Temple Grandin

by Annette Wood

  “Horses sometimes startle when they see the same object from a different angle. The object looks different and therefore becomes a new, scary thing,” reports Temple.11 She goes on to say she does the same thing. She compares her way of seeing things and high level of anxiety with that of a horse.

  One detriment to therapy with horses is that “horseback riding is dangerous even with a well-trained horse. One study of horseback riding injuries in England found that riding horses was twenty times more dangerous than riding motorcycles,” reports Temple.12 A helmet, help mounting the horse, three volunteers, and a trained instructor with the rider at all times are intended to minimize accidents in horse therapy.

  Another detriment is the cost. Horse therapy is expensive. Parents of children with autism can find themselves paying over $5,000 annually for therapy lessons with horses. Although some organizations will help pay for lessons, children with autism already have many expenses, and this added expense can be prohibitive.

  Owning a horse is costly, too. Buying a horse is just the beginning. Vet bills, hay, feed in the winter, and pasture in the summer all cost money. So does boarding the horse. Kathy Nunemaker, MA, CCC, has worked as a speech therapist since 1976 and has been involved in horse therapy since the 1990s. She bought Junta, an eighteen-year-old former polo horse, in 2007. Now Junta is a therapy horse.

  Kathy and Junta took lessons where Junta learned how to trot, turn in a circle, and move her body in a more comfortable way. Kathy learned how to exercise Junta and how to communicate with her by the way she moved her body and hands. She learned the basics of horse care: how to retrieve a horse from the pasture, groom a horse, and saddle it. She also learned how to take care of a wound, take care of a sick horse, and play with a horse. They both enjoyed the lessons.

  Kathy and I visited Junta at her barn in the mountains near Loveland one summer. Kathy has been acquainted with horses for a long time. She and Lois Hickman, MS, OTR, have done numerous camps and workshops for autistics. They were two of the first advocates of horse therapy.

  When we visited Junta, Kathy groomed Junta, fed her treats, took the mud out of her hooves, and checked the hoof that had had a nail in it. Kathy said, “It’s a marvelous place to board a horse. The boarders are like a family.” She also told me that Junta is the leader of the pack at the place where she boards. “The other horses follow her lead.”

  Junta volunteers to be a therapy horse whenever she gets a chance. Kathy talks to Junta about the person she will be working with. “I told her about the teenager. I said, ‘Be honest with him. Do only what he asks you to do.’” Junta walked stoically beside Kathy, listening to what she was saying. Junta seemed to know the importance of her job.

  Kathy has personal experience with the benefits of horse therapy. She writes: “My own daughter, Eryn, was my first teacher on this journey. She started riding at Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center (CTRC) when she was three and a half years old, after it was discovered that she had a sensory integrating disorder that made her hypersensitive to touch and hard for her to sit still.

  “Initially she wasn’t very enthusiastic about the riding. We talked with her occupational therapist, Tamera, about her tactile defensiveness and how it affects many other areas of her life; how she had difficulty with light touch and how she would react often suddenly and aggressively to other children brushing past her. Tamera decided to include Eryn in the care of a horse. She talked to Eryn about how horses need brushing daily and always before and after riding. She also explained that you never surprise a horse by coming up from behind or you might get kicked. Eryn had found another being whose responses and needs were like her own, and her interest was definitely established.

  “We started noticing subtle changes in her. She would not get upset as easily or as often. When she did get upset, she could come down faster. In the next year or two, I started to notice the subtleties of language that Eryn had experienced difficulty with were improving. However, because of tight schedules, Eryn’s father and I decided to stop the riding when Eryn was in first grade. Within a few weeks, we noticed regression in her behavior and communication and we were convinced of the powerful therapeutic value of riding for our daughter. We enrolled her in the next session and she has been riding ever since.

  “Seeing the improvement with Eryn, I began to suspect that the horses, with their power, grace and gentleness might offer a special therapeutic element to others with special needs.”13

  Ten-year-old Roger had difficulty with auditory processing, but was very bright and needed intellectual challenges. He had never ridden a horse before. Riding motivated him, encouraging him to listen to the instructor for directions and to his volunteer for additional cues when he needed them. He could stay focused on the task only if just one volunteer talked to him. Having two volunteers talking, even if they took turns, was too confusing. Once he learned some basic skills, the therapist was able to give him more complex directions. His teacher was pleased when he could follow directions in the classroom.14

  This is a typical lesson for ten-year-olds receiving horse therapy:

  1. Meet the children at the front door. Do brushing proprioception, and then following directions.

  2. They find their helmets and go out to the mounting area.

  3. They might practice posting on the vaulting barrel or on a chair.

  4. After mounting, they do exercises on the horse, while moving and sometimes sitting backwards on the horse.

  5. Next they might do some start/stop with the music and/or practice a new riding skill, i.e. posting.

  6. The next activity might be to follow complex auditory directions with the obstacles in the area.

  7. Next they might play a game that requires good breath support and listening skills (i.e. wiggly worm, etc.) or review new terms learned or remember what activities they did during the session.

  Not all horses are suitable for therapy. Horses need to have a solid work ethic, enjoy people, and be healthy and sound. A great therapy horse is sound at the walk, trot, and canter with three rhythmic and balanced gaits. Other qualities required include experience, good vision, trained, quiet, and at least six years of age. Riders vary in needs, so horses must also be varied to meet those needs.15

  Horses bring different sizes, colors, and talents to the stable. Just like people, horses come from a wide variety of backgrounds, making for a diverse mix of body types, personalities, and skills. Puddin’, a Palomino pony at CRTC, is popular with the riders, staff, and volunteers. His best qualities are wisdom and versatility. He adapts well to the needs of different riders.

  Caesar’s short legs keep him close to the ground, but his strength of character, good sense, and dependability more than make up for a lack of height and speed. Obe, a bay, has cross-country and hunter/jumper experience. He and Harry, a chestnut thoroughbred, fly over fences. The athletic abilities of these and others enhance the riding experience of all the students and truly challenge the more independent riders.

  These equine therapists have tangible and intangible gifts to give. Each member of the herd is a unique treasure with his own tale to tell. The horses’ willingness and unlimited hearts have captured the hearts of those who know them.

  Good horsemen are talented observers of horse behavior and respond consistently to the horse’s subtle cues. Learning the difference between individual horses and how they react to different situations is the key.

  “As a rider learns that he can have control of a horse, he begins to learn he can take control of himself as well. Trust, impulse control, self-confidence, relationship building and natural consequences are all among the lessons learned. Opportunity to give verbal commands to the horse has allowed many of our riders to improve their verbal skills. They gain confidence to get on a horse, or the ability to navigate around a barrel, or trot once around the ring. Each week anywhere from 170 to over 200 riders achieve their goals with the aid of committed volunteers, instructors, and exceptional therapy horses,” s
aid Jane Harder of Reins of Hope in Hutchinson, Kansas.

  Therapeutic riding is offered in a group setting of three to five riders once a week for one hour and one rider for thirty minutes. Instructors work diligently to create lesson plans that challenge each student and provide one-on-one attention and instruction. Therapeutic riding truly creates a bond among horse, rider, instructor, and volunteers.

  I observed Jane’s class one hot summer morning. The horse barn was remarkably cool and free of flies. A multitude of fans whirled on the ceiling. Two huge, open windows on opposite sides of the barn allowed the air to flow freely between them. The rider only mounted the horse with supervision. To mount, each child strapped on a helmet, sometimes with help, and climbed the stairs. Five horses, each with a volunteer on either side, followed one another tranquilly.

  Even horses who know nothing about being a therapy horse show remarkable traits. Becky Tanner, a reporter for the Wichita Eagle, interviewed Debbie Yeager after her horse protected the other animals on her farm.

  Jazz, a nine-year-old paint mare, saved animals in a bad storm. When the sky turned green, Jazz herded ducks, pigs, goats, cows, and horses into a small pen in the barn. Soon baseball-sized hail pelted down. Trees doubled over. Shingles flew off the house. After the storm, Jazz let the animals out of the pen. One by one, they marched out.

  Tanner also interviewed Temple Grandin. Temple said it would be normal behavior for the horse to feel protective. “It happens quite commonly for an animal to protect another animal or person. Animals will protect one another, particularly where they sense weather change,” said Temple. “I’ve seen cattle jump gates twelve hours before the big storm hits. It’s the barometric pressure. They sense a bad storm coming.”

  Therapy horses protect their riders, and provide them with comfort. They teach their riders how to interact with animals and other people, and help them grow. As one rider says, “They’re better than any human friend.”

  PART V

  TEMPLE NOW

  CHAPTER 21

  HBO MOVIE

  “I was hugging everybody that night,” said Temple, speaking about the night the HBO movie, Temple Grandin, won seven Emmys.1 She wore her usual Western wear, but she had on a Ralph Lauren cowboy shirt her sister had given her. The 2010 Emmys happened to be August 29, 2010—Temple’s sixty-third birthday. What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday!

  Mark Deesing, Temple’s only employee, co-author, and friend, said, “Temple told me about the HBO movie ten years ago, but didn’t say anything again until eight years later. Then she called me and said, ‘Pack your bags, you’re going to Austin.’ She’d already been through two rewrites and lots of consultations.”

  The movie tells Temple’s story. Temple shrank from touch as a baby and through young adulthood. She developed from a child disconnected from the world, fixated on dribbling sand through her fingers and smearing her feces on the wall, to a woman world-renowned in two fields, autism and animal handling. Mick Jackson, director of the movie, said, “You couldn’t write this as fiction. No one would believe it.”

  The movie begins with Temple’s arrival in Arizona following her high school graduation. She is fascinated by a device that holds cows still. One day she crawls into it to stop a panic attack. Since Temple has sensory integration dysfunction, she dislikes physical affection from people. However, she finds the squeeze machine calming and she can control it. Temple takes it to college with her, but must prove it was only for calming herself. She graduates from Franklin Pierce College second in a class of four hundred. Then the movie shows her early struggles in her chosen career. In the 1970s she is the only woman in a man’s world of cattle handling, rodeos, and ranching. Among her early projects, she rebuilds a dip vat and alters a slaughterhouse for cows to make it more humane. The movie finishes as she and her mother attend the 1981 Autism Society of America convention. Temple spontaneously explains much about autism to an eager audience.

  Emily Gerson Saines, the executive producer of the movie, has a son diagnosed with autism. Her mother and grandmother gave Emily Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism, written by Temple, and An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, by Oliver Sacks, which has a story in it about Temple. Emily recognized a fascinating story. She called Temple’s agent. The next thing she knew she was meeting in a restaurant with Temple Grandin, who said yes to making her life story into an HBO movie.

  Temple knew Saines’s work because she had founded Autism Coalition Resources, which became Autism Speaks. Emily was also a talent agent and felt a responsibility to get the story to the public. “Parents of a child with autism really needed to hear it,” said Emily.

  Selling a story about an autistic woman who designs slaughterhouses proved to be a long journey. “In one of the first versions of the movie, they wanted me to have a romance,” said Temple. “Romance is not in character for me.”2

  Ten years after the project started, the group that made the movie met on the stage at the 2010 Emmy Awards. They had collected awards for best actress, best director, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best screenplay. “I absolutely knew a mom would do it right.”3

  “You wouldn’t recognize Claire Danes,” said Temple.4 “She became me in the 1960s and 1970s. It was like going into a time machine. I spent a day with her and three days with Mick Jackson, the director. I also was very involved in the accuracy of the cattle.” Temple was delighted that they used her plans to recreate the dip vat for the movie.

  “Not everybody on the spectrum thinks in pictures, but the movie is clinically accurate for me. It shows my anxiety, which was calmed by the hug machine and a small dose of antidepressant. I don’t use the hug machine anymore, but continue to take the antidepressant. Though I deal with them much better now, I still have sensory issues,” she continued.5

  Claire Danes, who played the part of Temple Grandin, had a movement coach and a voice coach. She said, “I worked hard. I was inspired by Temple’s courage. I don’t expect to have another opportunity for a role this good soon. Temple found a way to self-soothe and now she’s capable and formidable. Though she’s not cured, she’s learned how to cope with her autism. Now, she’s quite polished and relates in a more normal way.”6

  Catherine O’Hara, a Canadian-American actress and comedienne, plays Aunt Ann. Ann exposes Temple to cattle for the first time on her Arizona ranch. One scene shows Temple lying on the ground with cows crowding all around her. In another scene with Aunt Ann, Temple, and a horse, Temple reveals her sensitivity to animals. She says, “He’s pointing his ears at you, he’s looking at you. Now, I’ve got his attention, he’s looking at me.”7

  Mick Jackson, the director, chose Catherine to play Aunt Ann because he wanted to portray a warm, sympathetic person. “If you cast someone who has a comedic career, sometimes they know more about the human condition than a character actor.”8

  David Strathairn portrays Mr. Carlock, Temple’s science teacher in middle school and high school. Temple loved science and was an eager pupil. He mentored her and gave her a safe haven from teasing by the other kids. Mr. Carlock was perhaps the first to realize Temple’s amazing mind. She literally thought in pictures, able to bring up pictures from all kinds of situations and visualize how things would look.

  “The screenwriter and I had decided to call him Dr. Carlock to convey an eminence that would enhance the impression he made on Temple. She thought that giving him his doctorate was a way of giving back thanks for everything he’d done for her,” said Jackson.9

  Julia Ormond, an English actress, played Eustacia, Temple’s mother. She won an Emmy. At the Vista Del Mar Autism Conference in Vista Del Mar, California, Julia gifted her Emmy to Eustacia Cutler. “I know that as a young woman Eustacia Cutler’s dream was to be an actress,” Ormond said. “She put aside her own dream and sacrificed everything for her children. She played the most important role a woman can play in life—that of a loving and caring mother. And for
that I want her to have my Emmy.”10

  “You can use it as a doorstop,” Ormond said to Eustacia as she presented it to her.11 Eustacia hugged Ormond and then clutched the Emmy. “The theme of the movie is, ‘Follow your gut feeling to help unlock a door for someone like Temple who’s locked in,’” said Julia.

  The Emmy-award winning screenplay was written by Christopher Monger and William Merritt Johnson. Two groundbreaking books, Emergence, written by Temple Grandin and Margaret Scariano, and Thinking in Pictures, by Temple Grandin, were used as a basis for the script. Mick Jackson, who has directed many movies, said his favorite among the movies he’s directed is Temple Grandin.

  Jackson said, “Temple had an eye for the details that were right and the details that were wrong, but she also had—unusual for someone whose life you’re telling through film—a sense of what it’s like to make a movie, to put it together in a whole picture.”12

  Temple called Jackson after the screening, wildly enthusiastic. “I realized that what we’d shown in the movie, which is her being able to run things in her head, was true,” Jackson recalled. “She was quoting me shots and edits and things from the movie she’d seen once. She’d downloaded the movie into her head like a DVD, and she was running it forwards and backwards.”13

  Temple had seen an earlier movie directed by Jackson and noticed some problems. “By the time Mick was working on my movie, he knew what his strengths were and where he needed help, so every time Mick wanted to change something in the script, he would consult with one of the writers, Christopher Monger. He was a word thinker, of course, but he was also a pattern thinker who could tell what effect each little change was going to have on the overall structure. The movie benefited enormously from being created by three kinds of thinking.”14

  Temple said the movie is “clinically accurate,” so apparently the parts important to her are correct. “People with autism vary from the Silicon Valley genius to the nonverbal. I received fantastic mail from people on all points of the spectrum,” Temple said. “There are still lots of people who have never heard of autism. I hope this movie will educate people. The most important message of the movie is that people with autism can do things.”15