No one knew they were looking at a hero and his two horses. Instead the local press derided him as "a lunatic proposing to ride overland to New York."

The time was 1925. The place, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Standing on the threshold of equestrian travel history was a young Swiss Long Rider named Aimé Tschiffely. Next to him were his two faithful Criollo horses, Mancha and Gato. Their collective goal was to ride more than ten thousand miles from Buenos Aires to New York. No one had ever attempted such a journey. Everyone thought Tschiffely was mad.

Looking back on what would become the most famous equestrian journey of the modern age, it is difficult to believe that anyone doubted the abilities of the legendary Long Rider and his hardy horses. Yet the school teacher who became an equestrian explorer had been told he was too inexperienced, his horses too old, and the journey too difficult.

What Aimé Tschiffely was told was wrong.

This is the story of the greatest equestrian epic of the twentieth century, a journey that came about because a man and his horses refused to quit - ever! During the course of their travels Tschiffely, Mancha and Gato crossed deadly deserts, passed through jungles, traversed sky-high mountain passes - and rode on. They were assailed by vampire bats, mistaken for gods and navigated the Panama Canal - but rode on.

Ethel Tweedie - When this young equestrian traveller left London in 1888, she had not planned to forsake the sidesaddle favoured by other English women of her social class. Yet upon her arrival in Iceland, Ethel discovered that the local women rode astride like their male relations.
"Necessity gives courage in emergencies, so I determined to throw aside conventionality, and do in ‘Iceland as the Icelanders do.' The amusement of our party when I overtook them, and boldly trotted past, was intense; but I felt so comfortable in my altered seat that their derisive and chaffing remarks failed to disturb me. Riding man-fashion is less tiring than on a side-saddle, and I soon found it far more agreeable, especially when traversing rough ground. My success soon inspired Miss T. to summon up courage and follow my lead. Society is a hard task-master, yet for comfort and safety, I say ride like a man," Tweedie recalled. Upon her return to England, the Long Rider, turned social reformer, called for the abolishment of the sidesaddle for three reasons, safety, comfort and health. To read more about the issue of sidesaddles, view this story “Sidesaddles and Suffragettes.”

F. Bailey Vanderhoef Jr. - While attending Harvard University, Billy Vanderhoef and Wilbur L. Cummings discovered they shared a mutual desire to see the mysterious kingdom of Tibet. After graduation they set off in 1938 to ride from the Indian town of Kalimpong, over the Himalayan mountains, to the Tibetan city of Gyantse. Their mission was to observe the sacred Buddhist ceremonies held there during a sacred festival, the highlight of which was the unveiling of a massive religious painting.

Mounted aboard pacing Tibetan ponies, the Ivy League Long Riders underwent a series of adventures, met a procession of intriguing people and observed one of the world’s most unusual horse races.

In his journal, Vanderhoef recalled how the Tibetans gathered at the remote hill fort of Dzong to commemorate Genghis Khan’s mounted invasion of that town. At the break of dawn, a horde of Tibetan horsemen set off from the site of the Mongol’s camp, which lay five miles away. As the sun rose they raced across the stony plain, charged through a river and eventually came charging straight up the hill and into the town.

“What a sight they were in the full sunlight against the intense sky. We could almost imagine it was the same June sixteenth when Genghis Khan stormed the fort, for such was the splendor of the ancient custom of Tibet that had not changed since the centuries,” the young Long Rider wrote.

Upon reaching the Tibetan city of Gyantse, their efforts were rewarded. They not only observed the special religious festival, they also procured some of the first colour photographs of Tibet. In 2008, the many paintings, sculptures, photographs and journals they had collected were donated to Tibetan Collection at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The image shows a traditional Tibetan saddle.

Vonceil Viking - Few Long Riders ever attracted more spotlights than did the would-be movie star who called herself Vonceil Viking.

The year was 1927 when the attractive blonde announced to the press that she was going to ride her horse, “Broadway,” from New York to Los Angeles. Whereas other equestrian travellers have told reporters that they were setting out on horseback to find fame, fortune, love or just a job, Viking’s mission was to ride to Hollywood, where she hoped to become a movie star. Yet things were not as clear as they seemed. According to one newspaper story, the petite rider had been born in Oklahoma and raised on a ranch in New Mexico. She claimed her name, Vonceil, “is a Cherokee Indian word for of the sky.” Her surname, she admitted, was assumed.

Regardless of what they called her, Viking apparently had a different reason to make the ride, depending on which reporter she was talking to. If she made the journey in four months, she said, she would win a contract to appear in a movie.   But she told another reporter that she was making the ride, “so as to prove the hardiness and courage of today’s American girl.” Finally, there was a trace of the mercenary involved, as Vonceil also claimed she was making the ride as the result of a $25,000 wager she made with the Marquis of Donegal at a London dinner party.

While the motivation remained unclear, the fact that Viking received help from Fred Beebe instantly added a suspicious note to the beginning of the ride. Beebe was a well-known promoter who had recently staged the “World Series Rodeo” at Madison Square Gardens. According to the New York Times, “women screamed as cowboys and cowgirls were trampled by broncos” at the event. It was Beebe who provided an escort of mounted cowboys to escort Viking to her meeting with New York Mayor Jimmy Walker.

The inclusion of this well-known politician, who agreed to witness Vonceil’s departure, was ironic as in October, 1928 Walker welcomed Swiss Long Rider Aimé Tschiffely when that equestrian traveller concluded his legendary journey from Buenos Aires to New York. While Tschiffely’s journey is completely documented, Viking suddenly disappeared once she rode Broadway out of the Big Apple. The Guild has been unable to locate any newspaper accounts which might confirm Viking’s actual progress across the United States. Instead there are only two photos which claim to prove that she completed the ride.

According to a photo caption from the Los Angeles bureau of the Associated Press, Viking arrived in Los Angeles on February 10, 1928, after having “covered 4,000 miles in sixteen states.” A second photo claims she made the ride in 120 days. This would have required her to have averaged more than thirty miles a day. While this is not impossible, given the fact that the Abernathy Boys rode from New York to San Francisco in 62 days, it does stretch credulity to look at the photos showing a sleek horse and a radiant rider, neither of which seem to have encountered so much as a single dusty mile during the course of their transcontinental journey.

What is not in doubt is how the ride affected Vonceil’s plans to conquer Hollywood. Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, she was invited to open the new La Monica Ballroom. Then she got her big break.

She was invited to be the co-star in a low budget film entitled “The Fighting Forrester.” The second of twelve movies in the series, the films starred Edmund Cobb. No reviews apparently survive regarding Vonceil’s cinematic debut.

Sir Hanns Vischer (born in Basel, Switzerland in 1876, died 1945) was a Missionary, an official in the British Colonial service and African explorer.

Before Vischer obtained British citizenship, he was on his way to becoming a Missionary in Hausaland;  as a British citizen he could work for the Colonial Administrative Service and he developed an educational system which ensured that the local cultural specialities were included.  Following the success of this educational system in northern Nigeria, Vischer was knighted.

The Swiss-born Briton became famous for crossing the Sahara, from north to south, on horseback in 1906.  The journey started in Tripoli, Tunisia and ended at Lake Chad.  For this he had to get permission from England to be allowed to make the return journey to his post as administrator in Kukawa.  A second journey in the opposite direction was refused by his superior, W. P. Hewby.  He published the book about his journey in 1910, entitled Across the Sahara.