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TRILBY - Susan and Daniel Long know togetherness like nobody else's business: They once worked as partners in the Tampa Police Department's narcotics vice division, spending their working hours together in a patrol car chasing some of the baddest guys in town.
But eventually romance overshadowed stakeouts and shady drug deals.
"Things changed one night over fondue dinner at the Melting Pot," recalls Susan of the first time Daniel asked her out on a date in 1983.
Now the couple share a more civilized, if not unusual passion: raising Andalusian horses from Spain.
Their 10-acre farm, with its dressage rings, paddocks, board fence and natural canopy of live oaks, sprawls in eastern Pasco County, in a scenic neighborhood they share with other horse lovers.
One neighbor raises Paso Finos.
Another owns Tennessee walkers. "We loved this area because of the rolling hills; they almost seem to wave, like hills in the North," says Daniel, who still works as a police sergeant for Tampa and commutes four days a week. "You'd be surprised at how many Tampa police officers live out here."
The Longs bought the property for $55,000 six years ago. Now, similar tracts in the area are going for $135,000, Daniel says. The couple built an eight-stall barn and very private courtyard-style home with a small, waterfall-style pool in the middle.
They looked at 89 model homes before choosing this particular home built by Palm Wood Builders of Spring Hill. Most rooms in their 2,200-square-foot house open to the pool and Jacuzzi, and in the cooler fall months, they leave all the glass doors open to coax in the breezes.
"This was our dream," Daniel says. "But the amount of work to reach it has been unimaginable."
First, the property didn't exactly look like it does now. The land was so dense with pines and oaks that after trying to clear a swath themselves one day, they gave up and hired someone to do it for them. "In the end we took out 7,000 trees," Susan says of the property, which is still lushly wooded. "I marked every one myself with a pink ribbon because I wanted it to look right."
Susan, a former race car stunt driver who owns Suzette's Pet Grooming in Dade City, has long maintained a passion for riding and showing horses. She became interested in Andalusians - a graceful Spanish breed known for its agility and natural cadence of gait - when chronic back pain prompted her to look for a more comfortable riding horse.
Andalusians, considered excellent for English riding sports and dressage, can also work cattle and handle long trail rides. There are only about 7,000 Andalusians in the United States, making them relatively unusual and exotic.
Bo Derek and Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the most well-known fans of the breed. The Longs actively breed and sell their purebred horses on their farm, classical Andalusians. They own eight horses at the moment, with one on the way, though their ambitions remain relatively modest. "We hope to sell a couple a year and not get too big," says Susan, whose Andalusians appear everywhere from horse shows to parades. "We'll be happy if we just break even."
On most days, Daniel rises at 3 a.m. to feed and water the animals and shovel stalls ("the guys always tease me about shoveling horse poop," he says). He's at work in Tampa by 5:50 a.m. and doesn't return home until 7:15 p.m.
"I'm usually asleep by 8:30," he says. On nights when he does stay up later, he's struck by the thick blackness of the country nights and the way the stars shine like jewels, undiluted by the glow of city lights.
Daniel, who served as an Army infantry pointman in Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart, says he can recall no darkness as absolute except for in Vietnam.
"Sometimes when there's nothing but moon and fog, it feels similar," he says. "It's really dark out here."
With their three children grown and raised, the horse-farm life beckoned the Longs from their waterfront home in Redington Shores. They designed their new house with one serious goal: to be user friendly as they age.
Daniel, 54, retires in three years from the Police Department. Susan, who suffered serious injuries, including a concussion in an August car accident, takes nothing for granted. All rooms except the master bedroom, kitchen/great room and Susan's office can be shut off to avoid having to walk far, not to mention high power bills.
The couple share the house with two dogs, a cat, Spike - a black-and-white stray who wandered up to Daniel when he stopped to help a stranded motorist - and a 30-year-old yellow nape parrot, Officer Oinker.
"You don't want to hear some of the stuff he says," jokes Susan of the extremely loquacious bird with a 400-word vocabulary. "Whatever you say, he'll repeat."
The bird even mimics a visitor's laughter and once ordered Susan to "pick up" her mess.
But the beautiful Andalusian horses are their "girls," and one, a gentle bay mare, Arianna, the first filly the Longs bred, has slowly become Daniel's favorite.
"Dan was not an animal person when I met him," Susan says with a laugh. "He used to wash his hands after petting the dogs - and now look at him."
On a fine fall afternoon, the breeze balmy, the Florida sunlight softening with the changing season, Arianna waits patiently for him in a back pasture. Daniel strokes her neck and mane and talks softly to her.
This is the life, say the former vice cops.
And it's still a little romantic.
For her birthday this year, Daniel gave Susan a fenced riding ring specially designed for guiding her Andalusians through their precise, balletlike dressage maneuvers.
For Valentine's Day, Susan gave Daniel a manure spreader.
"Of course," she quips, "I bought him one in red."
Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com