Murray's Message
Murray Bruce, UK

Murray Bruce is twenty-three years old and lives in Oxfordshire, England. He was diagnosed with autism when he was three, is non speaking and has apraxia. Murray goes to Horses Helping People, UK run by Debbie La-Haye, each week where he is proud to be an Autism Ambassador.

Murray’s message

Do people know how important horses are to mental health issues?

When I am with them, their heavenly, free outlook on life inspires me to calm myself.

Their intuitive understanding of people like me who have panic attacks and have additional needs is the most saving thing they can do.

I go to Horses Helping People on a Friday and people there are people like me who need understanding from a society where we don’t always fit in.
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The horses there are my lifeline, and I am positive that their sweet and passive nature is a gift from some other unknown place that is beyond our comprehension. 

​My words of thanks for them:

Horses are pure heart beating peace.
I am in a wondrous universe
each time I stand within the same ethereal air that they breathe.
 
I watch their expressions,
Feel their empathy,
and let them lead me into a safe place of knowledge
and belief
that I matter.
 
Understanding the loud world around me
is helped surely
by their gentle, mindful
acceptance
and unquestionable love.
 
I look into their eyes to see that
all is good,
and feel that
all is calm,
and believe that
all can be achieved.
 
In the presence of these glorious, assured, graceful creatures
I can make sense of myself.
I can balance
and I can peacefully be
just me.
​~*~

Murray Bruce Bio

Murray Bruce is twenty-three and hails from Oxfordshire, UK. He has a diagnosis of autism and is non-speaking with no real form of communication before 10, when it was discovered that he had taught himself to read and write.  His writings are important means of teaching others what it is like to have autism, how it affects him and those like him. Being with horses is an intrinsic part of his life. “I feel peace and only happiness in the calm, warm breath of a friendly, mindful being that is the special soul which a horse is born with.  I am a different and sane person with them around me. It is an autistic and wearying world for me without the opportunity that I have going to Horses Helping People, where the horses are a soothing addition to a hectic life. I am grateful that they allow me to breathe their air.” Murray advocates through poetry and poignant life observations. He writes with incredible insight, telling of his frustrations of being silent and how he perceives the sensory world so many live in.  He’s also a campaigner for changing the minds of those who associate non verbal with non intelligent. Murray has spoken at No 10 Downing Street and has been awarded the title of Learning Disability and Autism Leader for Advocacy, Policy and Media by Dimensions UK. He features in the BBC documentary “Inside Our Autistic Minds” presented by Chris Packham. 

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