The Northwood Farms Challenge was created to encourage and motivate horse owners and riders to get out with their horses in inclement weather – the first 12 weeks of winter, to be precise! Starting with about 50 friends and acquaintances, it has grown into an international event with over 1000 participants.
The challenge is simple and the only winner is you and your horse. 12 weeks, 40 hours, 30 rides. 1 horse. There is a Northwoods app that helps you log your time if you aren’t already using one.
While that may not sound challenging – it is when you have weather issues, bad footing and other wintertime problems like not being able to trailer to an indoor arena to ride.
Three Marchadors are in! All greys and all youngsters – 3 and 4 years old! Aria de los Cielos with Alessandra Deerinck, Gaia do Summerwind with Adrienne C. Scheck and Hawke do Summerwind with Lynn Kelley.
The group is very supportive and encouraging. Of course, we three have a decided advantage living in CA and AZ. We are not braving the snow, ice and frigid temperatures that some of the group is.
Look to join next year if you need some winter motivation!
Aria de los Cielos and owner/rider Alessandra Deerinck won the Death Valley Encounter on December 29, 2016.
Several Marchador horses and owners ride endurance and some have achieved great results, but this is the first WIN! First place! And they rode barefoot, even more impressive! Congratulations to Alessandra and Aria!
If you’d like to ride along with them, here is Alessandra’s diary of the ride.
Last week of 2016 diary by Alessandra Deerinck
Monday and Tuesday went like any other week, training horses in the morning and taking care of my family in the afternoon.
All the excitement began with Wednesday, with Aria and I going to the Death Valley Encounter. I was very happy to have Kathy with me and it got even better when Tuesday night Sonia Deerinck told me she had decided to join us.
Wednesday I woke up at five. Went to the barn early to work Misty and headed for Vivian Thwaits’s barn at seven forty five to work Skye Mama and Luca. John Thwaits was going to feed them lunch for me, so I could leave for the ride. At 10,30 Sonia and I met Kathy in Escondido and began our four and a half hours drive up to the desert.
The Mojave Desert is a magical place, I love going there to ride, but I honestly say I would not be able to live there, it is a very tough and rough natural environment. After the rain it becomes green, and one could think that the new vegetation is tender and fragile, but if you touch it you find how tough and thorny things are to be able to survive in the extreme desert weather.
One of my first times riding there, I accidentally touched a twig with one of my knees, making a four inch tear in my riding pants. Since then I have learned to respect all that surrounds me, and this time I brought it to the extreme when Aria and I climbed up the Slate Range. ….but now I am still talking about the trip!
…..Kathy with her truck and travel trailer followed me to Trona, and we arrived at base camp, at the Trona Country Club. We found a great spot for our camp, at the end of the row of trailers, and next to other riders who had put up big corrals for their horses, on the sandy ground. Sonia and Kathy helped me set up an electrified pen for Aria. It was the first time she would spend the night in Auchan enclosure, and I was very nervous about it, given her ability to get free from any kind of tack. Last week she got out of her endurance bridle without damaging it and calmly came to look for me in the tack room, since I had just left her in the cross ties, attached by the halter.
We watched Aria while setting up camp and she seemed to be fine, until she touched the wire and ran in a circle kicking up in the air, then she stopped and stretched her nose out, to test the wire one more time. She did not touch it again, instead she immediately settled and began eating her hay. Shortly after I took Aria to the vet check and was pleasantly surprised by how she approached every water trough when we were walking through camp and drank from it. She passed the check with As and a great attitude.
At seven I went to the ride meeting with Kathy, who was very curious about endurance and came to listen to our pre ride briefing. This was my first time at the Death Valley Encounter, but I rode many times in the Duck Rides, that are managed by Annie and Dave Nicholson. They do a fantastic job at organizing the rides, and I feel very safe when I am riding because it seems that Dave knows where each rider is during the whole time we are out on the trail. Several times while riding in the “middle of nothing” I would see his Jeep driving up to us and checking on how we were doing.
….going back to the ride meeting, all was pretty clear when we left the clubhouse. I was already looking forward to sleeping in a warm trailer, instead of the back of my SUV, as I normally do at endurance rides. It had been a very long day and I needed all the rest I could get to be ready to ride. Kathy, Sonia and I went to bed early.
I woke up at four to feed Aria her mash and make sure she was ok. The trail was on very difficult and rocky terrain with a severe climb and it was Aria’s second ride. A month earlier she had kicked to corral and caused a rough spot at her hairline on the left hind heels, I chose not to wear hoof boots because I knew it would have caused a sore, but I also did not know how. Ad the terrain was going to be. In hindsight I am happy about my decision, it made so I had to slow down and walk, even in certain parts where I could have gaited. It made so Aria learned to be an awesome teIl horse, in fact when we are on rough terrain she lowers her head and watches carefully every step.
….back to the morning, we saddled up after a great breakfast and had a moment of thrill, when Aria got spooked while Sonia was holding her near the trailer and took off with the saddle. Unfortunately she ran by a few of the poles of her corral and tore it apart. Aria did not go very far and walked up to our neighbors that were saddling their horses.
The ride started at seven, and I left camp following other riders, being passed by some and making our way to the mountain range. The terrain was not too bad until the climb began and I felt we were going up to what looked like the moon, only we were not on it.
The Panamint Valley is an amazing place and being there with my young horse was an incredible experience. I had no idea that we were in the lead, and rode Aria like we ride everyday in Daley Ranch, enjoying every second. I only have one problem with her, which is a great one to have…she is a very social horse and likes company. It is very difficult to go past any person or animal on our way. At home, we ride around the golf course at Reidy Creek, on a dirt trail, and Aria stops to go up to everyone that she meets.
At the vet check the vet announced to me that I was the first LD rider to come in, and I did not make anything of it, knowing that there was many riders and horses more experienced than us, and we were there only to have fun. That said and done, I have to be honest and say that in this ride I ended up passing a group of riders because we had a very different way to pace our horses, and I must have appeared very competitive because I wanted to pass them, but Aria did not want to do so. We went past them and kept our pace and they went their own pace, making for the best situation, instead of getting in an argument over it.
More riders passed us and I thought we were nit in the lead anymore. The downhill was fun, Aria being a Mangalarga Marchador, we cruised down very fast and smoothly. At the bottom of the hill we were passed by a very hot blooded and fit horse, who kept cantering and changing speed. I was dreading Aria’s reaction to that behavior, but she kept being her “cool” self. She did not want to pass the horse, even when the rider turned back and made a circle. Aria stopped and waited for them to ho ahead, while I was laughing at myself, because I allowed her to do so. We were at the last half mile and I dismounted and walked past the finish line, where Kathy was waiting for us. She was taking a video and stopped right before the vet announced me that Aria and I had just won our first ride.
Aria was not sweaty or dirty, and her feet looked just like normal, even after 30 miles of riding on one of the hardest trails in this region, as Annie told us this morning when we left yo hi home.
My Aria de Los Cielos, young, barefoot, Mangalarga Marchador mare was the first of her breed to win in an AERC ride.
I had to keep pinching myself to believe that this is what happened!
When I reached the camp, our corral was perfectly standing, clean and ready, the neighbors corral was just like mine and I felt that I had two angels (Kathy and Sonia) taking care of us.
We received a beautiful engraved plate as a winning award, went to sleep and traveled back home in the rain.
At 1,45 I was back to work, grooming Skye Mama and Luca after dropping off Aria at La Fleur Farms, where Rosalie and Misty welcomed us with a loud neigh, while we appeared at the gate.
Now that I have filled the screen of my phone with this very long story, I am ready to dream more….
My name is Alessandra Deerinck, I own and operate HH Sensing, a horse training and horsemanship instruction operation out of San Marcos, California.
Riding Rio de los Cielos
In 2010 I experienced what it is to ride a Mangalarga Marchador, and it has added to my professional life. Since then I have worked on bringing this breed of horses to attention anywhere I work and compete. Being accepted on the 2016 BOD of the USMMA is an honor, and I will do my best to cover the role of Secretary and to bring to life the MGM Ambassador Program.
I was not “born with horses”, in Milano, Italy. I “pulled” them in my life because I always felt drawn to them like a magnet is drawn to metal. I wanted to ride, since I was two, but my Dad asked me to wait until I was eleven. A few years later he also asked me to stop because he was concerned about the dangers of riding, but I could not obey him. Riding is my passion, and has become my job. At the age of sixteen, in order to keep riding I went to work at the racetrack, exercising horses before I went to school every morning. I also earned my license and rode and won in flat races. I value the time I spent at the racetrack as well as I am thankful to my parents for insisting I graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milano. During that time I followed the work of Dr. Bassignana, a racetrack Veterinarian and Professor at the school of Veterinary Medicine in Pisa, worked at different farms to assist in the foaling season and did student internships in small and large animal surgery. For the same doctor I illustrated with drawings and edited his book about lameness in horses.
Racing with Maglogarth 1991
I competed in flat races between 1980 and 1992, until an accident ended my racing career. In 1992 I also met Charles Deerinck, and we got married two years later. In 2005 I attempted to get a racehorse trainer license in the US, and started to exercise racehorses, but I had another major fall in which I broke my back for the third time. Too often jockeys risk their lives riding, because not much care is taken about the racehorse’s proper schooling. Since then, changing this very wrong conception became important to me, and I am very aware of how fortunate I am, being able to ride again and not having permanent consequences from my accidents. Of the many racehorses that left their influence in me, one is very special. His name was Maslogarth, an ordinary racehorse that, just for being a “good boy”, became the S Siro racetrack mascot, and earned himself lifetime room and board from this institution. Together we won and placed in several races, I was able to ride him bareback with a halter on the racetrack. On the ground, he walked at my side free of tack, even when we were between all the other horses. At that time I could not explain how I was able to work with him like that. It was spontaneous, and beautiful. Later in my life, when I met Carolyn Resnick, I understood a lot more of what I had experienced. Working with her inspired me to create HH Sensing, a new way relate to horses, based on liberty training, but rooted in the goals and nuances of classical dressage training, current horse behavioral sciences and my experience of forty years spent with horses. I have ridden in many different disciplines, trained many horses, and now, aside from being the mother of three children, I compete in any venue that is suitable for the horses I train. I believe in a comprehensive approach, and take care of any and every aspect of the horse, from managing their health and nurturing their mind, to trimming their hooves if barefoot, from training to competing if the owners would like to do so. The thrill of an endurance race is for me as exciting as teaching my horse to keep eyes and ears on me or to walk truly straight on a loose rein or to teach my skills to others.
Since the year 2009, first with Human to Horse, and now with HH Sensing, I have worked as a horsemanship clinician and horse trainer, between the US and Italy, my country of origin. I coded HH Sensing to be able to teach it online, and in traditional settings, like the clinics I have held annually for the last five years in Italy. I am a regular contributor in the training section for two different magazines, Il Mio Cavallo in Italy, and Elite Equestrian in Ocala Florida. In 2010 I translated, and got published in Italian, the book Naked Liberty, by Carolyn Resnick. Currently I am working on publishing it for her in an e-book form. During the same year I was invited to present at Cavalli a Milano, a worldwide equestrian trade show held in Italy. The same year, I presented my work at Equine Affaire in Pomona.
Clinic in Bergamo, Italy 2010Presenting at Cavalli a Milano 2010
2010 was also the year I first rode a Mangalarga Marchador. The reason this happened was because I was searching for a very smooth horse for a client, and in my quest I called Jacob and Theresa at Rancho de Los Cielos. My client bought a Mangalarga Marchador from another breeder, but they asked me to go back and work with their horses. Rio de los Cielos was the first horse I worked with at Rancho de Los Cielos. I will always remember the very first moment, the two of us in the arena, no restraints of any kind. We were both standing still. His big eyes were asking me to start moving. I was hesitating because I did not know him at all. As soon as I stepped out, he moved with me like my shadow, even following me when I leaped in the air. When I went from working on the ground to riding Rio, I realized the reason why we all fall in love with Mangalarga Marchadors. Rio was very light, attentive, relaxed; he moved effortlessly at each gait. He always seemed to be asking me what I wanted to do. More than anything else, he was easy. I felt like I was with a friend.
The same year I recommended another student of mine in Italy to buy a Mangalarga Marchador, and after exploring together the horses available in Europe, he bought a mare from Max de Vroet in France. I also connected with the AIAMM (the Italian association of MM breeders) and with Domingos Lollobrigida in Brazil, while I was studying about the breed to better my ability to train and portray it in my articles. I have published numerous articles about Mangalarga Marchadores, in Italian and English magazines, and still cannot feel I exhausted what I have to say about them, because my daily experience continuously adds subjects, and improves my knowledge.
Riding Allegria de Los Cielos in the Swallow Day Parade in San Juan Capistrano, with the attire we will use for the Rose Parade 2016
I have worked with most of Rancho de Los Cielos horses using my HH Sensing approach, and have ridden almost all of them, but Allegria de los Cielos is my favorite. I introduced her to endurance in 2012 and now I have her in training; together we are bound to go to the Tournament of Roses Parade for 2016, because we competed in endurance and we are part of the AERC Parade Riders.
In the past ten months, with Allegria, I won the title of Champion mare 2014 in Las Vegas, participated in rail shows, trail competitions, cowboy challenges, endurance LD rides and I am training for another endurance ride in October.
I own two mares, a TB 14 y/o named Downtown Rosalie, that has been with me since 2006, and Aria de Los Cielos, my own Mangalarga Marchador out of Rio de Los Cielos and 1681 Marengo de Tosana. Aria was born in 2012 and is ready to start her training in the fall. I put a lot of care in the upbringing of this horse, to set up the conditions for having a great relationship and look forward to the near future.
With Aria de Los Cielos at birth.With Aria de Los Cielos as a foal.Aria de los Cielos
he Northwood Farms Challenge was created to encourage and motivate horse owners and riders to get out with their horses in inclement weather – the first 12 weeks of winter, to be precise! Starting with about 50 friends and acquaintances, it has grown into an international event with over 1000 participants.
Aria de los Cielos and owner/rider Alessandra Deerinck won the Death Valley Encounter on December 29, 2016.
Several Marchador horses and owners ride endurance and some have achieved great results, but this is the first WIN! First place! And they rode barefoot, even more impressive! Congratulations to Alessandra and Aria!
