Arriving in Florida is always an adventure. Despite running laps between Lexington and Wellington this year, this was my first trip to Ocala, which of course means flying into Orlando.

Which of course meant that I was the only person on my flight and in the airport without Disney World on the brain.

Ocala and Lexington are locked in a fierce battle for bragging rights over which one really is the horse capital of the world. There are farms of every possible variety when you drive around this place, Paso Finos next to Niall Brennan's two-year-old operation, around the corner from the O'Connor Event Team. It seems to be never ending and steep on variety – more so in Lexington, but the volume in the bluegrass is astounding.

Who knows – bring on the Horse Census.

I went riding this morning with my friend Buck Davidson before heading over to driving land at Live Oak. This place is so beautiful, but like everywhere they have had more than their share of rain.

My rental car, which looks like an overgrown Tic Tac, threatened to not make it up a 1 degree incline on damp grass this morning. It was fiercely over exaggerating if you ask me.

After watching singles and ponies this morning and then going around some of the hazards with Chef d'Equipe Ed Young and Lizzy Staller, we are now watching the fours go. It is great to see some new names and faces here as well as most of the usual suspects.

We went bowling last night: Team O'Connor kindly adopted me as I am staying on the farm, and we beat a very tough Longwood Farm crew - Joanie 'Inconsistent' Morris wouldn't have been an essential team member...

More from the lovely land of Live Oak a bit later.