By Colleen Nelson
Who can forget the smell of a horse’s breath on your cheek after a good ride? Or the scent of saddle soap and fresh hay? I’m one of those kids who got a pony at age 12 and had friends to ride with. Now I’m standing in the doorway of the barn at the Greene County Fairgrounds, transported back to that place in me where time is measured in hoof beats.
What’s not to love about this fine bit of historical acreage on the outskirts of Waynesburg that has given generations of kids and adults a place to saddle up and ride? A place to have horse shows, to train for harness racing or just come to the barn to clean stalls and share some real face time with an equine best friend?
This 110-year-old fairground, now owned by the county and home to the Greene County Fair, came of age in the era when working horses, the driving force of American life and commerce, were about to be put to pasture by the internal combustion engine. But its big oval track lets you know that horse racing has yet to fade away. And its barns and acres of outdoor rings and good riding is a great place to keep a horse to ride when the 21st century comes crowding in.
When countywide agricultural associations were organized in 1886, the old frontier tradition of celebrating the harvest with a bragging rights party and some horseracing was already firmly rooted, from Carmichaels to Jefferson, Jacktown, Mt. Morris and Waynesburg. Part of the acreage where Waynesburg’s first official fairground once stood is the football field for Waynesburg University on the south side of town. The first “Agricultural Exhibition” was a late September affair that offered a midway lit by new fangled gaslights, new farm machinery to browse, ribbons for prize livestock and plenty of “handicraft of the ladies.” But its half-mile track and hefty purses were the big draw that attracted thousands, including gamblers, crooked gamesters and a good bit of drunken revelry. Throughout the “gay 90s” fair attendance was high but public disapproval of the rowdy nature of the midway and the racetrack would eventually lead to a genteel coup. When a new board was formed in 1902 it immediately voted to sell the land for subdivision and that was that. There would be no fairs in Waynesburg until the fair association reorganized in 1910, bought the 60-acre R. A. Sayers farm near Morrisville and got to work building the fairgrounds we have today. First order of business: build a half-mile racetrack with an underpass to the center of the track for parking. The first races were held on Oct 5-6 with $6000 in purse money for races that were cut short by rain. Now the race was on to build a real fairground. By December, a 2500 seat grandstand was finished and the Fourth of July 1911 was a day at the races that included a three-mile motorcycle heat between a seven horsepower twin cylinder Reading Standard and a four and a half horsepower single cylinder Arrow. The Reading Standard won and the era of the iron horse was here to stay.
But the love some people – especially kids – have for horses is still alive in the American psyche. For some lucky kids, this love transcends storybooks and plastic figurines and becomes real life brushing, feeding, loving and riding.
And thanks to our historic fairground, kids without pastures and barns of their own can board their animals here and ride in safety on R.A. Sayers old farm.
When I stopped by the fairground horse barn on March 1, I was there to meet Coleen Holmes, who drives from Pittsburgh to Waynesburg every weekend so her daughter Grace can spend time with her buckskin mare Sandy.
Two years ago Grace was a rebellious teen, bullied at school and acting out. Now she’s a happy 16 year old, ready to tell her story about life with a horse that has bonded with her, running without a lead line beside her in the ring, stopping when she stops, playing with the toys Grace leaves her when it’s time to say goodbye.
Grace is a member of Happy Hooves, Greene County’s new 4-H Horse and Pony Club that welcomes both horse owners and kids who love horses and want to learn more about them.
The day-to-day business of caring for these horses is shared by those who board here and work together like family. One end of the barn is ruled by the harness horses in perpetual training for races at the Meadows and elsewhere. Water hoses dangle over shower areas, tack lives in rooms between stalls, barn cats have their insulated boxes wedged beside benches and an Amish wagon waits for anyone in the 4-H club with an urge to learn to harness up and drive.
Kim McCannon retired from the Air Force and moved to Sycamore in 2017. But she’s happy to admit that her hours at the barn with her horse Gunny have made this place a second home. She bought the wagon, complete with a black bonnet, in Ohio and has picked up tack at auctions for a lending library of spare parts for kids just getting into horses. She and fellow boarder Renae Vrabel, are mentors for the club, helping newbies learn the ropes.
The McDonald family brought three of their 4-H horses to board at the fairgrounds when Happy Hooves got started. Mother Tracy is the leader and son Ian, 16 is president.
The club’s last meeting was held at the fairground’s 4-H building on March 6 at 6 p.m. Horse friendly games were played, snacks were eaten and plans were hatched for the coming summer of activities. But now with the restrictions in place for containing COVID-19, this new club, like the rest of the world, has had to find a new normal. All 4-H activities have been cancelled so Tracy took to the Internet to plan virtual activities for club members to keep up with their projects and play virtual horse friendly games. Members who board at the fairground still go there to feed, clean and exercise, as do other owners but the barn is now off limits to the public, Kim tells me. All plans of future improvements and repairs will have to wait as well.
So what’s next? As the world gears up to do what it takes to stop the spread of this virus, it’s comforting to know that the horses boarded at the fairground are being cared for and Happy Hooves club members are busy online learning and socializing. Like livestock owners everywhere, these 4-H kids and their families are on the frontlines, caring for their animals as well as themselves.
Those interested in becoming a Friend of the Fairground and planning for the future can contact Kim at kmccannon@ymail.com. For a limited time extensionhorses.org is offering free online courses to those affected by school closures and other disruptions due to COVID-19.