pony express

American  

noun

1. a former system in the American West of carrying mail and express by relays of riders mounted on ponies, especially the system operating (1860–61) between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.

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pony express British  

noun

1. (in the American West) a system of mail transport that employed relays of riders and mounts, esp that operating from Missouri to California in 1860–61

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Pony Express Cultural  

1. A system of mail service by relays of riders on horses, established in 1860 between Missouri and California, through the Rocky Mountains. It operated for only a year and a half, until a telegraph line eliminated the need for it.

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Buffalo Bill (see also BuffaloBill) Cody and Wild Bill Hickok were Pony Express riders in their youth.

An early advertisement for Pony Express riders is well known: “Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”

Etymology

Origin of pony express

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

Stagecoach services, like the pony express, took days to traverse the gutted tracks across the wilderness that still separated America’s nascent cities.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 28, 2025

Why would anyone deliver a thumb drive by pony express or carrier pigeon when the internet was made for the purpose of quickly and easily delivering data electronically?

From Slate • Dec. 14, 2018

Filippini and other ranchers have sued, staged a "pony express" protest ride on horseback to Washington, D.C., and petitioned for Furtado's ouster.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 14, 2016

The country has no newspapers, and mail goes by pony express.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Yes, it would have been too bad if you had had your ride for nothing," the pony express lad said.

From Jack of the Pony Express by Webster, Frank V.