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The Fl peninsula - particularly from Tampa bay North - is actually a 
limestone plateau. There are more caves in FL than any other state - 
except KY. There are several areas in the state where the limestone has 
uplifted. This results to the long string of lakes in the center of the 
state forming the Kissimmie river basin which feeds the Everglades. In 
places near Ocala the limestone is only about 4 feet under the surface. 
The drillers hit limestone at about 20 feet at my place and water right 
after drilling though 10 to 15 feet of limestone at about 40 feet.

These limestone uplifts are also the cause of the large number of 
sinkholes in FL. The major uplift area is in West Centeral Eastward to 
Central FL, running North to South from Just north of Tampa bay to just 
North of Gainsville. One of the main spurs of this up lift is the 
"Brooksville Plateau" (or that's at least what the rangers call it) 
which is where many of the endurance riders in FL live. It runs just 
North of Tampa starting about 15 miles from the Gulf northward. In 
between the this uplift and the one in the center of the state is an 
area know as the "Green Swamp" which gets it name because the headwaters 
for all the rivers in the peninsula start here.

We are lucky to have many riding areas on this plateau and these areas 
do have hills. Some are steep in stretches - but most are not that 
steep. Many are a couple miles long. But what makes them unique is they 
are named "sand hills" for a reason. They are all sugar sand, some very 
deep sugar sand but all loose very fine sugar sand. It is no problem to 
ramp up the heart rate to 200 on these hills in a short sprint.

Most people that come to FL, that have not been here before, absolutely 
under estimate the toll these hills take on the horse. Because of the 
sand the finishing time for the Far Out Forest (Ocala NF) last year was 
probably about the same as that for the Tevis or OD - especially if 
there hasn't been much rain before the ride.

If you want to bring your horse down, I can show you a few hills that 
will very quickly bring your horse to its knees all within a few miles 
of my horse ;-) .

Not a good picture but you can see the limestone uplifts on the 
following map.

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/seg/topo/state2.pl?fl.jpg

Aren't you glad you asked?

Truman

Jonni wrote:

> Truman posted : >>>On all my conditioning rides I gallop the uphills and
> walk down the downhills to recover. Of course my horse is older and used to
> it. Sometimes at rides he will prefer to canter a hill over trotting it and
> normally he knows what he is doing so I let him make the decision.<<<
>
>
> Truman, WHERE did you find hills out on that sand bar you live on??? Isn't
> your base elevation about 100' ??? What'cya doing, running that horse up and
> down the court house stairs to condition him??? <wink>
>
> Jonni
>
>
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--

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems."

- Paul Erdos (1913-1996)




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