For two years I had been scouting for the perfect ride in Brazil, and it’s safe to say it was well worth the wait! One week of riding in Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil. Diverse scenery and dramatic landscapes as far as the eye can see. Riding from Campo dos Padres and ending in Santa Bárbara. My favourite part of this ride was that from the first day of riding until the very end of the week, I kept hearing “Wow!”. This is when I knew this had been worth the wait! Our group consisted of eight brave riders from the USA, Italy and Germany. Thanks again for joining me on this adventure and being the pioneers of our Hooves Around Brazil ride.
Written by Stine
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From the moment we arrived, we were welcomed with warmth by our guide and host Felipe. He made sure we had everything we needed and that everyone felt at home. Our three other guides were a bit more timid, but what else can be expected when nine foreigners walk into your house and neither speaks the other’s language? After spending a few days together and getting used to each other, they quickly warmed up. As the girls invited them to sit down and have dinner with us in the evenings, they felt welcome and included. The entire team working with Felipe was an absolute pleasure to work with!
Junior, our chef, never seemed to have a filter or a bad mood and was always up for a silly joke — including my suggestion of bringing him to Argentina as my personal chef, which quickly evolved into us getting married and him living rent-free in Argentina… Junior made sure we always had food in our stomachs and cold beer in the fridge — the most important job on a horseback ride.
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Marciano and Eraldo rode with us the entire week and made sure our horses were tacked up every morning and that we were all comfortable in the saddles. They were incredibly quick to spot a sliding saddle or a pair of uneven stirrups. One was always in the front and the other in the back. They communicated with walkie-talkies, and sometimes you could hear them singing to each other, and sometimes they were laughing a little too much. Most likely laughing at the occasional guest mishap.
Eraldo opened up his house and invited us to stay one night while riding from one valley to another. He has only had his house for a year, and it’s safe to say he had a proper house-warming party!
Felipe is full of life and puts up with (almost) anything the guests ask for. He loves interacting with the guests and even went from understanding about 1% of what they were saying in English to 4.5% by the end of the week.
Felipe is very attentive to his horses, and if there is anything wrong he handles the situation immediately. He is knowledgeable about the area we are riding through and loves to share it with the guests.
We met up at Florianópolis Airport and drove two hours to our meeting point with Felipe and his team. Here we changed from the transfer to 4x4s to drive the last two hours up the mountain. As we started going up, the temperature dropped and we were surrounded by clouds and mist.
As we arrived at our accommodation for the next two nights, coffee was waiting for us and we had time to get to know each other. Dinner consisted of meat, potatoes, rice, salad and a vegetarian option. After dinner, Felipe brought out his guitar and played us some Brazilian chamamé and folklore.
Our first day of riding and meeting the horses was a relaxed day. We woke up and had a slow breakfast. Afterwards we walked out to meet the horses and headed out on a 4–5-hour circuit ride. We got to test out our horses and get a sneak peek at how well they handled the trails.
As we were having breakfast the clouds started to disappear and we got to see just how high up we were. We rode down to Cânion do Espraiado. As we arrived we were surrounded by the clouds, but as we started riding along the canyon it cleared up and we got the full view of the impressive canyon!
After two hours of riding, we jumped off our horses and took a break, walking a bit closer to the edge than what felt comfortable on horseback. While riding along the canyon you will see waterfalls all around, and on the way back we stopped by some natural pools.
Once we got back to our accommodation it was time for champagne to celebrate a successful first day. After lunch we had time to shower and listen to Felipe play the guitar with a glass of wine in hand.
We got ready to leave our accommodation and ride in the opposite direction from the day before. Even though we had ridden along the canyon all day prior, crossing the mountain and seeing the other side of the canyon was just as impressive. As we were riding the narrow mountain trails and crossing the hills, some sections were more complicated than others. To give our horses a break after walking uphill in the challenging and muddy terrain, our guides brought out cold beer — which made the wait much easier.
Our lunch spot was by the side of a river with the opportunity to swim. After lunch we continued our ride through the mountains and even spotted some buffalo on the way.
Our accommodation for the night was a rural gaucho house. No electricity and no internet. Possibly the best spot of the week! After some initial skepticism, the experience only improved as the fire started going in the barn and we all sat around it with wine. After some talk about lassoing we started a lasso demonstration and competition. Dinner consisted of meat and fish for the pescatarians.
Highlight of the night: a sky full of stars.
We rode out at 9 a.m. and rode to the highest point of Santa Catarina: Morro da Boa Vista, 1,830 m (6,000 ft). We rode back down from the mountain and found a herd of the neighbour’s horses. Included in the herd was a mare belonging to Felipe, and as they had tried to catch her before without luck, this was the perfect opportunity. The gauchos chased down the herd and lassoed the mare on the first try!
Lunch was spent by a river, and here a stray dog found us and followed us all the way until the very end of the ride, where a family at a pousada adopted her. After lunch we encountered a quick rain shower, but after five minutes it was over and we were once again surrounded by mystical mist. As we started riding down, the mist cleared and the sky turned blue.
Our accommodation for the night was a small pousada next to an impressive waterfall.
We started off the morning with clouds, but still in T-shirts, and as the morning went on the sun came through! We had to ride down the mountain and ended up in a small valley before starting the ride up the next mountain. Ten minutes before arriving at our lunch spot, the clouds got heavy and the rain started. This led to a canter down the gravel road to reach lunch a bit quicker. Here Junior was waiting for us with a BBQ and beer!
Our lunch spot was at a training center for horses. Here they train paleteada, sliding stops and lassoing. Felipe gave a demonstration of the sliding stop, as he competes in both lasso competitions and paleteada. After lunch we rode up the mountain, and just over the mountain lives Eraldo. He had opened up his house to all of us, and from the moment we arrived you felt at home.
We brought out the wine, beer and champagne, and Felipe started playing the guitar. This night was full of laughter and ended with a cap being gifted to Felipe from our guest, and Felipe returning the gesture by gifting his boina. A magical evening!
On the sixth day we changed six of the eight guest horses. It is rough terrain and long days for the horses, so for everyone to have the best experience, Felipe had planned to change the horses once we left Campo dos Padres and rode into Santa Bárbara. The only two horses that stayed with us the whole week were Felipe’s two purebred Criollo mares, which he uses for competitions. Absolutely incredible mares!
This was our longest day of riding: 6 hours and 40 minutes in the saddle, covering 31 kilometres (19 miles). The first hour of the ride was downhill, and the following two hours were straight uphill. Once we reached the top, it was smaller hills we needed to cross to get to our accommodation. Once we were at the top of the mountain, we were again riding in the fog and had to stay close to one another so as not to lose the group. As we rode further down it once again started to clear up and we could see the property.
At this pousada they host ayahuasca events in January and early March. It is a beautiful pousada with 20 rooms and the cutest common area right next to the stable. Here some of the girls found a guitar and hats and entertained us for the night. As one of the guests and Felipe had exchanged hats the night before, the girls had planned to turn our Brazilian guide and host, Felipe, into a yankee. He didn’t hesitate and showed up in jeans, a tank top and a button-up shirt.
The night was spent next to the fireplace chatting, laughing and sharing stories, and at some point — for reasons still unknown — a wood-cutting competition started.
On our last day of riding we only had a 4.5-hour ride ahead of us. The night before I had talked to our guides and we had made some changes to the day’s program. We rode out into a sunny and warm day. After an hour of riding we stopped by a river and had time to go for a swim, have a snack and a beer. We continued on horseback for another 1.5 hours, and here we reached our lunch spot where Junior, our chef, was waiting for us with a BBQ!
After some food, wine, beer and a quick siesta it was time to get back on our horses. Our last two hours of riding were our opportunity to canter a bit. The terrain was more wet and humid than usual, but we still managed to canter! We ended up at another canyon and took a break to take photos of the canyon and waterfall. From here Felipe pointed out where we had started on the first day — a mountaintop on the other side of the canyon. We had ridden 130 km (81 miles) all the way around, climbing and descending between 700–1,000 m (2,296–3,280 ft) a day.
Our accommodation for the night was a cute pousada with four cabins, all for us to share. The night included dinner and lots of good talks.
On our final day we had breakfast and got ready to get on the transfer back to the airport. From our accommodation to the airport it was a four-hour drive. We hugged goodbye to our incredible guides who had worked hard all week to make sure we were all well taken care of. Safe to say they did an amazing job!
If you have any questions about the ride, or if you want to book your saddle, don’t hesitate to send an email to stine@hoovesaroundtheworld.com
