“Filipe I am going to ride out with you,” Renan Almeida said while I tacked up the mares in his ranch.
What was meant to be a one day ride, turned into a 3 day journey. It was so nice having someone by my side to talk to all day.  Having company on the road really made everything a little less painful and the days just flew by.
On our second day out we stopped at my clothing sponsor, Radade’s, ranch. Hosted by the company’s owner, Pedro, Mark, Renan and I were welcomed with a delicious barbecue. After eating way too much meat, Pedro drove me to his factory for a photo shoot using his products and later to the local high school for me to do a talk.

“These kids work during the day and go to school at night, it will be great for them to be motivated by your last journey,” Pedro said as we drove to the school.
I had a great time talking to the kids and after Pedro drove us back to his ranch where we spent the rest of the night drinking beers and singing Brazilian country songs.
The next day we said goodbye to Pedro and rode 43 kms to the city of Maringa.

The modern hub is the third largest city in the state of Paraná with a population of 385,753. I had always heard about how clean, organized and modern the southern states in Brazil were compared to the north. And I must say, after riding through Parana I have to agree! It is as if I have entered another country at times. There is very little garbage on the roads, the cities are built in a grid and buildings are modern and clean.
In Maringa we were welcomed by Rafael Tortolla, a local business man with a love for Team Roping.
“We have poultry farms all over Brazil and butcher 700 000 chickens per day,” Rafael told me while we chatted.
With a light drizzle falling, I fed Life and Doll out in the pasture while Renan held his horse outside the gate. When the girls finished, he brought the Palomino pony into the pasture. As soon as the horse was released he ran towards the mares in search of the feed they were eating seconds earlier. Doll lunged at him with her sharp teeth but missed the horse’s neck. Angry, the palomino quickly turned his body around and shot off both back legs like a canon. Caught in between Life and Doll, I tried to turn around and jump, but there was no time. The horse’s left hoof scraped my buttocks but the right caught me right on the outside of the my left thigh.

The impact was so strong, the kick threw me 3 metres away. Landing in the cold mud on my backside, I quickly jumped up and ran towards the fence in fear of being hit once again.
When I arrived on the fence line and realized the chaos had subdued, I almost dropped in pain. It felt as if someone was stabbing my thigh with a sharp knife. I couldn’t put any weight on it.
Covered in mud, limping and in intense pain, I said goodbye to Renan and thanked him for riding with me.