Charli Forsyth, a 14-year-old Belleview native, would describe life without art as being bland and expressionless.
“I express a lot of my emotions through my creativity,” Forsyth said. “I honestly don’t know what my life would be without art.”
Since 2020, Forsyth has been using art to find ease from some of the challenges she lives with daily, including autism, ADHD, scoliosis and dyslexia. Later, she turned that hobby into an opportunity to sell her art through her business, Charli’s Things.
Forsyth participates in a number of vendor opportunities, including the monthly Friday Foodie Fest event in Belleview, which Forsyth has been attending for a year.
At her table, Forsyth displays ceramic and 3-D printed sculptures with minute “imperfections” that Forsyth decorates to make each piece unique and special. Forsyth said that two of her favorite creations were a Beetlejuice Llama and an Optimus Prime Piggy Bank. Both items were sold and ended up in new homes, with the llama becoming a new addition to a family’s fireplace and the piggy bank going to a little boy who loves all things Transformers.
Forsyth said she likes to think of herself as an advocate and important member of the special needs community.
“I want to share the message that even though it didn’t come out as the other things, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Forsyth said.
Forsyth uses the funds she receives from Charli’s Things to replace inventory for her business and to pay for therapeutic horse riding, a practice Forsyth does to help her scoliosis.
Last year, Forsyth placed third in the Exceptional Challenge Cup hosted by the United Professional Horsemen’s Association, an annual national competition in Kansas City, Missouri, for special needs horse riders. Along with competing in the Exceptional Challenge Cup, Forsyth has participated in the Special Olympics, placing at the state level for three consecutive years. She’s also competed in the Citrus Cup Regional Championship All Morgan Horse Show and the Summer’s End Horse Show in Ocala, placing first, second and fourth over the years.
“I’ve always been a horse-obsessed kid,” Forsyth said, explaining that she used to watch Western movies growing up.
“The Stirrups ‘n Strides (Therapeutic Riding Center in Citra) was doing a free day where potential riders can go see how they like riding, and my family surprised me with lessons,” the teen said. “I didn’t realize until they were putting the boots on me that I was riding.”
Forsyth has been riding at the Stirrups ‘n Strides Center ever since that day, saying every ride since the first has been “exhilarating.”
“I feel like I’m flying,” Forsyth said, explaining the feeling she gets when she is riding.
Forsyth has worked with nearly every horse at the center and calls herself a “horse hopper,” though her favorite horses may be Tater, who she rode during the 2023 Kansas City competition, or Stetson, an ex-Amish buggy horse.
Forsyth said her autism causes her to tend to forget the steps of the riding during competitions so she repeats to herself, “hands down, shoulders back, head up.”
“But at the same time I’m also thinking, ‘alright I’m here. Time to put on a good show’,” she said, adding that a good show is when she sits up straight, remembers to do everything and doesn’t fall off. Forsyth is now taking private lessons from an ex-Olympic horse jumper.
Forsyth keeps a busy schedule where she excels in various activities. Along with riding horses, Forsyth takes weekly karate classes and is an amateur photographer remotely taking pre-summer classes at an online college. She also enjoys farm life and is very involved with taking care of her chickens.
Since the age of four, Forsyth has taken karate classes at the Okinawa Shorinryu Kokusai Kempo Karate-do and Kobudo martial arts school in Ocala. She received her first-degree black belt and placed in karate competitions since she was just five. She’s won at least 13 gold medals.Forsyth said while karate and horseback riding seem different, the work that comes with one sport helps her with the other.
“I learned I was getting more from (karate) than the actual physical therapy that I was going to,” she said. “It really helped me a lot with learning how to use my balance. Karate helps with my hands and making sure I can keep a tight fist, and the horseback riding has helped with my posture.”
Forsyth works hard to not only be an inspiration to others with special needs, but to also prove naysayers wrong. When she was younger, Forsyth and her parents were told that she would never talk and walk well, and would not be able to ride horses.
“Me and my family were like, ‘No, she’s going to do all that perfectly, or as close to perfectly as she can’,” Forsyth said.
She wants other special needs individuals to know “you can do stuff that other people might not be able to do.”
“Don’t let a diagnosis put a label on you,” Forsyth said. “You can be whatever you want to be, no matter what is ‘wrong with you’.”
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
