Ed: note: For more than a quarter-century, Seattle P-I readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund, generating more than $5.4 million for local charities. Today, we feature another of the seven charities that will benefit from this season's drive.

It's more than just cute.

The kids at Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Woodinville look like they're having a great time riding horses, and for the most part they are. But for many of them, the fun is a benefit secondary to the physical therapy value.

"We're not teaching them how to ride a horse," like ordinary therapeutic riding, said Steve McKenzie, a full-time physical therapist at Little Bit, one of the beneficiaries of the P-I's Readers Care Fund. "It's about developing balance, trunk strength and coordination so we can improve their functioning."

The gate of a horse creates movements in the rider that are similar to walking. For a disabled person who doesn't walk, it's an opportunity to exercise muscles that don't get used and prepare them for standing and walking. It's called hippotherapy -- hippo is Greek for horse -- and is commonly used to treat disorders including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury.

"It gets their pelvis to move in that way, and neurological connections to the brain are being made about how those muscles move," McKenzie said. "You can't do that with anything else."

William Acker, 2, has serious developmental delays of unclear origins as well as hypotonia, a condition marked by abnormally low muscle tone. His parents, Tom and Anne Acker, say they've seen major improvements in the 10 months he's been involved with Little Bit.

"When we started putting him on the horse, he began sitting up straighter, has better muscle tone and he's starting to make advances toward walking, which we pray every day continues," Tom Acker said. "He learns the need to balance himself, and it retrains his brain so he learns to utilize muscle groups in ways the rest of us take for granted."

"When I started seeing him, he was able to crawl but was not really pulling himself up or walking much," McKenzie said. "Now he's pulling himself up to stand independently and walking with just (a) one-hand hold assist. That's huge."

The fun aspect also has value. Many of Little Bit's clients have been in physical therapy for years and are bored with the same old activities. Working with horses is interactive in a whole new way.

"William absolutely loves it," Acker said. "He's very tactilely sensitive, so in the fresh air he gets really excited. He loves seeing the horse and feeling the wind on his face, and he loves Steve and the volunteers. It's the highlight of his week."

"They don't even think they're having therapy," McKenzie said. "They think they're just having fun."

Little Bit is among just a handful of facilities of its kind in the state, and McKenzie estimates there are no more than three therapists doing full-time hippotherapy in one location. The more contributions Little Bit gets, the more people it can serve.

"It's a wonderful outlet for people with William's challenges," Acker said. "I wish there were a lot more programs like Little Bit."

Other non-profits that benefit from the Readers Care Fund are the Family and Adult Service Center, Forgotten Children's Fund, New Futures, Northwest's Child, Powerful Voices and Rise n' Shine.