Mary roberts world equestrian center
21 equines perish in barn fire
A barn in Reddick, on property owned by the Roberts family, owners of the World Equestrian Center, caught fire in the early morning hours of April 8 and 21 horses perished.
Marion County Fire Rescue was dispatched to the fire at the Roberts Quarter Horse Farm property at 3:58 p.m. after a 911 caller reported a barn on fire with horses trapped inside.
The 10,000 square foot, single story barn, at Northwest 118th Street Road, Reddick, was already fully ablaze by the time of MCFR’s arrival at 4:13 a.m.
The roof of the structure had collapsed, which contributed to the deaths of killing the horses inside. The fire was called under control at 5:13am. No injuries were reported to civilians or firefighters at the scene, MCFR noted.
Units from MCFR Lowell Station #11 were the first on the scene of the fire. Located at 12250 NW Gainesville Road, Reddick, the station is 3.1 miles away from the Roberts Quarter Horse Farm. The next-closest station is MCFR’s Golden Ocala Station #20, which is 7.4 miles away.
The Marion County Fire Marshal, the State of Florida Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are condu
On an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in February in north Central Florida, Sailor, a handsome Oldenburg in his prime, stands basking in air-conditioned bliss. Above his tightly braided mane, a ceiling fan rotates, circulating the air as he steps off his personal mattress onto the stable’s matted floor. Sailor, whose show name is MTM Waypoint, waits perfectly still while being groomed and tacked up by the loving hands of his rider Coventry Burke Berg, who sees him not just as an animal, but as an extension of herself and her athletic dreams.
Like the hundreds of other amateur and professional riders, along with thousands of horses, who have descended on Ocala’s World Equestrian Center for a 12-week series of hunter/jumper competitions, Berg has arrived at this moment by way of a lifelong love of riding.
“If you haven’t met a crazy horse person, you probably are the crazy horse person,” Berg jokes, repeating a widely accepted sentiment that horse people are nothing if not passionate about their sport and their animals. It’s a lifestyle, not a hobby, and one that is flourishing in the heart of Florida thanks to the creation of the World Equestrian Center, where passion an
It’s a warm spring Sunday in Florida. The towel racks are stacked with white waffle knits and Jack Johnson coos on the speakers. But the hotel’s kidney-shaped pool is completely empty and the bar is closed.
In the distance, faint neighs from the property’s more than 2,000 Wi-Fi–enabled, climate-controlled stables signal where the guests are gathered. Welcome to Florida horse country’s game changer, dubbed the World Equestrian Center (WEC). With 378 acres, it’s now the largest equine facility in the U.S.
For years, scrubby Marion County and Ocala—an hour north of Orlando and 90 minutes west of Daytona Beach—was the backward ranch-hand of Florida tourism: beachless, mouse-free, and lacking the cosmopolitan panache of South Florida.
But this sleepy Central Florida town has recently emerged as the country’s premier equestrian hub—over-taking (if just by sheer scope) its glitzier South Florida sibling Wellington. And unlike, say, Lexington, Kentucky, or Cheltenham in the U.K., Ocala’s show grounds are multidisciplinary—hunt and jump, dressage, or breed shows, they got it all.
Thank you to the National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) for featuring World Equestrian Center in the July 2020 issue of The Way To Go magazine.
A passion for horses has driven the Roberts family for more than 40 years. Mary Roberts introduced her family to horses early in life, and with her husband Larry, the family’s interest grew over time. “We rode in 4-H all the way up to showing at the All American Quarter Horse Congress,” noted Roby Roberts, Mary and Larry’s son.
21 of World Equestrian Center owners’ horses die in Reddick barn fire
REDDICK, Fla. – State fire rescue officials are investigating a barn fire which killed twenty-one horses belonging to the family who owns the World Equestrian Center.
The barn in Reddick, a small town 15 miles north of Ocala, caught fire just before 4 a.m. Tuesday, according to Marion County firefighters. The property belongs to Roby and Mary Roberts, the president and chairwoman of the company which owns the World Equestrian Center.
Sofia Roberts, the granddaughter of Roby and Mary, says she and people working at the barn were able to move more than 40 horses out of a nearby barn before the fire could hurt them. She wrote about the fire on her public Facebook page Wednesday morning.
“My horses are my family, and I can’t put into words how devastated my entire team is,” Roberts’ post said. “We dedicate our lives to these amazing animals, and for something so tragic to happen is so hard to comprehend.”
Firefighters arrived around 4:15 and took around an hour to put out the fire. They say the flames caused the roof to collapse in on the barn, and killed 21 horses inside.
A spokesperson for the World Eq