Jacksonville Equestrian Center

I love horses. I can't say I've always loved them, because I have distinct memories of building collages on our family's first computer of cheetahs (the only other animal that has been my "favorite"), but it is fair to say most people would be surprised by that fact. I am, and probably always will be, a horse girl. Luckily, Jacksonville has an equestrian center.

Taylor and I haven't had time to go see any of the big events at the Center, but we didn't have plans two weekends ago so we decided to go to the free 4H event. The Center is gorgeous! Large, well-kept facilities with indoor and outdoor show-rings,paddocks, stables and large open areas where you can park your trailer and ride off into the surrounding woods.

People who say horses are messy and smelly have probably only ever been to grungy ranches to take pony rides on dirty horses. I enjoyed every second of it.

The event was obviously put together to give kids an opportunity to practice a "show." The only people there were close family, things were lowly populated and very quiet, which was nice. The only issue is I am still gaining confidence to take pictures of people I don't know, so I didn't get the pictures I would have liked, but I did get some.

When we left we wandered around, since we were in a part of Jacksonville we'd never visited, and we literally followed our noses to a BBQ shack.

The service wasn't anything to brag about. Actually, we stood around for a few minutes wondering how things worked until the worker (and I assume owner) opened up the window and took our order. It was so worth it. The meat was delicious and tender and the sauce wasn't over-powering. Plus, the place is called JW's Best Butts BBQ. How can you not go back?