Apr 21, 2016 3 min read

The second annual “Help a Horse Day” fundraiser is coming to Greene County Fairgrounds.

There will be fun and games for the whole family, plus valuable tips about caring for horses – especially older ones. From noon until 5 p.m. Sunday, there will be photo opportunities, cornhole tosses, sack races and a horse versus human pie-eating contest with grain and apple pies for the equine contestants.

But the highlight of the day for horse lovers is the impressive lineup of workshops, beginning at 1 p.m., that will teach what it takes to keep horses healthy for a lifetime, which can span 40 years.

Darlene Moore of Save a Horse Sanctuary and two of her veteran trail buddies, Hank and Storm, will start the event with a story. Moore began buying horses more than 20 years ago from stock sales. The horses were headed for slaughter, and she rescued many others abandoned by their owners or left starving in poor pastures. Over the years, her farm near Rogersville went from riding stable to nonprofit sanctuary and is now a home for her retired trail horses, ponies and a couple of fuzzy donkeys. When Greene County Humane Society calls, Moore drives to the rescue with her truck and trailer. There’s always room for another abandoned animal at the sanctuary.

Owning a horse is a lifetime commitment, Moore pointed out.

“People don’t always realize that, and that’s why I’ve rescued so many over the years. Some of their stories would break your heart,” Moore said.

Faith Bjalobok, a professor of health care ethics at Waynesburg University who operates Fluffyjean, a low to no cost spay-neuter clinic for cats in Washington, helped Moore turn Save a Horse into a nonprofit organization in 2013. Last year, a Greene County Community Foundation grant helped Moore buy a hammer mill to chop hay into smaller pieces for easier chewing.

“I’m grateful for all the support we’ve gotten from the community.” Moore said. “I couldn’t do this alone.”

Sunday’s event is both a fundraiser and a chance to win the $100,000 prize for the ASPCA Help a Horse Day competition held nationwide during April. Bringing crucial information to the public about the problems older horses face highlights the need for places like Save a Horse Sanctuary and volunteers like Moore and Bjalobok, who are there to help when humane societies and animal rescue teams find animals in distress.

At 1 p.m., Moore’s personal veterinarian, Glodena Holstead, will discuss health problems horses develop as they age and what to do both before and after a visit to the vet, including knowing when it’s time to say goodbye. Equine dentist Aaron Howard will bring a model horse head to show how he works on teeth so old horses can continue eating hay and grain properly.

At 2 p.m., chiropractor Julie Bulboff will use Hank and Storm to show places that can be manipulated to bring the spine, including the neck, back into alignment.