What's going on in Florida . . . .

The past few weeks here in Ocala have been busy around the farm. We arrived with the horses in the wee hours of the morning on October 26th. The first day we were here they all took turns laying in the sun in their fields, like vacationers at the beach. They were happy for the nice weather. After the long trip I gave them a week off to relax and acclimate while I went to work finishing up the many upgrades at the farm that Brian has worked on all summer.

This summer we put in several hundred feet of new post and rail fencing so that we have more turnout available for the horses. We also leveled an area in our back field and put in a riding ring. The footing for the ring arrived two weeks ago and is still not perfect, but it is well on its way. We cleared a path behind our pond through the woods so that we can walk and trot on a hacking path around our property. It is very pretty out behind the pond, so I am really enjoying this new improvement. The biggest project, however, has been to start work on a new ten stall barn. Right now I have a beautiful six stall barn, but we have room for more horses on the property than the smaller barn can accommodate. The new barn has been started, but we are having to build it one step at a time. We are trying to economize by doing as much of the work ourselves as we know how to do!

Here are some pictures of all of the activities here. The horses are back in work, but are getting to do fun things for a month. Monte is the only one who will compete this month. He will run his second preliminary horse trials next weekend.

-Ashley