There's just something about kids and ponies. For disabled kids, American Canyon offers a special place for riding full-sized horses and getting a taste of outdoor opportunities that are all too rare.

Cornerstone Equestrian Center provides therapy as well as recreation for disabled children and adults. Located on American Canyon Road between Flosden Road and Interstate 80, Cornerstone has been teaching equestrian skills to disabled people since 1986.

Candy Toll, president of the Cornerstone board and head instructor at the ranch, says therapy in a saddle helps "with range of motion exercises and developing emotionally with the horses, on the horses.

"They learn independence and how to control the horse," she said. "How to work around the animal safely, being able to do something that a lot of their peers can't do. They have strength in the world because they can do something."

Diane Swain, the mother of Cornerstone student Christen Smith, confirmed that.

"It's given her a lot of knowledge of controlling something bigger than her," Swain said of Christen. Smith is a Donaldson Way Elementary School student with William's Syndrome, a condition that affects motor skills.

The fee-based program also helps adults, but the concentration is on children.

Obviously, horses are a lot larger than children, especially children who look at life from the level of wheelchairs.

"Sometimes the kids are scared when they first start," Toll said. "A lot of kids in wheelchairs find themselves in the position where they look around and see people below them. After a while they get used to it and they like it."

The word disability covers a lot of ground, from physical handicaps and mental impairments to developmental problems, but Cornerstone welcomes all comers, according to Toll.

"Sometimes we work with people with both mental and physical disabilities," she said. "Some of the students with autism can't focus on what we're doing from one moment to the next. We try to do a lot of games to keep their minds on it."

One such person is Donaldson Way student Jacob Schenk, who's been training at Cornerstone for two and a half years.

"He's one on one with the animal," said his grandmother, Michelle Marin. "He doesn't do well in a crowd."

Marin said Jacob has to make an effort to focus on what he's doing. "I think it's calming for him," she said. "He learns boundaries."

The one on one help is essential for Jacob, according to his grandmother.

"He does much better with animals (than with other children,)" Marin said. "He's not going to fit in a horse class with other kids."

Toll said that was the goal when working with children who have mental or emotional disabilities.

"Some of them become more focused because they are held to a high level of responsibility," she said. "Their parents say they start to develop more responsibility at home."

There are other advantages, according to Toll.

"They sometimes get more improvements in balance," she explained. "We had one young man who had never walked, and he was 5. It wasn't that he couldn't. It was just that he wouldn't. Because riding a horse is very similar to walking, riding the horse stimulated those nerves and he started walking. That was a really big, amazing thing."

Success stories keep Toll and other trainers going.

"One of the young girls has cerebral palsy and her doctor recommended that she come here to avoid scoliosis in her back," Toll said. "She's been riding with us for three or four years. She recently went to the doctor and the doctor was amazed. He said there's no scoliosis and he attributed it to the riding."

Swain said her daughter, Christen has gained a lot from the program. And of course, there's the recreational side of it.

"She learned to give the horse direction and to make it stop," Swain said.

"I've learned to ride," Christen chimed in.

As with most nonprofits, it isn't always an easy road, especially for instructors who are more skilled with horses than with fund raising.

Cornerstone operates mostly on fees charged to its students, but keeping things going requires donations, occasional grants and lots of volunteer hours.

"We can do the minimum," Toll said. "We can't pay instructors. We can't expand. It's a scary situation to be in.

"We have had a few grants, but we don't have a professional grant writer," Toll said.

Toll said the situation has improved a bit from the bad old days.

"We're definitely doing a lot better than we were doing a few years ago when we were about ready to shut our doors," she said. "We're not able to do everything we would like to do."

The program works two days a week and has two instructors, Toll and Kari Ann Owens.

Toll hasn't been with the program from the beginning, but she's the senior member of the crew.

"I came in during the late '90s," she said. "I started out as a volunteer. I wanted to learn more about horses. I loved them all my life and wanted to be around them. I started volunteering just to be around the horses. I found that I also enjoyed seeing the progress the students were making."

A one-day-per-week job isn't going to pay the bills, so Owens, a playwright, and Toll, a piano teacher, are in it for something else.

"It's definitely a highlight of the week," Toll said. "I really enjoy what I do."

Toll would like to see continue improving the program.

"We would like to be able to pay instructors," she put at the top of her wish list. "Not just work two days a week. We would like to have more students. We would like to have more of an impact."

There is one thing Cornerstone already has enough of.

"We have plenty of horses," Toll said, noting that the more mature the horse, the better for Cornerstone's purposes.

"We usually don't take any horse under 10," Toll said. "Because they've seen it all and they've mellowed out."

That works out well because young horses are more valuable in the marketplace.

"All of the horses are donated," Toll explained. "Because of that, you're not going to find many horses that are young and strong. We have to be very careful about the horses we take. We have to be very, very picky."

Cornerstone doesn't own all of its horses.

"We have two horses that we board and the boarding fee is that they let us use it," Toll explained. "The people that are letting us use their horses are happy because they know their horses are being exercised and that we're not galloping off with them. (The horses are) working very hard. They know that any work that we do with the horse is going to be gentle."

A seasonal problem is hitting Cornerstone now.

"Some of our volunteers are from UC Berkeley and they are going back home for the summer in the next couple weeks," Toll pointed out.

That will leave the program desperately short on volunteers. Anyone interested in contributing to the program can call 643-2223.

"We're looking for people who are not afraid of horses," Toll said. "They need to be willing to learn and be physically fit enough to walk for three hours straight."

So, if that gym is charging too much, this might be a good alternative.

"Success breeds success, and everyone here is successful," said Marin.