Horseback riding is an adventure, usually associated with moments of extreme endurance and overcoming, as it challenges the limits of body, mind and spirit. But no one knows this better than the participants in the greatest horse ride of all time, this is the story of Aimê, Gato and Mancha.
A true odyssey full of emotion and overcoming. The greatest ride of all time.
On April 23, 1925, Swiss teacher Aimê Tschoffelly, then 29 years old, began the iconic and legendary 21,500 km ride from Buenos Aires to New York. It is still considered to be the greatest of all rides.
The search for the horses
Aimê approached the Crioulo horse breeder Don Emilio Solanet, as he was the owner of the El Cardal estancia, and asked for two horses. Don Emilio then made fifteen horses available to Aimê.
Gato, 15 years old, gateado, with a good palette, typical head, measuring 1.47m was the first to be chosen. Then there was Mancha, a classic type, a 14-year-old oveiro, with a withers of 1.50m, a heavy head, strong and muscular.
The start of the journey
Defying everyone’s disbelief, he set off. For three and a half years, the brave teacher and his two mounts faced everything imaginable, sometimes without anything to eat or water to drink.
They crossed the Andes, traversed swamps such as the Darien (a region of practically impenetrable forests on the narrow isthmus linking South and Central America), between Colombia and Panama, considered to be one of the wettest regions in the world.
The terrible desert territory of “Mata Caballos” between Peru and Ecuador with 160 km of scorching sands with temperatures of 52 degrees Celsius. The Ticlio gorge in Peru, at an altitude of over 4800m, with temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius to plus 40 degrees Celsius in a single day.
It is worth mentioning that Aimê rode a Uruguayan Paysandú Wool saddle pad with typical gaucho fur throughout the entire route, with which he made his bed, covering himself with a waterproof poncho, in the old country style, as they didn’t take a tent, which was too heavy at the time.
The biggest of the rides arrives in New York
On September 21, 1928, after a journey that lasted three years, four months and six days. Aimê, Mancha and Gato happily gardened on Fifth Avenue in New York. They were also welcomed by the President of the United States, Alvin Coolidge.
At the end of the ride, Mancha was approaching 18 and Gato 19. Not only did the inspector general of the US cavalry attest to their feat, but Colonel R.M. Browne said that Mancha was one of the best conformation horses he had ever seen.
The following day, the newspaper La Nacion reported the feat of Aimê, Mancha and Gato in Argentina. The greatest ride of all time had been completed.
“To be buried in Argentina, where I have my true friends.
This was Professor Aimê’s last wish, referring to Gato and Mancha.
His body rests in Argentina, more precisely at the El Cardal estancia in the pagos of Aycucho, province of B. Aires, where Gato and Mancha also rest.
These horses can be considered icons of the breed, they didn’t win any morphology or function exhibitions, but they accomplished an extraordinary feat that has not been equaled to this day. Gato died in 1944, aged 35, and Mancha in 1947, aged 37. Our respect and homage to them.
