Ocala Florida–horse capital of the world

From Woodbine, Ga we drove on into Florida. We had been to Florida many years ago (once to Miami for a cruise and of course to Disney World with the kids) and so we thought we knew what to expect. However, as usual, we are finding the preconceived ideas tend to be wrong. I expected people and cars to be everywhere. And I found that if we stay on the interstates, that was pretty much true. But once off the interstate, Florida was a land of surprises.

We stayed in a very nice Escapees park in Bushnell. It was not too far from lots of interesting sights, and yet far enough to be quiet and peaceful. And of course lots of great Escapees!

High on the list of sights to see was Ocala and the horse farms. Ocala is considered to be the horse capital of the world. There are 300 different registered horse breeds throughout the world and all 300 are represented in Ocala. Ocala is located on a limestone ridge and therefore the water and grasses are all high in mineral content. Thus horses tend to be larger and stronger when raised in Ocala. And of course the mild temperatures are a plus as well.

We planned on three different tours. A Gypsy-Vanner horse farm, a Thoroughbred horse farm, and an event called a ‘trial’ for Eventing Horses.

The first tour was the Gypsy-Vanner horse farm. Several years ago while on an Icelandic Horse trail ride with my mom we saw these amazing horses running in a pasture. They were unique and very beautiful.

So I was really interested when I saw an ad for the Gypsy Gold Farm.

Dennis loved all animals as seen by two of his pets(an Irish

Wolfhound and a Lemur):

You can read Dennis’s fascinating story and learn more about Gypsy-Vanners at www.gypsygold.com

From there we drove over to the Florida Horse Park to watch trials  for 3 day eventing horses. An eventing horse competes in three events over the course of three days. There is dressage, stadium jumping, and cross country jumping. Both the stadium jumping and the cross country involve challenging jumps and a required time. This was a novice class and so the jumps were not too high – about 3 feet.

In cross country the horse must go at a very fast speed and jump some very interesting and challenging obstacles.

There were some very impressive horse trailers from all over the country. At least our truck fit right in and looked good!

The next day we went to see a Thoroughbred farm. Thoroughbred racing requires a very expensive and long process of breeding and training. The farm we visited was Chasin a Dream. It is a breeding farm and initial training. The horses are sold once they become yearlings and are ready to be taken to the track for more extensive training. Our tour included seeing a two day old foal (and getting to pet it), watching a ‘teasing’ (a process to find out if the mare is ready to mate), and some training on the track. It was all very interesting and nicely presented. For more information on this farm you can read www.chasinadream.com

This is a small working farm and so the tour is actually following along as activities are performed on the farm.

Here I am helping bring in the new foal and mother. All I had to do was let the mother stay close to the foal while the farm manager  pushed/carried the foal in to the barn.

Becoming accustomed to people is part of a foals early training. Here Lee is petting the foal while the manager holds the mother.

This is the teasing. A stallion is brought over and introduced to each mare to see how she reacts. This is a young mare who has never been bred. She was not too sure what she thought, but she wasn’t completely opposed to him. Later she decided she wasn’t too keen and she turned and broke the fence with a kick! 

Here the exercise boy is giving the horse a gentle run around the track.

And we left for a another beautiful drive through horse country: