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Published: February 7th 2015
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The one about spending time in Florida’s Horse Country
What gorgeous facility.
I have some concept of equestrian centers from my time at Kristine’s in Utah. The place where grand daughter Maggie takes lessons is wonderful and lovely. This place is fabuluous. 452 acres of green rolling land (Lake County, FL is known for it’s hills). There are fenced grazing pastures, open arenas, covered arenas (please note they are plural words), bed and breakfast type cabins for ordinary visitors. 42 full hook up RV sites for people like me to enjoy the facility, or for use at any of the 36 weekend events they have already scheduled for 2015. There are RV sites in the woods, RV sites attached to small barns and fenced pastures so you can camp with your horse. There’s a restaurant with bar, and gift shop (kind of weird stuff). There are 150 horses there now, 35 belong to the ‘farm.’ The rest are part time or full time boarders. This is where it really gets pretentious. There is a structure (Kristine, it reminds me of the stall/house arrangement at Epona) that at one end has either one or two apartments, them either one or
Costume
I love these old outfits, fond memories of clothes like this from my RTG wardrobe days. two bedrooms. At the other end is a double row of stalls. So, you horse owners in the north bring your training staff and horses here from Sleepy Hollow NY to spend the winter and train, just like the Rockefeller family does. OMG. These ‘houses’ also have corrals and pastures attached to them, a bathing stall, etc., etc., etc. I guess there were about 10 of these structures. 50 full time employees and a shit load of temporary specialized staff.
The property recently changed ownership. The previous owner still has the house on the hill with multiple barns and horses and cattle. I get the feeling that the new owners are a resort conglomerate that are expanding their holdings.
Now, why is this place a horse farm? When, in Utah, any place that has animals is a ranch and if it grows things it is a farm. In Florida, they are all farms. Silly.
Their specialty is horse drawn carriages and they give carriage driving lessons. They have hunter jumper horses and trainers and provide lessons for that as well. They have a museum of carriages that took me and some camping buddies over 2 hours to
see the whole thing. The couple who owned it – he was a Colorado and Florida Cattle Barron. I don’t know what the wife did other than buy and restore carriages. If I had to guess, I would say there were well over 200 carriages, all restored. There were pictures of the condition of the carriage when she bought it and thru the restoration process. There was clothing worn by grooms men as well as period clothes of the users of the carriages. I never knew there were so many different types of carriages! Of course we had to take a carriage ride. 5 of us got a 45 minute guided tour in a trap (I think) drawn by a matched pair of Percheron/thoroughbred mixed horses. After the ride, the driver told us our outing was their first. They were recently donated to the farm from Canada. 21 years old each, have been together forever, and it was time to let them enjoy their old age. Magnificent animals.
I never saw so many different varieties of horses in one place at the same time. Clydesdales, (Bud, Wiser, and Izzy), Percherons, Morgans, Lipizzans, Friesian, and mixtures of them all. Carriage
Mountain Family
this was beautiful enthusiasts board their horses there, store their carriages as well, and take their horses on the 17 miles of trails. Some of the shows are carriage events, and we saw agility courses. There are three different outdoor dressage fields, and a polo field. They even have several western rodeo shows! Have I convinced you this place is massive? I didn’t know where to look next – except down a lot to avoid the piles of manure.
Our campsites are at the top of one of the hills looking down onto several pastures, and most of the day we can see Izzy and her pasture mate, a 21 year old Poitou donkey, queen of the breeding program to bring this breed back from 44 remaining to now over 400. The Poitou is used in breeding to make very large mules (they pulled ammunition wagons in WWI). They have very long and shaggy coats that turn into dreadlock looking fur, and their ears are about a foot long. I have a picture, but it’s not that wonderful. Fascinating that her best friend is a Clydesdale. From my time on the ranch in Utah I have learned that horses need companionship, and
if they can’t see their friends they panic.
Moya is sitting on a beautiful brand new slab campsite with full hookup and a brand shiny new picnic table. There are 11 Loners on Wheels here. It’s a pretty laid back group. Yesterday we hung around, today was the museum and carriage ride, tomorrow some of us are going to the Flea Market at Marion, one of my favorites, and Sunday I leave. Club members Sally and Pat have taken me under their wing and I have been able to go out to lunch with them at a local restaurant in The Villages on a large lake.
Time to digress and tell you a funny story about Pat – with her permission, as many Loners read my blog and I don’t want to embarrass Pat too much. She made a conscious decision not to tow her car for this campout. She lives about 2.5 hours south, near Tampa, and knew Sally was bringing her car and she would have a ride. The morning she was leaving, her sister called to say her cousin was coming into town, and Pat would be expected to meet them for lunch on Friday.
Pat leaves her home and more than half way here she remembers that she forgot her car. SHE FORGOT TO HOOK HER TOWED CAR UP!. Now, in order for her to go meet her family in Orlando, she had to rent a car, thus our trip out to lunch before dropping her off at Enterprise. I think she is a little embarrassed about it and we sure have laughed at her expense, loudly and frequently.
Two of the girls attending, Barb and Sandy, are from Bergen County NJ. Barb lives now in West Palm Beach, Sandy lives in California. They reconnected at their 50
th High School reunion (sounds familiar) and just this past weekend they had a small event here in Florida (sounds familiar). They took me to the grocery store when I arrived, and it sure was good to talk Jersey and not worry about how my accent was coming out. What accent?
I have ridden my bicycle several times here, but it is a struggle. When I leave the campsite it is all downhill. Long, slow gentle, downhill. I can’t make it back up; I walked part of the way back this morning pushing the bike.
It must have cost over $1M to restore this thing - gold leaf paint, gold braid. Ugh.
Kat out
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Sally Hammond
non-member comment
Awsome!
fantastic pictures and great narrative! I'm the Sally mentioned above!