Photo by Skip Lawrence Ayla Nickerson, 9, and her brother, Silas, 7, share affection with “Skippy” during the Spring Family Support Picnic held at Breezy Hill Stables near Thurmont on Saturday.

Regina Harris, David's grandmother, said he was a bit timid coming face to face with the pony, but soon relaxed, taking his turn around the barn, along with hundreds of other children with developmental disabilities.

The event was the second annual spring family support picnic, organized by the Life Horse program, a charity that works at Breezy Hill, Families Plus! and the Frederick County Public Schools Partners for Success and the Infants and Toddlers program.

Free for families of children with developmental disabilities, the event was underwritten by the Frederick County Public Schools Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee.

Activities included pony and hay wagon rides, moon bounces, face painting, bubble making, a simulated milking stand and, of course, hot dogs and snow cones.

Julie DeRoner, of the FCPS Infants and Toddlers program, said last year, about 200 people registered for the event and about 400 people showed up.

This year, she said, about 300 people registered, so she expected about 500.

Joe Topper, owner of Breezy Hill Stables, said he took over Life Horse in 2001, and since then, the numbers of visitors to the stables has increased every year. The idea of the charity is to provide children with terminal diseases or developmental disabilities with a day of fun and enjoyment, Topper said.

Topper said the children always have interesting stories. For example, last year a boy asked him if he could keep a rock as a memento from the field where he'd ridden one of the ponies.

He happily obliged the child, though the request seemed slightly unusual. Three months later, though, Topper was told the boy had died. Apparently, the boy had taken the rock with him during chemotherapy.

Dulles Chang of Urbana brought his wife and three sons for the second time Saturday.

Alex Chang, 3, seemed to enjoy making large bubbles with a plastic wand, while his two younger brothers, Cameron, 2, and Kadon, 2, who are twins, slipped in the mud.

Alex has a mild form of autism, and his younger brothers have a slight speech development problem she wasn't sure her boys would want to ride the ponies, as they might be afraid.

She said the event was great, though, and praised FCPS for its excellent services, as her boys require special courses or speech training therapies.

Heidi Hoffman of Walkersville who brought her three children, said her daughter, Linnaeus Blake, has a highly functioning form of Asperger's syndrome.

Linnaeus, Hoffman said, is not doing well in her classes and might not pass through to the eighth grade at Walkersville Middle School next year. She has organization and attention deficit problems.

Hoffman was upset and frustrated by the fatigue the situation was causing her family, and said she did not believe her child was being well-served by the special education department at Linnaeus' school.

The picnic was a nice way to do something as a family and not have to worry about price or paying for day care, Hoffman said.