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REIDSVILLE — Eight-year-old Cheyann Smith is overcoming her shyness while getting better.

Myiah McLees insisted on attending a horse show the day after being discharged from the hospital. The 9-year-old arrived in a wheelchair, still hooked up to an IV of antibiotics and fluid hanging on a pole.

Angel King, a 15-year-old who has been battling leukemia for the past year, calls the horses her “babies” and brings them apple slices and other treats. Although in the program only a month, her balance is improving, and she won ribbons in the most recent horse show.

These are just some examples of the accomplishments achieved by three of the 45 participants in the therapeutic horseback riding program at Rolling Ridge Riding just north of Reidsville.

Kathryn and Mark Davis oversee the weekly riding sessions for children with a variety of ailments including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, autism and other neuromuscular disorders. The horseback riding helps them gain strength sitting up, gain better use of their hands and legs and even to walk and talk.

Older students can then learn to ride and compete on the Rolling Ridge equestrian team, competing in the adaptive therapeutic classes in horse shows.

So far, teams from Rolling Ridge have competed in the Equestrian Special Olympics, the district and state level championship shows for 4-H and Open Horse Shows at nearby Flint Rock Farms and Chestnut Hills.

This year, the Rolling Ridge team came home with two grand champion awards and one reserve grand champion award from the state 4-H competition.

On Sept. 12, at Chestnut Hills, Cheyann rode Moonbeam and won first place in the equitation class. Her mother “broke down and cried” when Cheyann won, Kathryn Davis said.

“That was a huge accomplishment and gave her so much confidence,” she said. “She is so bashful and shy. Cheyann never volunteers for anything first.”

But after her win, she volunteered to go first in the Western trail competition.

Cheyann, who has a seizure disorder and mild cerebral palsy, began riding at age 3. At that time, she fell a lot and wore braces on her legs.

“The classes have helped her posture and balance, and she no longer uses braces,” Davis said.

This past year, she developed a friendship with Madison Bowman, 9, who has been Cheyann’s mentor and has brought a lot out in Cheyann’s personality, Davis said. The two girls are inseparable and call themselves the Bobbsey Twins.

“It is one of the most wonderful programs that I think has ever existed,” said her mother, Melinda Smith. “I have seen a lot of miracles through this program — not just through my child, but through the other children also.”

When Myiah was admitted to the hospital Sept. 10, she was upset because she couldn’t ride in the horse show Saturday. Her doctor sent her home Friday with IV antibiotics and fluids. But by Saturday, Myiah was at the horse show. She received a purple ribbon for sportsmanship.

Angel King, 15 and a freshman at RCHS who has battled leukemia for a year, tied for first place in her class at Chestnut Hills — her first horse show.

“I don’t know when I have ever seen a smile so bright after all she’s been through,” Davis said.

Angel’s mother, Annie King, said Angel has physical therapy weekly but also goes to the riding program to help her balance.

Angel is improving after only a month, and she loves the horses, her mother said.

“I think it is doing wonders,” Annie King said. “It really helps them. It boosts their attitude and gives them something to look forward to that can be theirs and they actually can do.”

A pediatric physical therapist at Morehead Hospital and Rockingham County Schools, Kathryn Davis got involved with the program in 2000. At the time, Davis was working with a 3-year-old child at Morehead Hospital’s clinic who could not walk.

“She could stand up with a little walker but not alone,” Davis said. She knew of a therapeutic horseback riding program in Guilford County but the parents couldn’t get there.

Because the Davis family had just moved to a farm on Narrow Gauge Road and had “borrowed” a horse to eat the grass in their pastures, Davis had the girl come to their farm.

“We put that child on the horse and rode her for 30 minutes for three Saturdays, and after the third time, she started walking,” Davis said.

But the next week, calls poured in because other parents of handicapped children had heard about the girl’s success and were asking if their children “could ride the horse.”

“We just couldn’t say no, so children started coming and riding,” Davis said. “Before we knew it, we had so many children, we had to get more horses.”

Then people heard about the program and began donating horses to the farm.

“We figured God just sent them because we hadn’t been asking for them,” Davis said.

Nine years later, they have become a nonprofit organization because it had become too expensive to keep the horses needed for so many children and young adults, ranging in age from 3 to 24.

Joining the couple are a team of speech, occupational and physical therapists, as well as 4-H Club members and other young volunteers.

Last year, eight licensed therapists donated more than $100,000 in services .

Rockingham County teachers, led by Leslie Mauney, also volunteered and set up a basic education curriculum for the riders.

“It takes the work of the community,” Davis said. “All the people — especially 4-H club members — donate their time to come and help us.”

Mark Davis works with the N.C. State Grange. They have two sons. Jonathan, 24, is in the Air Force, and Jay, 21, is a junior at Western Carolina University.

“Jay has been with us and has helped us with just about every ride we have had,” Davis said, adding Jonathan was already in college at the time they began.