Pony Express mochila

Pony Express mochila exhibit

Mochila leather cover over saddle

Pony Express reenactment demonstrating the mochila

Pony Express "mochila" closeup. Each of the riders signed the bag as it moved through the states.

Statue of Pony Express rider on a mochila

A Pony Express mochila (Spanish,^[1] pronounced [mo-chee-lah], for "knapsack", "pack", "pouch") was a removable lightweight leather cover put over a horse saddle for carrying mail and was used by the Pony Express.^[2]

Riders of the Pony Express made quick exchanges to new fresh horses, usually within a few minutes, at each remount station on their route across the United States. The mochila was removed from the exhausted horse and swiftly placed over the saddle of the fresh waiting horse.^[2]

See also

• catcher pouch
• mail bag

References

1. mochila, Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, 22ª edición.
2. Pope, Nancy (December 2007). "Pony Express Mochila". Former Object of the Month. National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on November 17, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

Further reading

• Marlow, Susan (2013). Canyon of Danger. Kregel Publications. ISBN 978-0-8254-7980-9.
• Cushing, Marshall (1893). The Story of Our Post Office: The Greatest Government Department in all its Phases. Boston, Massachusetts: A. M. Thayer & Co – via Internet Archive.
• Melius, Louis (1917). The American postal service: history of the postal service from the earliest times. The American system described with full details of operation. Washington, D.C.: National Capital Press. Retrieved August 15, 2012 – via Internet Archive.
• Tucker, Mary (2012). Pony Express (ebook). Lorenz Educational Press. ISBN 978-0787786069.
• Van der Linde, Laurel (1993). The Pony Express. New York: New Discovery Books. ISBN 0027590569.
• Ridge, Martin (Autumn 1996). "Reflections on the Pony Express". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 46 (3). Montana Historical Society: 2–13.
• mochila in Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, volume III, page 392, Joan Corominas, Francke Verlag-Bern, 1954 ISBN 84-249-0066-9