The Horse Boy: Documentary on BBC television

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It will be broadcast tonight (24 November) on BBC Four at 9pm. It tells the story of the journey to Mongolia by Rupert Isaacson, his wife Kristin Neff and Rowan, their five-year-old autistic son, to find a cure for his autism by interaction with horses. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p26x7 .

I will not be watching it.

Hello. I am interested in that - could you tell me why you won't be watching it ?

Best.

Camendy.

We're showing that movie at my theatre through Thursday. I was just debating whether to go see it this afternoon but I've got plans to build an airport terminal in the Sims. Plus it is a little over three miles to my work.

A therapy group brought a miniature horse for the premiere on Friday. I pet Bean (the horse) several times; he was soft, thick-furred, and gentle. And I rather feel as if that was probably going to be the best thing about the movie.

So I'm curious-has anyone seen it? Is it a movie worth walking three miles to watch? My theatre's review of it includes this quote:

"The Horse Boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic tradition and part intimate look at the autistic mind."

I already live in the autistic mind, and walking through the city is a travel adventure. I guess that just leaves the question of the shamanic tradition . . .

Reading the articles attached it dosn't seem negative, their son was very low functioning so kudos to the parents for doing everything they can to help.

Personally I never noticed any significant changes in my AS since I started riding but then I started at 20.

Finally a personal message to whatever photographer that asked them to take their helmets off: "Moron"

There was an article on this a while ago
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt97454.html

camendy asked:

I watched instead a documentary on another channel (BBC Two) about the death of Neda, the young Iranian woman who was killed in a demonstration in Teheran last June, and the disputed election in Iran and its aftermath.

Theoretically I could have recorded The Horse Boy but I didn't want to go to the bother and trouble of doing so.

I caught it free on BBC iplayer. It's still available.

One shaman suggested the boy may become a shaman in the future. The anthropologist, R Grinker, had the following to say on shamanism:

One way of explaining an illness is to say that this person’s sick. Another way of explaining an illness is to say this is a different type of person and they will have a different role in society.

One of the most common things that anthropologists have found among healers like shamans is that, almost always, people who are shamans, no matter whether they are in East Africa, or whether they are in Central Asia or South America or Australia, they have gone through some sickness, and often that illness is an illness with a constellation of symptoms that are certainly neuropsychiatric.

The shamans don’t show neurological symptoms because they’re shamans; they become shamans because they had these neurological symptoms. We don’t know why, but one thing we do know is that the line between what is a shaman and the line between say a psychoanalyst is not that clearly drawn. We are one of the few societies that treat neurological and psychiatric difference by creating institutions where we separate people completely from society. Most other cultures aren’t like that.

my mom is real excited about this she read the book and loved it! i am taking therapeutic riding lessong and they have helped me a lot. horses are very good for people on the spectrum imo.

my mom is real excited about this she read the book and loved it! i am taking therapeutic riding lessong and they have helped me a lot. horses are very good for people on the spectrum imo.

my mom is real excited about this she read the book and loved it! i am taking therapeutic riding lessong and they have helped me a lot. horses are very good for people on the spectrum imo.

How far have you got? Cantering? Jumps?

I rode in my youth. Then I tried majoring in equestrian science, which was a big mistake. 60 girls (I find many girls hard to take), four other guys (all macho farmer types) and me. I wanted to spend the day with the horse, but that was only two hours out of days that spanned twelve hours sometimes.

But horses were very helpful to me as well.