Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Ocala - Horse country

Ocala, situated in the center of Marion County, is one of the major horse-raising areas in the world. Horse breeding and training began here back in the 1940s, and today between 3500 and 5000 horses are born each year, which is about 10 percent of the nation's total.

Several famous horses have derived from the hills of Ocala, including Needles, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1956, and Affirmed, a Triple Crown winner in 1978. Gate Dancer, who won the 1984 Preakness, also came from Ocala.

There are approximately 1200 horse farms in the Ocala area.

11 comments:

Hilda said...

Very interesting information and a beautiful, rustic image!

Welcome to the City Daily Photo community! I hope you enjoy it here as much as I do. Happy photoblogging!

Lois said...

A beautiful picture! I love driving through this area. Welcome to CDP!

Jill said...

Beautiful scene. Welcome to CDP!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the City Daily Photo community!! Good luck!!

Lowell said...

Thanks to all of you for the nice comments and warm welcome. It's very much appreciated and I'm already enjoying my CDP experience immensely.

Judy said...

Beautiful! Welcome to CDP.

nanak said...

welcome to CDP :)

Lowell said...

Thank you Nanak. I checked out your blog and loved it; and bookmarked it. The photos are excellent - that's amazing you took those with a cell phone!

Best wishes to all the wonderful people who sent me a welcome!

Kcalpesh said...

Lovley place and great photo. Thumbs Up!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, some trees in fall colors
A very nice town indeed to live in, of course everywhere in Florida is beautiful
Thanks for taking your time to make this blog and to share your work
Christina

Anonymous said...

I never realized there were that many horse farms in Ocala, Wow!
Christina

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." — Henri Cartier-Bresson