Cavallo – Proudly Canadian, family owned
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No-Mad Expedition: When the Conventional Road Isn’t the One Worth Taking
“Everyone Has the Right to Their Own Madness“
Imagine selling your home, your land, and almost everything that grounds you. Then pointing your horses toward the Atlantic Ocean and simply moving forward…
This is the extraordinary adventure of Croatia’s Nikola Borić and Zorana Vujatović, the couple behind No-Mad Expedition. After years spent building a remarkably self-sufficient life in the forests of Croatia’s Papuk mountain, free spirits Nikola and Zorana decided that even the home they loved had become something they were ready to leave behind. They sold the house, barns and five hectares of land. Zorana left her teaching career, and together they set out on a roughly 3,500-kilometre journey across Europe toward the Atlantic, with horses at the very heart of the adventure.
And they aren’t exactly travelling light. Their wonderfully unconventional expedition family has included two horses, dogs, cats, a sheep named Marica and even a few chickens! It’s a travelling household whose pace is determined as much by hooves, paws, grazing and water as it is by a line on a map.
This is definitely not a race to reach the ocean. It’s an experiment in freedom, simplicity and living deliberately: travelling slowly enough to know the land beneath them as they go, relying on their animals and one another, meeting strangers along the way and discovering just how little is really necessary when you exchange possessions for time, certainty for adventure, and trade a permanent address for the open road ahead.
When the Sky Falls: No-Mads’ Current Situation!
After setting out in May, the No-Mads are currently in Slovenia, and said hello to Fall weather last week:
“Rain doesn’t knock – it kicks the door in. This week the road turned to thick soup. I rode ahead cursing and laughing in the same breath. The gear took all of it without complaint. Our hoof boots kept the hooves dry while mud tried to force its way in from every side. The Pastern Wraps did their job too: stones and branches never reached the soft tissue above the hoof, right where the terrain punishes carelessness first.
Then comes the routine nobody loves but everyone respects: strip the gear, wipe it down, check every seam and buckle by headlamp, because gear that fails in the middle of nowhere isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a whole new category of disaster!
Once the camper’s heated up and there’s something hot to eat, everything feels bearable again. The Summer grass that looked like it had given up on life is starting to breathe. Soon the horses will finally graze the fresh green, without the dust that burns their nostrils. I cursed the rain, the mud, the cold, but the way you curse someone you care about deeply, whether you admit it out loud or not. Nothing that grows, grows without a little mud.”
Trek with the Nomads by Following Their Daily Posts:
World-Renowned Documentarian Ben Fogle Captured No-Mad Life Before the Adventure!
Ben Fogle is a British adventurer, author and television presenter who travels the world meeting people who have left conventional life behind to live on their own terms. His hit series Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild has captivated audiences in the UK and around the world.
Ben was so intrigued by Nikola’s extraordinary decision to abandon a successful international Olympic coaching career for a simple life in the Croatian wilderness that he travelled to meet him! In a fascinating 2020 episode of New Lives in the Wild, Ben visits Nikola’s remote woodland home near Papuk Nature Park, where he lived without electricity, running water or heating, surrounded by his beloved animals. It’s a wonderful glimpse into the man who would later embark on the No-Mad Expedition!
Watch Ben Fogle’s Unforgettable 4 Part Series:
“You need to spend a little bit of time with him to start to question whether he’s the sane one and we’re all the crazy folk. What are we doing, all clumped together in cities, working 9-5 in that hamster wheel, when we could be embracing a life like this?”
– Ben Fogle
Nikola on Partnership, Trust – and Who Walks the Journey Beside You
“People often see only what’s in front of the camera…
Two horses. A handful of animals who decided to trust humans. Two people who clearly lost their compass of common sense, who set off from Croatia to Portugal by the slowest possible means of transport! People see kilometres. They see landscapes. They see freedom. Maybe the occasional romantic post about sunrise and sunset. What you don’t see is often more important than anything that makes it into a photo or a video.
You don’t see every conversation that dragged on for hours. Every email. Every sleepless night spent wondering whether you’re crazy or just brave enough to try. You don’t see us listening to whether the animals are breathing normally at three in the morning, counting every euro. You don’t see the moment when everything you planned for falls apart, when something breaks, the water runs out, when you get soaked to the bone in the rain…
You also don’t see the people who, before any of this, said: “We believe in you.”
That’s why, for us, the word “partner” doesn’t mean what it means in advertising. A partner isn’t a logo stuck in the most visible spot. To us, a partner is someone who decided to be part of the story before they even knew how it began or how it will end. That’s an enormous difference.
Cavallo didn’t decide to support a marketing story, they decided that our two horses would walk safely, protected, and pain-free, kilometre by kilometre, day by day, country after country. They found their place in the story. In the memory. In the moment when someone will one day ask: “How is it even possible that two people with horses made it to the Atlantic?” And the answer won’t be “because they were brave.” It will be: “because enough people decided to believe in them while everyone else rolled their eyes…and the horses had the best possible hoof protection every kilometre of the way.
Cavallo, thank you for becoming part of something that can’t be measured in views, likes, or kilometres.
That’s the difference between a sponsor and a partner… Cavallo chose to be the latter.“
Wishing you many happy trails,
Carole Herder
President and Founder of Cavallo Horse & Rider Inc
Horses have always been my teachers.
Through them, I’ve learned that comfort changes everything—movement, trust, and the relationship we build together.
Cavallo was born from that understanding, and continues to grow from it.
