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40 Years of HITS and Ocala Magazine
Horses in the Sun Celebrates Their 40th Year
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BY BRAD ROGERS
When Meegan Galloway looks back on her years as a competitor and trainer at HITS Florida Winter Circuit horse show, her memories take her to the very beginning, to HITS’s very first show in Ocala.
“Oh my gosh, it was a very small show,” said Galloway, owner/trainer of Eden Farm Hunter-Jumper Show Barn in Ocala. “And now, it’s just huge, with people coming from all over nationally, and now internationally, too. Now, it’s one of the biggest shows in the country.”
Yes, times have changed for HITS — a lot. This marks the 40th year that HITS, or Horse Shows in the Sun, has called Ocala its winter home. The prestigious equine event is again holding 12 weeks of shows through March. As usual, it will be a spectacular event that attracts tens of thousands of horse competitors and enthusiasts to the community, and that makes it a major economic driver for Ocala/Marion County. (Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no spectators are allowed to attend this year’s HITS.)
HITS founder and CEO Tom Struzzieri’s story is one of vision and doggedness. Struzzieri was born and raised in New York. In his youth, he was a competitive rider of hunters and jumpers. But, as he tells it, he realized he would never attain the level of success he sought as a rider. So, at 18, he bought a small farm, Rose View Stables, in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he trained hunter/jumpers. He also produced small, local horse shows, even some multi-day shows. Struzzieri was ready for a bigger chal-
lenge, and Florida provided him just the opportunity. At 21, he hitchhiked to Florida and ended up in Gainesville. That was where the first edition of HITS was staged. At those early HITS, Struzzieri did everything – drove the tractor to groom the rings, sold tickets, directed parking. After three years, however, he realized moving HITS to Ocala made sense. It was, after all, the Horse Capital of the World.
As Galloway recalled, the first couple HITS Ocala shows were small, held on the old Golden Hills Academy property on U.S. 27. But HITS grew steadily over the years, with Struzzieri ultimately buying the Golden Hills property from the Castro family.
“Mr. and Mrs. Castro were very kind to me,” he said with fondness.
In 2000, Struzzieri was approached by the Roberts family about selling the Golden Hills property. They were developing Golden Ocala and wanted his land, which adjoined theirs, so Struzzieri sold.
Jill Henselwood
He bought the Post Time Farm, further west on U.S. 27, a move that was in keeping with his overall corporate strategy of making HITS a national horse show brand where he either leased or owned show properties nationwide. HITS has shows and facilities in not only Ocala but California, Arizona, New York, Virginia and Illinois as well.
Today Post Time looks more like a small city than a horse farm. There are dozens of barns with thousands of stalls. There is row after row of RV’s and HITS has even built condominiums on the property. To make it all run — under Struzzieri ‘s ever-watchful eye — requires hundreds of employees and services that range from on-site eateries and veterinarians to feed suppliers and even a school for children who are either contestants or whose families are involved in HITS.
To get an idea of the size of HITS, and its popularity among the hunter/jumper crowd, Struzzieri said this year some 1,800 stalls are rented each week to serve the estimated 1,400-1,500 horses that will step into one of the HITS rings each week. A 2014 economic impact analysis commissioned by HITS found that every horse that showed at HITS resulted in 3.2 people attending the event.
“It (Post Time Farm) has worked out
well,” Struzzieri said. “It’s been a good place for business.”
So good, that HITS Ocala this year will award more than $4 million in prizes, including the prestigious Great American $1 million Grand Prix, which takes place on March 28.
As the event has evolved, so has the level of competition. Struzzieri said the level of competitors has steadily risen with the expansion of HITS’s classes and, of course, the prize money.
That has translated nicely into an ongoing economic boon for Ocala/Marion County. Struzzieri notes that many of his competitors have bought farms and homes here – he estimates about 100 farms. Beyond that, the 2014 economic impact analysis found that HITS is responsible for some $100 million being pumped into the local economy annually — thanks to expenditures on everything from feed and grain to lodging and dining.
Kevin Sheilley, CEO and president of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber and Economic Partnership, called HITS one of the community’s “economic drivers.”
“They’re a business that spends money throughout the community,” he said. “And they’re involved with the community.
“As a result, they’re an economic driver – with more than $100 million in economic impact. They put Ocala on the map for a lot of the equine community. They bring people to our community that would not otherwise come.”
Whatever affection the community feels toward HITS, the feeling is mutual for Struzzieri, who calls Ocala “my winter home now.”
“Ocala has been a great partner,” he said. “They’ve embraced us from the very beginning. They have welcomed my family. It’s a very special community. I run horses all over the country, and no place compares to Ocala. It’s the Horse Capital of the World, and it proves it. I have a warm place in my heart for Ocala.”
Struzzieri said what makes Ocala extra special is that his HITS clientele feels right at home here, regardless of where they have come from.
“It’s pretty special place for equestrians,” he said. “You can walk into any restaurant wearing boots and breeches and not look out of place. Horse people are everywhere and so our people fit right in.”
And while the Ocala business community and Struzzieri have mutual admiration for one another, the HITS founder’s accomplishments have not gone unnoticed by the broader national equine industry. In 2012, he received the John W. Galbreath Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship in the Equine Industry from the University of Louisville’s Equine Industry Program. The annual award recognizes an outstanding member of the equine community for exceptional achievements in business. Struzzieri was the first in the hunter/jumper discipline to receive the Galbreath Award.
Of course, part of what has made Ocala such a successful location for HITS is its Florida weather. As Galloway noted, in the winter, the horse community has few destinations
where its participants can go an find weather that is accommodating. So, in Galloway’s words, “they all come to Florida” – and Ocala.
“Part of what makes our equine industry here unique is having events like HITS,” Sheilley said.
So, after four decades of continuous growth and evolution, what does the next 10 years hold for Struzzieri and HITS?
“We will continue to evolve,” Struzzieri said. “Obviously it has changed every couple of years, and that’s what we will continue to do.”
Asked about what impact the new World Equestrian Center might have on HITS, he noted that HITS is sanctioned by the United States Equestrian Federation, which WEC is not. Moreover, he said putting on horse shows is what he does — and has been doing for a long time — and he will continue doing it.
“This is what I do for a living,” Struzzieri said. “I have hundreds of people who work for me and thousands of people around the country who depend on me. So, we’re going to keep doing what we do.”
“HITS is going to keep growing. … I’ve seen parents ride. I’ve seen their children ride. In many ways, we’re a big family.”
