The mild “winter” is the best thing ever in Ocala. However, you pay for it with a brutal summer that begins in late April and doesn’t end until late November. Hay and grain prices are high, and for most sport horses, the grass isn’t enough nutrition and they will need good supplemental hay year round. Coastal is a vet’s best friend, many northern horses will get impaction colics as they don’t chew and digest the fine stems very well. (Local horses born & raised here can do just fine on coastal, but I won’t touch it with a ten foot pole… I stick with alfalfa and orchardgrass, or any good northern grass mix).
I’ve had two horses quit sweating their first summer here. Anhydrosis is very real and affects many horses here. I try to ride very early morning, and be done by 10am at the latest. Any poor sweaters start on OneAC, SweatAgain, or Perspire (whatever works for the individual) as soon as it gets above 80 consistently.
The good things: you can keep quite a few horses per acre here, comfortably, if you provide enough hay. I have 7 on 5 acres, and have had up to 10 here. I don’t have good grass, but I feed free-choice hay inside and out. We’re in sugar sand in the Rainbow Springs aquifer…there is no mud, and the worst rain storms will puddle about 2" in the yard and be dry in an hour, the drainage is excellent! My horses don’t stand around in wet mud making their feet soft. Our well water is terrific, like drinking bottled spring water straight from the tap. My horses absolutely drink more here at home than they do anywhere else. Troughs do get nasty very quick, so either dump them every day or throw a small chlorine pool tab in the big tanks to keep the algae at bay.
Other areas of Ocala, with the “gumbo clay”, do grow better grass…but they also flood every time it rains, and you’ll have “ponds” in your fields up to several feet deep that can take weeks to disappear in the summer. (There are STILL some areas that haven’t drained since the hurricane last September…!)
My area is not pond-friendly, which I really prefer as any open water source here is mosquito heaven. They are vicious, and mosquito-borne diseases are not rare (vaccinate 2x year for EEE, WEE, and West Nile).
Fencing here is also expensive, and it doesn’t last long (7 years on average). Wood deteriorates quickly (compared to, say KY) with the UV rays, humidity, and bugs.
There are several good vets and farriers here, but also a lot of questionable ones. Ask around for good references. Good ones aren’t cheap!
I propose this farm :D: