After a few uneventful work days, we loaded up the horses in the trailer and set off on the 20 minute drive to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, just off the beach north of Jupiter. We paid the $6.00 entrance fee, got a trail map and headed down to the equestrian area. There were quite a few cars parked there, but none with horse trailers, so it looked like we would be on our own. It was a beautiful day, unseasonably hot (better than unseasonably cold!), but there was a nice breeze coming from the beach that cooled it down a bit, still making it in the upper 70's. Trails (well, actually, roads) were very well marked, mostly sand and grass so the footing was excellent. Lots of long straight-aways for trots and canters, though Hubby's mare isn't too keen on cantering when the weather is this warm, but she has a fast trot that's about equal to my gelding's lope anyway. Extremely easy, level trails, so they did get a little boring after a while, though it's never too boring not to be enjoyable! Mostly widely spaced tall pines and scrub palms covering the terrain. Took the red perimeter trail, then weaved around a couple of the inner trails just to keep it interesting. Rode about 2 ½ hours or so before packing up and coming home. A beautiful day, just the kind of thing we were looking forward to here in Florida!
