is it about horses that attracts Aspie girls (over other animals or other possibilities) and any female Aspies out there - were you ever obsessed with horses?

I think a lot of girls have the horse obsession. My sister and I both were and are horsie. We each have two horses and love riding. I'm an Aspie and she isn't. I know plenty of other NT's who are obsessed with horses too. Horses are just so easy to become obsessed with

Ooooh, I love horses, too!
They are beautiful animals. They are also very intelligent.

I wanted to know everything about horses for a couple of months some time in my childhood. However, this only came from that my peers were obsessed with horses. I never made a serious attempt at learning much about horses and the interested soon died out. I might not be very typical in this.

Hmm, I've never heard that before. But I have heard that many Aspie guys have obssessions for train. I don't, however. Probably because the first I was on a train, I threw up on it.

It still seems kinda strange though that having Aspergers can cause such a specific obsession.

My wife is Aspie and fits the obsession. She follows the breeders blogs, she can quote from memory the lineage of the Triple Crown winners, etc. For our family vacation we went to the Kentucky Horse Park and one of the race tracks (even though it was closed at the time.) She even visited the grave sites of some of the horses. Obsession? Special interest? Yes, I think so.

I fit!

From the age of four I pretended on a near-daily basis to be a horse or ride a horse or own one. I ran around on all fours until I was ten during this. It was a completely solitary play. I read novels about horses, watched movies, drew them and learned all about the breeds and their characteristics, the rules of horse jumping and read horse psychology. At 8 I started riding horses once a week, but that only fuelled my obsession more. At about 12 I spent fouyr days a week at the stable, although I only had my class once a week. I had no friends and didn't care for the other girls there, I just wanted to be left alone with my favourite horse and I could spend hours just petting her and grooming her. I was intensely possessive of her. I also started doing oil-paintings of horses.

We moved when I was 15, and I couldn't afford to keep it up and I also became very depressed and started obsessing about loneliness and depressive music instead. But I still love horses, I never really let it go completely.

My fiance loves horses as well, but she does not have Aspergers.

She has FASD

What's FASD?

I passed through a brief "horse phase" when I was about 11. But so did most of my Girl Scout troop as well, and the leaders even capitalized on this interest and we took riding lessons as a troop. These girls were all quite stereotypically NT, except for me.

I was obsessed with horses when I was 8 or 9. I was under the impression it was sparked by me trying to play with this group of girls who were being horses, who told me to 'go to sleep' then while I obliged, they 'galloped' off, leaving me. This started a massive obsession with horses including many books, a magnet, photos and even 2 years of riding lessons/days helping out at the stables. I also kept getting told off for drawing horses, about 4 times I think, the punishments getting severer each time, even though once I had drawn it at lunch time but it was in front of me during class and my mother was told.
My twin friends had ponies and another girl I didn't like who didn't like me had a pony and I tried to be her friend so I could visit it. My neighbours have a stable and I was sooo jealous their grown up daughter had a horse in the field behind our house when she was young. I desperately wanted my own horse and couldn't think of anything I would rather do than go and groom my own horse. I never did get one and I'm quite glad, the novelty would probably have worn off
I wanted to show my 'friends' that I did know about horses but it lasted quite a while and I never really made friends with them again. Ha. Just me trying to fit in and failing, as usual.

I have Asperger's Syndrome and I am a girl, however.... I have never been even remotely interested in horses. I have a thing for small dogs. In particular, I enjoy the Maltese and the Frise (two of the four Bichon's). I have had poodles, but they are just not the same. I have always had a small white dog. When one dies I have to replace it with another. At one point I had three small white dogs, but now I only have one. have a maltese and I belong to a few different maltese dog forums. Maltese Only is the best one that I have found to date.

This is one of my obsessions.....

Another is/was "culture". I enjoy reading about people of various cultures from around the world. I am also interested in past cultures/civilizations and ancient religions. It all started when I was very young, however. I used to pretend to be a hunter gatherer type "indian" when I was little. I would go so far as to construct a hut and make clothing from old brown paper bags that I had crumpled to a soft "fabric". I would insist on living in my hut during the summer. Sometimes I was actually permitted to sleep in the hut if I could convince my mom or brother to sleep outside with me. I did more or less the same thing with early American settlers. The highlight of my year was in the summer when my mother would take me to a local pioneer festival. The folks that ran the event dressed in period clothing and lived in the old buildings during the festival. They had no electricity or plumbing. I usually got to play the part of an "extra" for the events. I dressed in period clothing and played with the antique toys and did chores similar to those that a child living in the late 1700's to early 1800's would have engaged in.

I am still interested in people from around the world and from different times......

Horses.... not so much.

I'm a girl (I'm not dx'd Aspie, but I'm curious as to whether I have it) and I have loved horses for as long as I can remember. I've also heard the thing about Asperger girls being obsessed with horses. I got my first horse at about 10, but I was interested/around them before that. I still have a horse now. I'm trying really hard to find somewhere I can go to college where I can bring my horse with me.

my horse obsession lasted a decade, but I think was born from the disappointment that I would never own a dinosaur.

I learned the basics of genetics by reading horse husbandry and breeding books. everything was horses for me for about 10 years.

There's been a pretty common theme around here of relating better to animals than to people, and horses are particularly intuitive animals, that's why they have the whole "equine therapy" thing. Combine that with the fact that horses are a pretty socially acceptable obsession, and it's not surprising that a lot of aspie girls have horse obsessions. That's a major part of why it's so difficult to diagnose AS in girls; the obsessions are frequently fairly acceptable, it's just the level of the obsession that's odd... and adolescent girls in particular tend to be obsessive anyway.