AIKEN --- Jennifer Howard, sitting straight and confident astride a brown mare in a training ring at Hopelands Farms, looked across to where her mother stood with her new baby sister and grinned.

There was little doubt the 7-year-old was having fun.

"She absolutely loves it," Kim Howard said of her daughter's weekly one-hour sessions with STAR Riding & Driving -- a nonprofit, equine-assisted therapy program for area disabled people.

Jennifer has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and her mother says the three years Jennifer has spent in the program have made a difference in her behavior.

"From the first time she got on a horse, it was calming and relaxing for her," Ms. Howard said, adding that Jennifer's time with the horses is better than medication. "It gives her a way to socialize with other kids and with the other instructors."

The program also has helped her with her motor skills, Ms. Howard said.

Kerri Creamer, the program coordinator for STAR, said the program doesn't claim to be an alternative to other therapies, "but we hope we are a good addition."

The riding program serves students with a variety of disabilities -- autism, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, ADHD -- and most of them attend other, more conventional therapies.

"But when they come out here, they don't know it's therapy. They just know it's fun," Ms. Creamer said.

The students usually start with a warm-up. In the training ring are white poles, each with a different-colored stripe and matching ring at the top.

Ms. Creamer will ask them to get the red ring and the blue ring off the red pole and the blue pole.

Sitting atop their horses with volunteers at their sides, the students direct the horses, using verbal commands, to the correct poles.

"They are reaching and stretching; they're using hand and eye coordination; they're matching colors and using balance," she said. "They are doing a lot of different therapies just in a simple exercise like that."

Because of their disabilities, several of the students can't participate in group activities or team sports, but Ms. Creamer said that when they attend their weekly riding lessons, everything is noncompetitive.

Ms. Howard said the STAR program provides a safe place for Jennifer, where she is accepted.

"It builds confidence, and a lot of these kids just don't have that," she said.