The Pony Express was fantastic, wasn’t it? 400 horses, 120 riders, nearly two hundred stations and several hundred station keepers, water/ feed carters and the like, through hostile territory, alkali deserts, and high mountains, to get mail across the continental USA in TEN DAYS! Unheard of!

The mochila, that piece of leather with the big (locked) pockets, slipped over the express pony’s saddle.

  

It would leave San Francisco and be transferred from the saddle of one horse to another, across two thousand miles of the Old West, through to St. Jo, Missouri! (They went the reverse direction, too, of course!)

 

But it only lasted eighteen months, I hear you say! Yes, you’re right!

But now, it’s baaaaaccckkkkk…….

And it’s run every year, by a crazy bunch of historical horse nuts. There’s plenty of info here from the National Pony Express Association about the Pony Express, the trails, the stops, you name it, they’ve got it! There are even classroom lessons!

If you want to join them, they’re always mad keen to have more people get involved to keep ‘The Pony’, as they call it, alive!

And I rode in it a few years ago! Woo hoo!!!!!!

Who wants to do it next year?

 

I rode through _______________, the section of the trail in Utah where Aleksandra, my heroine in A Long Trail Rolling, has her most dangerous ride!

(Fill in the answer correctly to go into the draw for a digital copy of A Long Trail Rolling. Leave a comment with your answer below and you’ll be in the draw!)

I spoke for a keen group of Pony Express fans in Salt Lake City while I was over there for the ride and it was fantastic.

Not only was I one of the only ones on the ride in a helmet, I even wore a Go-Pro! I’ll have to do some editing and post it in my next blog post!

Here are some of the Mustangs I saw and photographed on my first trip over the trail!

Anyone recognize this photo? Hint, I took it… It’s in several places on this website!

It’s Clifton Flat, on the Utah portion of the trail. That little bit of trail you see there is probably the piece of trail that looks most like the original trail back in the day!

This is Patrick, the man who’s helped me so much with A Long Trail Rolling, and even written the Foreword. He’s a Past President of the National Pony Express Association and he and his family keep the history alive every year. He’s written several books about ‘the pony’ with Dr. Joe Hatch.

A Long Trail Rolling

The first in The Long Trails series of horsey historical fiction by Lizzi Tremayne

She didn’t expect to become a target… but she is one now….

Disguised as a Pony Express rider, Aleksandra is alone and fleeing through 1860s Utah, hoping to keep her father’s killer from discovering their family secret.

Xavier’s kept the world at arms-length since he ran from his troubles as heir of his Californio rancho family. It doesn’t take him long to discover his new rider-recruit is a girl—one he would like to let in close.

They finally start to let each other in, but the cards are stacking up against them in an ever-worsening situation. Can they learn to trust each other in time to escape the Indians on the warpath, evade the killer, and win through to safety?

Get it here!

With love from NZ, here’s a pic of me and my equine boys… one is no longer with us, but he lives on through his brother…

Thanks so much for coming by.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit at HorseAndVetBooks.com!

I made it for you!

XX

Lizzi Tremayne