Settling down in Florida
The facility here is mostly for trotters and pacers, horses who race in harness, so it has a very workmanlike atmosphere . Every morning early the trotters go out onto the race track and do their training. From about 6 am you can hear the sound of hooves on the hard packed sand as they past the barn.
Since I took 6 stalls I got an end room. These are rooms at the end of the barn aisle, which have an ensuite bathroom, other than that they are very basic. 4 walls, a roof, 2 windows, a door. No AC, but it is carpeted. Our other room is in the dormitories, which are a couple of buildings where instead of stalls they have rooms, exactly the same size as a stall! There are shared bathrooms and laundry facilities. There is a kitchen/restaurant/store at the end of the dormitory building. I scored the end room, and April is making do in the dormitory.
A few trips to Goodwill and Target and we got both rooms very liveable in..
As I took a number of stalls we get our own designated turnout paddock. It’s about 200 feet by 100 feet, mostly sand of course. The fencing is only about 3 ft high, so Halifax can’t go out there (he’d just laugh at a fence that small). But the 3 mares can go out together for a few hours and then the two geldings. It is quite a hike though, almost 1/4 of a mile from the barn. But it is a turnout and it’s all ours. There are turnouts even further down the road that ours so I won’t complain!
This south Florida sun is fierce, so we turn out in the early am and in the evening.
