Our Story
My name is Dr. Megan B. McGavern and I am Cole’s mother.
Let me start out by saying that it has been a long road! At times so difficult, frustrating and isolating, I have not known how I was going to survive another minute but then there have been days so beautiful and breakthroughs that were so amazing it has taken my breath away.
Our son, Cole, was diagnosed with autism at age 4. It was devastating to say the least. A few days of sadness and disbelief then led to an unending search and '“warrior mode” on how I could heal my child. Along the way I read a book titled “The Horse Boy,” written by Rupert Isaacson. It changed our lives forever. We took Cole out of public school, created a homeschooling Movement Method (MM) program in 2017 and a Horse Boy Method (HBM) program in 2018.
In 2019, my husband and I bought almost 18 acres in Yorktown to create what I have called a “Horse Boy masterpiece.” We transitioned to the land in April of 2020 with Majana and Diego, our Horse Boy trained therapy horses. In May 2021, our third horse, Neron, will be arriving from Germany after 18 months of Horse Boy training and we are SO excited to meet him!
My son is not neurotypical by any means at this point but we have gone from 10 words in a day to 300+ words in an hour on the horse. We have gone from driving him to a feeding clinic in Richmond for 2 years and possible need for a feeding tube to him being above the 90th percentile in weight. We have gone from not being able to go to the beach because he could not bear the sand to it now being one of his most beloved places.
We are grateful to have been able to do such far-fetched things and hope to be able to share this with those in the community who are going through similar struggles. Here’s to strength, community, peace and most of all, hope and faith!