Save-A-Horse Stables gives unwanted horses a second chance
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Darlene Moore cleans the horse’s hoof.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Horses graze in a pasture.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Darlene Moore in the field with one of her horses.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter Two horse nuzzle each other in the pasture at Save-A-Horse Stable, in Rogersville, on Monday, May 9, 2016.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Darlene Moore, owner of Save-A-Horse Stable in Rogersville, having fun with her horses.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Most of the horses have a buddy or companion that they bond with.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Horses run in the fields at Save-A-Horse Stable in Rogersville.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Horese run in the feilds at Save a Horse Stable, in Rogersville.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Darlene Moore makes a special diet of oats and grains for some of her horses.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Darlene Moore’s husband, Kevin, feeds a few horses in the pasture at Save-A-Horse Stable in Rogersville.
Celeste Van Kirk/O-R Horses grazing in a pasture at Save- A- Horse Stable, in Rogersville, in the field with some of her horses.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter Darlene Moore, owner of Save-A-Horse Stable, in Rogersville, in the field with some of her horses on Monday, May 9, 2016.
ROGERSVILLE – When Darlene Moore was 7 years old, she asked her father for a pony and dreamed of one day owning a horse farm.
“And I got it,” Darlene said of her Christmas present named Flicka. “Be careful what you wish for.”
More than a half-century after Harry Stockdale fulfilled his daughter’s wish, Darlene and her husband, Kevin, care for 57 horses on their nearly 400-acre farm just outside of Rogersville.
For years, she’s taken ownership of dozens of horses that people either don’t want anymore, can’t ride or are too expensive to care for. Darlene saves most of them and renders the expensive medical care to save even the ones that are sickly and might not survive.
“I don’t look for the horses,” Darlene said while walking the pastures on her Center Township farm.
“They just appear!” Kevin responded with a chuckle.
What began as a riding stable that Darlene started on her family’s farm 35 years ago has turned into a non-profit sanctuary where the couple takes in sick or unwanted horses, nurses them back to health and gives them green pastures to roam for the rest of their days.
She opened Save-A-Horse Stable in 1982 as a riding camp and continued it for the next three decades. Four years ago, she changed the mission strictly to saving and preserving the animals through a 501(c)3 non-profit status.
The couple feeds the animals and offers some medical care. They receive royalties from nearby natural gas drilling that stretches under their land – there are no well pads on the property – and that has helped them pay off part of the farm and buy new equipment. But those payments have dwindled as gas prices plummeted, making it more and more difficult to fund the sanctuary. They are now more reliant on fundraisers and donations from the public.
That doesn’t stop them from taking in new horses, even going to extraordinary lengths to save animals that are in poor health or might need to be euthanized.
“I just don’t save any horse. It has to have a story with it, and a truthful story,” Darlene said. “Horses are like some foster kids, moving from home to home.”
One horse Darlene bought appeared to be ill, but she did not know how sick it was until after bringing it home. That’s when she learned it had cancer and couldn’t be saved. She took the horse to the farm, fed it for a week and made it as comfortable as possible before euthanizing it.
Most of the other horses are more fortunate.
Some of them include ones that were to be sold at area auctions for their meat, which would then be shipped overseas where they’re a delicacy in some countries. She happily outbids potential buyers just to keep the equines from the slaughterhouse.
“I don’t give up,” she said.
The relationship between the horses and Darlene is obvious.
While driving a couple visitors around the farm on a recent tour, only a few horses could be seen in the fields. Darlene stepped out of the pickup truck and called her herd of horses hidden in a thicket, prompting a couple dozen to come prancing up the hillside to greet her and Kevin while standing at attention, curiously gazing at the strange visitors holding a notepad and camera.
The horses inexplicably love to chew on work trucks that are parked in the fields. They will nibble on the hoods, Kevin said, apparently attracted to the smell of the paint.
“Work gloves and equipment aren’t safe either,” Kevin said while standing guard around the truck.
The work of caring for so many animals, some of which are in poor condition, isn’t easy.
Glodenna Halstead, a traveling veterinarian based in Carmichaels who’s helped render medical aid for the animals at Save-A-Horse over the past decade, is amazed by Darlene’s dedication.
“She’s definitely all heart,” Halstead said. “She’s a true advocate for all of these animals and has given them a quality of life they would’ve never had. To do this and want to do this and to follow through…”
The cost is, of course, high.
The family spends thousands each year on medication and feed to keep the animals healthy. But Halstead said Darlene has become so good at spotting problems that it makes the veterinarian’s job easier as they put together a game plan for treatment.
“I’m sure there are days when it’s discouraging, but she keeps going on,” Halstead said. “She always tries to win the battle.”
And Darlene and Kevin, both of whom turn 60 this year, aren’t slowing down.
They recently purchased a neighboring 145-acre parcel to give the horses more room to roam. Darlene and Kevin are now erecting fences and clearing the overgrown land to give the horses another pasture.
With the help of friends and their adult children, Darlene and Kevin hope to continue their work of saving horses for many years go come.
“When they get sick and hurt, I don’t give up on them,” Darlene said. “It’s a lot of work and you have to love it.”