Aimé Tshiffely was Swiss by birth, but in the early part of the 20^th century, he lived in Buenos Aires, where he worked as a teacher. In April 1925, he set out with two Argentine criollo horses, Gato and Mancha, to ride ten thousand miles from Buenos Aires to New York.

Everyone told him he was quite mad. ‘I felt strongly tempted to quote to them saying, “Let fools laugh; wise men dare and win,” but a doubt assailed me as to which of us was really the fool, so I refrained,’ he wrote in his subsequent account of the journey, Tschiffely’s Ride.

It took Tschiffely, Gato and Mancha two and a half years to arrive at their destination. They travelled across mountain ranges and deserts, encountered tribesmen and ambassadors, passed through run-down villages and historic cities – whose finer establishments at first turned the schoolteacher away because he looked such a horrible mess.

Tschiffely was clearly no coward, but he credited the eventual success of his journey to the remarkable resilience of his horses. At they journey’s end, they travelled together back to Buenos Aires by ship, and then Gato and Mancha retired to a ranch on the pampas while Tschiffely himself travelled the globe lecturing and writing.

Then, in 1933, the man on whose land Gato and Mancha now lived received a letter. It was suggested to him that, such was the horses’ fame and popularity, the public might appreciate the opportunity to visit them even after their deaths. And so it was decided that, when eventually the horses expired, they would be stuffed and put on display.

They’re still there – in Luján’s transport museum. They look slightly out of sorts, surrounded by antique motor cars and predictably rigid in their glass case. But these, nonetheless, are the steeds that made one of the most celebrated rides in history. If you ring at the door market ‘biblioteca’, to the right of the museum’s entrance, you can even read through the telegram correspondence relating to the deaths and embalming of the horses in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as old letters and newspaper articles. They’re in Spanish, of course.

Getting there: Luján is 66 km west of Buenos Aires. Frequent buses leave from the city. The journey takes around two hours.

While you’re there: Luján is Argentina’s most important pilgrimage site, and it’s not because of the horses. Across the square from the Transport Museum, the glorious basilica is home to the extraordinarily tiny Virgin of Luján.

Further reading: Aimé Tschiffely’s wonderful account of his journey, Tschiffely's Ride, is one of the great equestrian epics. Tchiffely also wrote The Tale of Two Horses: A 10, 000 Mile Journey as Told by the Horses (Equestrian Travel Classics), a children’s story which relates the journey from Gato and Mancha’s point of view, and This Way Southward: The Account of a Journey Through Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego (Equestrian Travel Classics), in which Tschiffely returns to Argentina and drives a 30-horsepower Ford through the Andes and down into Tierra del Fuego.