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For many, Halloween 2021 came to a spooky, yet fun, end around the “witching” hour on October 30. However, at the Burning Bush Cowboy Church in Tarentum, the fun continued on Sunday afternoon at the Fall Festival.

The Rev. Alvie Walker, church pastor, said the church membership provided an opportunity for the church family and community members to come together and enjoy an afternoon of family fun.

The festival provided fun for all ages, including face painting, pumpkin bowling, pumpkin decorating, wagon rides and horse rides and good things to eat hotdogs, hamburgers and popcorn and cotton candy and all kinds of candy treats for the sweet tooth.

“The Fall Festival was a time for families to come together for an afternoon with friends and neighbors,” Walker said. “Everyone had a good time and it was good to be together. It was also an opportunity for the Burning Bush Cowboy Church to raise funds for our autism program in which we use the connection between kids and horses to enhance physical and emotional healing.”

Walker said equine therapy can help young people to grow in confidence, self-efficiency, communication, trust, perspective, social skills and impulse control.

Horses calm riders with autism and that allows them to focus, to think and accept training, he said.

“Riding horses encourages positive behavior,” Walker said. “It helps riders connect, to learn and it discourages negative behavior.”

Equine therapy also teaches the responsibility of handing a horse and the pride in that responsibility, Walker said.

The funds raised at the Fall Festival and also from the sales at the church’s Pumpkin Patch will be used to further the Burning Bush Cowboy Church’s equine autism program for all ages.

“Our plans are for a riding arena and a barn to stable the horses,” Walker said. “We will teach the care of horses in addition to riding them.”

Walker expressed appreciation for the interest in and support of the equine autism program and invites those who have a shared interest in or questions about the program to contact him at 334-372-9507.

The Burning Bush Cowboy Church is located at 4148 Country Road 3328 in Tarentum (off County Road 125 south of Brundidge.) Sunday services are at 10:30 a.m. Everyone is welcome.