BELLE FOURCHE—Dawn Newland has taken on many roles in her life; a mom to four boys, a grandma to two boys, a rancher, a historian, an author, an artist, a survivor and this summer she will add a new title to her repertoire when she joins the Pony Express.
The Pony Express was first started in April 1860 to deliver mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. Riders would get mail across 1900 miles in ten days. Riders would average 75 to 100 miles per shift, changing horses approximately every ten miles at relay stations. It connected the United States from coast to coast, but sadly only lasted about 18 months.
The exact route of the Pony Express including the relay stations that were built in the 1800s are still there today and every summer the National Pony Express Association puts on a Pony Express Re-Ride that gathers around 750 riders to recreate the historic event. This year it will take place from June 11 to June 21 and start in California.
This summer Newland will be saddling up her black and white Friesian named Milo, strapping on the mochila or mailbag and carrying over 1000 letters to their destination. “I am in the Wyoming section and I’m going to be riding on the morning of the 18th and I’ll probably take a couple different legs of it,” explained Newland. “I live in the edge of Wyoming in Colony, so I’m a Wyoming resident. It was the closest one, it doesn’t come across South Dakota, it goes from Wyoming into Nebraska.”
Around 2007 Newland found herself in a situation that changed her outlook on life for good. “Many years ago I pretty much died and I’ve always been active, but I just said life is for living. Don’t sit around and be sick the rest of your life, I just refuse it,” she said. “Every year I do some weird thing that’s not normal and I saw somebody post something on the Pony Express.” After some research, Newland decided to jump head first into making it happen!
She immediately started getting her horse and herself in shape to handle the ride and keep up with the pace to get the mail where it needs to be in a timely manner. “So they told me, they tell everybody, to prepare to do six minute miles, that’s clipping right along,” said Newland. “But back in the day one horse and one rider went 15 miles, depending on where their relay stations were.”
To make sure the animals are well taken care of and kept healthy, they don’t push them as hard as they did back on the original trail. “But because we have vet checks and humane societies, nobody rides their horses that hard. My horse gets ridden, he’s a young ranch horse, but he’s a big horse and so I’ve been legging him up—just because I want to be able to keep the pace,” explained Newland.
With this in mind, if a horse or rider gets tired, alternate plans and riders are prepared if needed. “The head of the Wyoming Chapter said some people can only do one mile and keep the pace. It’s really important, we have deadlines and so we have to keep the pace. But he said if you can do two or three miles and your horse is in shape, it’s better for us,” Newland explained.
Newland and her horse Milo have a special connection. When she was recovering from her near death experience, she had a dream with all of her horses passing by and at the end was a black and white paint, but she didn’t have a black and white paint, or at least she thought! After she got home, she went out to check on her horses and there it was, a tiny little baby. “Out of the grass comes this little black and white thing and she’s like the size of a dog and immediately you can call it God, or you can call it what said—a miracle! …I named her Miracle,” shared Newland.
Miracle, after being told by the vet she wouldn’t survive, grew to be a big strong healthy horse and later gave birth to Milo, the horse that Newland is riding on the Pony Express! Milo is a big guy, standing 16.1 hands and he is five years old. Newland explained, “He’s huge and he’s very Friesian! Friesians don’t buck but they have a lot of forward movement and they’re kind of hard to contain…I’m legging him up and we’re putting in seven, eight miles a day at a long trot.”
Prior to her ride, Newland is heading to Douglas, WY to stay with a rancher that hosts riders and their horses. “It’ll be fun, I’m going over the day ahead to get my horse oriented, and then go look at the trail. I’m staying in Douglas because there’s a rancher that kind of hosts everyone. And so there’s several other riders staying there so I’ll get to meet some others,” she said.
It is common for spectators to line the trails and cheer for the riders as they pass by. The standard dress is a blue denim shirt with a yellow bandana so the rider is easy to spot. The ride is 24 hours a day and can be followed online at nationalponyexpress.org.
If you would like to participate by sending a letter to be carried in the mochila along the Pony Express route, you can! Newland explained, “So a really cool thing is that you can, for $10.00, buy a letter—it goes on at California and it gets sent to St. Joseph—where they end and then they put it in the regular mail and it gets stamped with the Pony Express, and then it comes to you!”
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