7/28/2019 Lilias
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Friday, November 26 2010 WEEKENDERPEOPLE 11
weekenderpeople
I EASY DOES IT: Rupert Isaacson demonstrates how to lie safely
on a pony
SOMETHING differ-ent is happening ata stables near
Chard where interna-tionally renowned au-thor Rupert
Isaacsonpaid a visit this week.
Mother of three, LiliasAhmeira, moved herfamily to Scrapton
Farm,Wadeford just eight-weeks ago after a meet-ing with Mr
Isaacsonturned her life on itshead.
She watched his lmThe Horse Boy, about hisjourney through
Mon-
golia with his autisticson who had developeda special
connectionwith horses.The therapy of being
with the animals causedhim to regain his speechand re-connect to
theworld in a way that themedical professionthought would
neverhappen.The discovery of this
phenomena led to thesetting up of The HorseBoy Foundation,
whichworks with children notonly in the autistic spec-trum but
those whohave other emotional is-sues.
Lilias Ahmeira hadspent the last ten yearsgaining an
internationalreputation at the cut-ting edge end of com-plementary
therapy andenergy medicine, with arespected practice andpatients
referred byHarley Street.
She had been search-ing for solutions to theenvironmental
reasonsfor the autism in herown son, the middle ofher three boys,
and isnow a spokesperson atinternational confer-ences on
autism.
Seeing The Horse Boy,and the trauma thatRowan Isaacson hadgone
through, and thecalming inuence thehorse had on him, struck
a very emotional chord
with her. Encouraged bypartner Adam, she ap-proached Rowans
fa-ther Rupert and toldhim she wanted to useher knowledge and
fol-low his lead.
Having previouslybeen a dressage andthree day eventingchampion
for 20 years,she was in a unique po-sition of having
clinicalknowledge, horse expe-rience and being theparent of an
autisticchild to enable her fol-low The Horse BoyFoundation
methodol-ogy.
With hardly a back-ward glance she tookthe plunge and movedfrom
Aberdeen toWadeford to set upSpecial Horses for Spe-cial
Children.
Her aim is to create acharity which enablesfamilies to come to
herfarm, stay in yurts andwork with the horses sothey can have a
com-plete experience.
She has been told sheneeds 6,000 to be reg-istered as a
charity,money she cannot spareat this stage as she digsinto her own
savings toset up the foundation.
Having been told by adoctor that her sonwould never achieve,
Lil-ias said it was the bestthing anyone couldhave said because
itmade her get the bit be-tween her teeth andprove them wrong .
She was adamant thatall children were specialand no
boundariesshould be put on anychild.
She wants her charityto not just to help autis-tic children but
any childthat has emotional is-sues, whether it beanger due to
family
break up, problems at
school, bereavement ortrauma .This is different work
to Riding for the Dis-abled, aimed at thosewho are able
bodiedand offering more of achallenge. However, shehas been offered
fullsupport from the direc-tor of Riding for the Dis-abled.The last
eight weeks
have been a whirlwind,gathering six horses andall the equipment,
in-cluding imported Amer-ican saddles in syntheticmaterial light
enoughfor the ponies.
Not having been on ahorse herself for 20years, Lilias has also
hadto put her body throughits paces with a crashcourse from expert
Ja-nine Pendlebury to gether back up to speed.
She wants to do dres-sage and circus trickswith the
children.
When Rupert Isaacsonsaid he would come fortwo days to endorse
herventure, Lilias said shewas honoured.
Holding a workshopfor her and a smallgroup of other inter-ested
trainers fromacross the country, in-cluding Emma
Shearing,originally from Merriott,Mr Isaacson stressed
theimportance of being ledby the needs of the child
and demonstrated howlying on a bare backedhorse, both
forwardsand backwards,smelling it and relaxingon it without the
animalwalking, was immenselycalming.
He explained how thissensory experience withthe pony allowed
physi-cal contact with a childthat may not have al-lowed touch
before,leading to the parentbeing able to perform
soothing and gentle
massage to their back
and legs.
The whole experience
was aimed to de-stress
the family unit. He said
82 per cent of marriages
with an autistic child,
dissolve.
Most of the experi-
enced riders assembled
admitted that they had
never spent such quiet,
intimate time with their
mounts and as each
tried the method in
turn, they realised itsbenet.This was an essential
part of the training
which will be used at
Special Horses for Spe-
cial Children.
Lilias is anxious to get
her unique charity up
and running as soon as
possible and said she
hoped to open officially
in January.
Meanwhile she would
love to go and talk to
local groups about her
work and her life as a
parent of a special child.Anyone wishing to
contact her can go to
www.specialhorsesfor-
specialchildren.com or
call (01460) 66990.
Mum launches foundation for her horse boyBy Marion Draper
I THE HORSE BOY METHOD: Rupert Isaacson demonstrates sensory
work with Lilias Ahmeira and her youngest son GeorgeCurtin
http://www.bringing-home-the-bacon.co.uk/
