Meet the Founder
Osvaldo Mella
Founder & Lead Guide
Born and raised in Puerto Natales, in Chilean Patagonia, Osvaldo has spent more than two decades on horseback. What began as a life shaped by horses and the countryside became a profession — and eventually, a way of sharing Patagonia with travellers from around the world.
He started young, first as a baqueano, learning the country from the saddle long before becoming a guide. During the off-seasons he lived in the United States, Canada and Australia, returning home each year with a broader perspective, but always to the same landscape that had shaped him from the beginning.
Years spent working behind expeditions taught him one thing:
The quality of a journey is defined by the decisions most guests never notice.
Those experiences led him to create Patagonia Horse Trips, where he could build every journey according to the standards he believed in. A farrier and a vet every month. No horse working more than once a month. Every saddle checked by hand, by him.
Today his work extends far beyond the saddle. He develops new routes, trains young horses, and refines every detail of the experience. He still guides selected departures each season.
He often says that excellence is never achieved all at once. It is built, season after season.

Patagonia Horse Trips
Small-group horseback journeys through Chilean Patagonia · Torres del Paine, Chile
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