Central Florida thoroughbreds: a history of horses in the heart of Florida

Back inthe 1940s, when Florida was the Wild West of the East, a few hearty souls daredto think they might compete with the finest, blue-blooded racehorses and theirbreeders with their own stock raised among palm trees, sand and alligators.

Florida was the cracker cowboy state, and cowponies were expected.

But thescoffers failed to realize what the wealth of limestone, the power of warmsunshine year round and the cold, crystalline freshwater springs that are thegems of central Florida would mean to the raising of healthy, competitiveanimals.

When the first Thoroughbreds produced in Florida, admittedly small andscrappy, began to "outrun their pedigrees," the nation of Thoroughbred breedershad to take notice.

Join author Charlene R. Johnson as she details thefascinating equine history of central Florida.