BENTONVILLE -- K.T. Hines shouted her encouragement to the children as they finished riding their horses through an obstacle course Tuesday morning at Horses for Healing.

"Preston, you did an awesome job on Shadow today," Hines said. "Can you pat his neck with both hands?"

Preston, sitting on Shadow, leaned forward and embraced the horse. Three adults -- two to keep the boy steady and one to take care of the horse -- stood by.

Tuesday was the seventh annual equestrian event at Horses for Healing, an organization based on a 75-acre ranch in rural Bentonville that provides therapeutic equine-assisted activities to children with physical, emotional and mental challenges. Twenty-four elementary school kids from Old Wire and Northside elementary schools in Rogers participated in Tuesday's event.

Hines, a past president of Horses for Healing's board, was there to cheer on the students.

"I love the kids and I love the horses. I love seeing what the horses do for the kids," Hines said.

The Bentonville and Rogers school districts regularly take some of their special-needs children to Horses for Healing for therapeutic riding. The organization serves kids with all kinds of disabilities including autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and various physical deformities.

The obstacle course started with a line of mailboxes. Students, while perched on their horses, received pieces of mail with symbols and had to deliver them to the corresponding mailboxes.

The course continued with the horses weaving through a series of poles. At another station, the horses stopped to allow their riders to blow bubbles or throw small footballs through a hoop.

Seth Olivio, 11, got to ride Star, a black horse. Seth, a Northside fifth-grader, said he's liked horses since he saw one at a parade when he was 4 years old.

"I started begging my mom to get a horse. She said it was a lot of money," he said.

He loves riding the horses and coming to Horses for Healing to meet new people, Seth said.

Larissa Reeves, Seth's mother, said they moved to Northwest Arkansas last year from Doniphan, Mo. The move was a challenge for him, she said, but Horses for Healing has helped.

"It's changed his whole attitude," Reeves said.

Equine therapy changes the lives of kids who struggle with disabilities, according to those associated with Horses for Healing.

Beth Tichenor, a Rogers resident who has volunteered for five years at Horses for Healing, said she's witnessed two boys -- one 2 years old, the other 8 years old -- speak their first words while riding a horse.

"I don't know how it works. It just does," Tichenor said.

Eddie Andrus, the outgoing board president, said his 14-year-old daughter has been riding horses for six years. She has autism.

"I tell people it's her sport. This is her activity, something she can own," Andrus said. "The connection with the horse is pretty special."

Horses for Healing started in 1993 as Rocky Creek Horses Help. It started by providing therapeutic riding for 15 special-needs kids in Rogers. It now serves more than 400 students from Bentonville and Rogers.

The Walmart Foundation presented a $100,000 check to the organization at Tuesday's event. Karen Parker, senior manager with the foundation, said the foundation has given to Horses for Healing for several years.

"It's life-changing for many of the kids," Parker said.

The foundation's donation represents about 20 percent of Horses for Healing's annual budget, according to Linda Brown, executive director. The organization doesn't rely on state or federal money, but does rely on dozens of volunteers and community support, Brown said.

Horses for Healing has grown more financially stable in recent years in part by increasing its capacity for boarding horses, Andrus said.

Harriette Habern, Horses for Healing's founder, attended Tuesday's event.

"When I see the smiles on these kids' faces, that's what we do it for," Habern said. "It might have been my dream, but it's the volunteers who keep it going."