Editing Pony Express (section)

==Horses==
[[File:Pony express crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Frank E. Webner, Pony Express rider c. 1861]]

At the west end of the Pony Express route in California, W.W. Finney purchased 100 head of short-coupled stock called "California horses", while A.B. Miller purchased another 200 native ponies in and around the Great Salt Lake Valley. The horses were ridden quickly between stations, a distance of {{convert|10-20|mi}}. They were then relieved, and a fresh horse was exchanged for the one that just arrived from its strenuous run.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

During his route of {{convert|80|to|100|mi}}, a Pony Express rider would change horses 8 to 10 times. The horses were ridden at a fast canter of around {{convert|10|to|15|mph}} and at times they were driven to full gallop at speeds up to {{convert|25|mph}}. Horses of the Pony Express were purchased in Missouri, Iowa, California, and some western U.S. territories.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The types of horses ridden by riders of the Pony Express included [[Morgan horse|Morgans]] and thoroughbreds, which were often used on the eastern end of the trail. [[Mustangs]] were often used on the western (more rugged) end of the mail route.<ref>
{{cite book
|last=Stong
|first=Phil
|title=Horses and Americans
|url=https://archive.org/details/horsesamericans00ston
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Frederick A. Stokes
|location=New York
|year=1939
}} A history of horses in America from the arrival of the Arab Plains horses sometime around 1600, through the colonial period, taking in the Revolutionary War, Western migration and Cowboys, the Pony Express, the Civil War, the U.S. Cavalry, thoroughbred racing, and so on through the early 1930s.</ref>