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.