Lindi Sprague sat quietly by herself during lunch on Wednesday, but when asked about horseback riding, her face instantly brightened.

The 26-year-old, who is a student at the Marvin E. Beekman Center, 2901 Wabash Road in Lansing, participates in therapeutic horseback riding sessions which promote well-being in the center's student population.

"It's fun," Sprague said. "I love it."

The Beekman Center is a Lansing school designated for children with special needs; the students have a broad range of mental and physical disabilities. The school offers horseback riding as one form of therapy.

Dr. Lana Kaiser, professor of nursing and research consultant for both the nursing and veterinary medicine colleges, said therapeutic riding is effective because of the pride the rider feels from moving a large animal.

"There's a feeling of empowerment and independence that they may not ordinarily have in their lives," Kaiser said.

Janet Gross, a riding instructor at the school, said she believes therapy with animals is a beneficial experience for the students and has seen much improvement through sessions.

"We've had one student, he has scoliosis and has had a huge change," she said, adding that his spine is now straighter.

Gross said support from faculty, parents and the community helped sway the district from completely cutting the program. Some parents visited the school district to help propose ways to keep the horseback riding program available.

"It was helpful for (the parents) to go to the school district," Gross said. "They themselves have witnessed the changes in their children from riding."

The Beekman Center helps fund the riding program by providing lessons for people in the community, whether they have disabilities or not.

Animal-assisted therapy is also used with dogs at the school. Cynthia Dunnings, an occupational therapist, goes into classrooms with Angel, a shilo shepherd, and allows the students to play with the dog.

The dogs are specially certified by the nonprofit organization Therapy Dogs International Inc. and the program Canine Good Citizen, which is a program through the American Kennel Club. These organizations are dedicated to promoting human-dog interaction.

In therapeutic riding, the horses are usually retired show horses that are trained to be docile and follow commands easily. At the Beekman Center, horses are donated to the riding program and put on a trial period. The instructors then evaluate whether the horses are right for the disabled students riding them.

The practice of animal-assisted therapy surged in the last 10 years, Kaiser said.

"The use of therapeutic animals hasn't made it into the mainstream," Kaiser said. "We're just at the beginning of documenting the effects of animal therapy."

Kaiser said there are many different kinds of animals used in therapy.

Alan Beck, professor at Purdue University, said patients with Alzheimer's disease have trouble focusing long enough to eat a healthy amount. In his study, he placed a tank with a goldfish in front of the patients and found that while they focused on the fish, they ate more, resulting in a gradual weight gain.

"It holds their attention enough to finish eating," Beck said.

Kaiser said dogs and horses are the most common form of therapy, and miniature horses and goldfish are more rare.

Lindsey Poisson can be reached at poisson4@msu.edu.