REEDSVILLE, W.Va. (WBOY) — WVU’s Equestrian Studies program hosted its beloved Halloween with Horses event on Saturday.
The program’s signature community event had the previous turn out of over 1,000 people in the span of the two hours, though this year, there’s a great chance there were more attendees than ever.
The Halloween with Horses event at WVU J.W. Ruby Research Farm was completely free to the public with games for children to get involved with alongside the trick or treating.
The farm featured four horses for children to interact with, all in costume. One was Mario, assisted by students dressed like Princess Peach and Luigi. Another was Batman, assisted by Cat Woman and Wonder Woman. The other horses were dressed in a Christmas theme and assisted by the Grinch and Cindy Lou Hoo along with a Barbie horse assisted by Ken and Barbie.
12 News spoke with WVU Professor of Animal Nutritional Sciences, Crystal Smith, on the importance of offering this event to the community.
“People don’t know what goes on at WVU. They have kind of, their one idea of what WVU does for the community, and so, although this farm is open for horse shows and other community events, it’s a way to bring people that aren’t either involved in the horse industry or involved in agriculture onto the farm and introduce them to our students and our horses and kind of show them what they do,” Smith said.
Though the event was entirely free, nonperishable food donations were accepted at the door and split among WVU’s student pantry and the Reedsville Volunteer Fire Department.
Still to come for WVU’s Equestrian Studies are the program’s horse shows and an “Ugly Christmas Sweater” horse show whose registration is open for the public. You can keep up with the program through WVU’s calendar of events and through social media.
