WEST CHAZY -- A big brown horse moved slowly around the indoor ring of Adirondack Stable and Equestrian Center with Christina Moore in the saddle, smiling broadly.
The 13-year-old Beekmantown Central School student, who is legally blind, feels a sense of power on horseback, even with her aunt, Donna Cudworth, grasping Mazie's lead rope.
"In order for the horse to know where to go, you have to sit up straight," the teen said after her ride.
"When you are turning, you have to face the direction you are going."
Christina's experience with Mazie isn't the typical riding lesson, but a therapeutic version that instructor Amy LaValley has found opens a whole new world to children with disabilities.
For the physically challenged, therapeutic riding increases mobility, endurance, stamina, balance and trunk control.
"The wave of the horse's body is similar to that of your own body movement," said LaValley, a former Wyeth Pharmaceuticals employee who has certification to teach therapeutic riding from the North American Riding for Handicapped Association (NRHA).
With an emotionally challenged child, there is a unique bond that develops and flourishes between the rider and the horse, she continued.
"Those children who were abused or neglected can bond with the horse in a way that they never have done before (with others). The horse is nonjudgmental.
"They don't care what you look like, or act like. They are going to be as accepting to you as you are to them."
The cognitively challenged child learns to multitask while riding, she said.
If her young riders benefit from other forms of therapy, LaValley invites their therapists to contact her to try to coordinate the treatments to maximize results.
The lessons aren't just about riding, LaValley said.
The young people learn grooming, how to tack their mount with saddle and bridle. On the sensitive side, they learn to appreciate the sight of a mare and her foal.
"I like grooming and petting the horses," Christina said.
The benefits of therapeutic riding are well-proven, LaValley said.
"Unfortunately, the medical field hasn't supported it in the way of reimbursement, in the hopes that everybody had "¦ But it's coming."
Adirondack Stable offers traditional lessons, too, and, among its therapeutic clientele, three times monthly, are riders with disabilities from the Advocacy Resource Center (ARC).
"When the ARC comes, (the clients) are scared to death to get on the horses because their feet are off the ground, and they are petrified," LaValley said. "But once they are up there, they're grinning from ear to ear."
There's a big demand for therapeutic lessons, she said.
"I get phone calls every day. I am trying to fit them all in as fast as I can."
And she'll find a way to do so, she said. "I will lay back on the able-bodied (riders) if I have to."
To do this, she's is looking for volunteers to help with the chores on the 32-acre spread that she and her husband, Ron, got running last summer. That would give her more time working with children.
Another key aspect to therapeutic riding is that it fosters independence, LaValley said.
Often, children with handicaps rely on others to do things for them.
"When they are on the horse, they are doing it, they are in control," she said. "They have the reins in their hands, and they are going. They are doing it.
"You should see their smiles."
LaValley finds deep satisfaction in her work.
"I am happy doing what I am doing. There is nothing more heartwarming than making a difference in somebody's life. Even if it is a slight difference. The little differences add up to big differences.
"It is a great career, and I am grateful."
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