( CNN ) -- When 3-year-old Rowan Isaacson darted away from his father and dived into a herd of grazing horses , it easily could have been the end of the small autistic boy . He was babbling under the hooves of a boss mare . Rupert Isaacson says he noticed immediate improvement in his son 's language skills when he started riding . `` I thought he was going to get trampled , '' recalled Rupert Isaacson , Rowan 's father . But the horse , Betsy , dipped her head and chewed with her mouth in submission . Isaacson , who had trained horses for a living , had never seen it happen so spontaneously . Rowan had seemingly made a connection . The Austin , Texas , family had been struggling with Rowan . His wild tantrums were nearly driving Isaacson and his wife , Kristin Neff , to divorce . All the while , little Rowan was becoming unreachable . `` He would just stare off into space , '' Isaacson said . `` I was worried it was going to get progressively worse and that eventually , he might float away from us entirely . Luckily , right about that time is when he met Betsy . '' Isaacson began riding Betsy , a neighbor 's horse , with Rowan . He says he noticed immediate improvement in his son 's language skills . Watch Rowan and Betsy » . `` He would start to answer . He would start to talk . We would do song games up there on the saddle . I would take books up there in the saddle , '' Isaacson said . Autism specialists say that horse riding can be effective in gaining access to autistic children . Experts make a distinction between the kind of recreational therapeutic riding Isaacson was using with Rowan and hippotherapy , which is a medical treatment that uses horses and is supervised by a licensed speech-language pathologist . `` People perceive it 's the interaction with the horse that 's making the change . However , the movement of the horse is extremely powerful , and it 's that movement that 's having neurological impact on the autistic child , '' said Ruth Dismuke-Blakely , a speech-language pathologist and hippotherapy clinical specialist in Edgewood , New Mexico . According to preliminary analysis of an ongoing study by Dismuke-Blakely , hippotherapy has been shown to increase verbal communication skills in some autistic children in as little as 18 to 25 minutes of riding once a week for eight weeks . `` We see their arousal and affect change . They become more responsive to cues . If they are at a point where they are using verbal cues , you get more words , '' Dismuke-Blakely said . `` It 's almost like it opens them up . It gives us access . '' She cautions that a horse 's movements can be powerful . For some autistic children , riding too long can overstimulate their nervous system , leading to more erratic behavior . On Betsy , Rowan was at ease . After about three weeks , Isaacson says , Rowan 's improved behavior was translating into the home and outside world as well . But not consistently . In late 2004 , Isaacson , a human rights activist , brought a delegation of African bushmen from Botswana to the United Nations . Among the men were traditional healers , who offered to work with Rowan . Isaacson says he was skeptical , but he had experience with the bushmen and allowed the healers to lay their hands on his son . `` I was kind of flabbergasted at Rowan 's response . For about four days while they were with him , he started to lose some of his symptoms . He started to point , which was a milestone he had n't achieved , '' Isaacson said . When the tribal healers left , Rowan regressed . Isaacson says he could n't help but wonder what would happen if he were to give Rowan a longer exposure to the two things that he seemed to have responded well to : horses and shamans . `` I know it sounds completely crazy , '' he said . `` I just had a gut feeling . '' Isaacson took his wife and son to Mongolia . `` It 's the oldest horse culture on the planet . Everyone still gets around on a horse there -- so a nomadic culture . The word 'shaman ' comes from there , '' Isaacson said , explaining his decision . `` I just thought , 'Well , what if we went there and rode across the steppe and visited traditional healers ? You know , what might happen for Rowan ? Might there be some positive outcomes ? ' `` Trekking across the Mongolian prairie on horseback , Isaacson says , Rowan 's behavior was changed dramatically . `` Rowan was not cured of autism out there , '' Isaacson stressed . `` The word 'cure ' is not in my vocabulary for this . Rowan came back without three key dysfunctions that he had . He went out to Mongolia incontinent and still suffering from these neurological firestorms -- so tantruming all the time and cut off from his peers , unable to make friends -- and he came back with those three dysfunctions having gone . '' Isaacson credits Rowan 's improvement to horses and time in nature -- and to shamanic healing , which he says he simply ca n't explain rationally . Isaacson has written a book , `` The Horse Boy , '' about Rowan 's autism . Rowan , now 7 , rides Betsy by himself . His parents never abandoned more orthodox treatments for his autism , and Rowan 's applied behavioral analysis therapist has him studying math and English at the third-grade level -- a full year ahead of some of his peers . `` He 's just becoming a very functional autistic person , '' Isaacson said . As far as the Isaacson family 's journey took them , it is the same hard slog facing millions of families gripped by autism . `` A lot of the parents go to the ends of the Earth in their own living rooms every day , '' Isaacson said . `` I mean , we had more stressful car rides to the grocery store than any of the stresses and challenges of the trip to Mongolia . '' You do n't have to get on a horse -- or plane to Siberia -- for relief . For autism families , Isaacson encourages parents to simply follow their instincts and listen to what their child shows them . `` In our case , it was horses in Mongolia and these shamans , '' Isaacson said . `` It could just as easily have been bicycles and , you know , steam trains . And if it had been , we 'd have done a steam train journey . We 'd have done whatever Rowan seemed to be showing us he wanted to do , because that was where he was intrinsically motivated . ''
Family travels across Mongolia to visit the grave of their son, who was killed in a car accident when he was just 17. Experts say riding horses can be effective in gaining access to autistic children . Rowan Isaacson 's language and temper improved with horse/shaman therapy . His parents never abandoned more orthodox treatments for Rowan 's autism .