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The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West
“Spellbinding…an unforgettable journey across the American West.” - Douglas Preston
For readers of Rinker Buck, Bill Bryson, and Larry McMurtry, The Last Ride of the Pony Express boldly illuminates America's mysterious and complex connection to the iconic Pony Express. With two horses, cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime.
The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West— the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance—akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow— and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.
Though the Pony Express has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, among the authors that have attempted to encapsulate it, none have ever ridden it themselves. While most scholars would look for answers inside a library, Will Grant looks for his between the ears of a horse. Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, all of whom traveled throughout the developing West, Will Grant returned to his he would ride the trail himself with his two horses, Chicken Fry and Badger, from one end to the other.
Will Grant captures the spirit of the West in a way that few writers have. Along with rich encounters with the ranchers, farmers, historians, and businessmen who populate the trail, his exploits on horseback offer an intimate portrait of how the West has evolved from the rough and tumble 19th century to the present, and it’s written with such intimacy that you’ll feel as though you’re riding right alongside of him. The result is an extraordinary portrait of the treacherous and, at times, thrilling landscape of the known and unknown American West, and the people who populate it.
The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.
For readers of Rinker Buck, Bill Bryson, and Larry McMurtry, The Last Ride of the Pony Express boldly illuminates America's mysterious and complex connection to the iconic Pony Express. With two horses, cowboy and journalist Will Grant takes us on an epic and authentic horseback journey into the modern West on an adventure of a lifetime.
The Pony Express was a fast-horse frontier mail service that spanned the American West— the high, dry, and undeniably lonesome part of North America. While in operation during the 1860s, it carried letter mail on a blistering ten-day schedule between Missouri and San Francisco, running through a vast and mostly uninhabited wilderness. It covered a massive distance—akin to running horses between Madrid and Moscow— and to this day, the Pony Express is irrefutably the greatest display of American horsemanship to ever color the pages of a history book.
Though the Pony Express has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, among the authors that have attempted to encapsulate it, none have ever ridden it themselves. While most scholars would look for answers inside a library, Will Grant looks for his between the ears of a horse. Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, all of whom traveled throughout the developing West, Will Grant returned to his he would ride the trail himself with his two horses, Chicken Fry and Badger, from one end to the other.
Will Grant captures the spirit of the West in a way that few writers have. Along with rich encounters with the ranchers, farmers, historians, and businessmen who populate the trail, his exploits on horseback offer an intimate portrait of how the West has evolved from the rough and tumble 19th century to the present, and it’s written with such intimacy that you’ll feel as though you’re riding right alongside of him. The result is an extraordinary portrait of the treacherous and, at times, thrilling landscape of the known and unknown American West, and the people who populate it.
The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2023
147 people are currently reading
1501 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 175 reviews
May 30, 2024
School’s out for the summer! Today was my last day for the school year and now I’m free. My family dreams of road trips, and, even though this summer we are actually taking a short one, we are usually arm chair travelers. Once the calendar reads June, I crave books set in the American west. There is something about the warm summer months that lends itself to the mythology of the region. I will always jump to read travelogues and summer road trip books, bonus if they transverse America’s highways. More than the west itself, one event in history speaks to the mythology of the region, and that is the Pony Express. The service existed, but many of the facts surrounding it are shrouded in fiction. Horseman and journalist Will Grant decided to recreate the pony express route. He would travel the entire route once used by the mail service. Will Grant would create his own modern myth.
Will Grant has worked with horses his entire life and even rode with the Mongols in Kyrgyzstan. Although he would find out on this trip that being a rancher is a noble life, Grant craved a steady income and attended graduate school in Montana. Early in his journalistic career, he submitted stories for various magazines, but he craved adventure and a life changing story that would lead to books and events that would define his career. Grant considers himself knowledgeable about horses, having studied under Roy Brainerd on ranches and cattle drives throughout the west. He is a son of the west and is a product of the collective oral stories passed down that told how the west was won. Some of the hardest working people and animals who created the modern west were the riders of the pony express and their horses. For eighteen grueling months in 1860-1861, riders saddled up for eight hours at a time on a route between St Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California to deliver the mail to all points in between. During the Civil War at a time when native Americans still ruled the west, the route was not without dangers, yet riders traveled in rain, wind, sleet, hail, and all conditions in between. As dangerous as a modern version of this route appeared, Grant desired to channel the pathos of the west and recreate it. Will Grant sought out to be the last rider of the pony express.
Along with his trusty horses Chicken Fry and Badger and forty pounds of supplies, Grant set off from St Joseph, Missouri on May 5, 2019. One thing Grant had that the original riders did not was a police escort to cross the river. Because this team was to travel 2,000 miles rather than eight hours, Grant aimed to make it to California in 100 days, traveling 25 miles per day. The trip would take 142 days so as not to wear out the horses and what trusty horses they were. Grant ran into storms in Nebraska and camped in barns and farms, sometimes for days at a time. In each state along the way, he was taken in by the hospitality of strangers and heard stories of the ranching and farming life from westerners who make up the fabric of the United States. In Nebraska, he even helped birth a calf, something the original riders probably did not have to do. Along the way he viewed breathtaking scenery including the Sand Hills in Nebraska, western mountain ranges in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, and night skies that went on for miles in Nevada. He saw native mustang, coyotes, rattle snakes, and crossed paths with wild stallions. All of the people he encountered wished they could take a ride like this, but most farmers could not leave their farms, especially the family outlets. There are too just too many chores to do on the range to even envision riding for a week, much less four months. As a result Grant always had a place to stay, provided by countless ranchers who would have loved to ride along the pony express route.
The original pony express supposedly only needed ten days to travel from Missouri to California. Every eight hours, riders and horses got switched out to preserve legs. Grant calculates that the operation used 1800 horses in just eighteen months of service. It was not feasible to continue, what with the threat of being buried in snow in the Sierra Nevada, rains in the Great Plains, endless desert in Nevada, skirmishes with native Americans, and running into the Oregon trail ruts in the Rockies. Once the transcontinental railroad was completed, a mail delivery service by horse and mule became obsolete. A train could deliver the mail to stations much quicker than a horse rider, allowing for people to complete transactions with others on the opposite end of the country in as little time as necessary. By 1882, Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier to be closed. Grant found the essence of the west on his trip, and, judging from the breathtaking scenery he describes, I would not view the west closed. Land west of the continental divide is expansive and stretches for miles. People still choose to ranch in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nevada. These people are happy with a minimalist existence if it means being home on the range, something that Grant discovered at more than one point on his journey. Being able to travel for 2,000 miles by horse, there is enough land and water in the west, and in sparsely populated areas, the frontier is hardly closed. One hundred forty years after Turner’s statement, the west is as expansive and dangerous as ever.
Grant arrived in Sacramento on September 21, 2019. His two horses thrived on the journey and neither sustained little more a scratch. As one who loves animals, the fact that Chicken Fry and Badger lived happily ever after had me breath a sigh of relief. Grant lives on a large farmstead in New Mexico. He still works with horses and writes. These experiences recreating the pony express route comprise his first book. It is obvious that he is a western storyteller who can tell a good yarn at a campfire. All these adventures as a horseman should enable Grant to enjoy a long writing career. At the moment he still regales visitors about his journey recreating the pony express route and finding himself becoming one with the American west. A chock full of tidbits of information about the history of the route and the people who now live on it, Grant’s journey comes to life on these pages. As my season of summer road-trip reading is just getting started, what fun to rediscover the pony express route. While I have never experienced mail delivery from a horse rider, what a breathtaking experience it must have been.
4 stars
Will Grant has worked with horses his entire life and even rode with the Mongols in Kyrgyzstan. Although he would find out on this trip that being a rancher is a noble life, Grant craved a steady income and attended graduate school in Montana. Early in his journalistic career, he submitted stories for various magazines, but he craved adventure and a life changing story that would lead to books and events that would define his career. Grant considers himself knowledgeable about horses, having studied under Roy Brainerd on ranches and cattle drives throughout the west. He is a son of the west and is a product of the collective oral stories passed down that told how the west was won. Some of the hardest working people and animals who created the modern west were the riders of the pony express and their horses. For eighteen grueling months in 1860-1861, riders saddled up for eight hours at a time on a route between St Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California to deliver the mail to all points in between. During the Civil War at a time when native Americans still ruled the west, the route was not without dangers, yet riders traveled in rain, wind, sleet, hail, and all conditions in between. As dangerous as a modern version of this route appeared, Grant desired to channel the pathos of the west and recreate it. Will Grant sought out to be the last rider of the pony express.
Along with his trusty horses Chicken Fry and Badger and forty pounds of supplies, Grant set off from St Joseph, Missouri on May 5, 2019. One thing Grant had that the original riders did not was a police escort to cross the river. Because this team was to travel 2,000 miles rather than eight hours, Grant aimed to make it to California in 100 days, traveling 25 miles per day. The trip would take 142 days so as not to wear out the horses and what trusty horses they were. Grant ran into storms in Nebraska and camped in barns and farms, sometimes for days at a time. In each state along the way, he was taken in by the hospitality of strangers and heard stories of the ranching and farming life from westerners who make up the fabric of the United States. In Nebraska, he even helped birth a calf, something the original riders probably did not have to do. Along the way he viewed breathtaking scenery including the Sand Hills in Nebraska, western mountain ranges in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, and night skies that went on for miles in Nevada. He saw native mustang, coyotes, rattle snakes, and crossed paths with wild stallions. All of the people he encountered wished they could take a ride like this, but most farmers could not leave their farms, especially the family outlets. There are too just too many chores to do on the range to even envision riding for a week, much less four months. As a result Grant always had a place to stay, provided by countless ranchers who would have loved to ride along the pony express route.
The original pony express supposedly only needed ten days to travel from Missouri to California. Every eight hours, riders and horses got switched out to preserve legs. Grant calculates that the operation used 1800 horses in just eighteen months of service. It was not feasible to continue, what with the threat of being buried in snow in the Sierra Nevada, rains in the Great Plains, endless desert in Nevada, skirmishes with native Americans, and running into the Oregon trail ruts in the Rockies. Once the transcontinental railroad was completed, a mail delivery service by horse and mule became obsolete. A train could deliver the mail to stations much quicker than a horse rider, allowing for people to complete transactions with others on the opposite end of the country in as little time as necessary. By 1882, Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier to be closed. Grant found the essence of the west on his trip, and, judging from the breathtaking scenery he describes, I would not view the west closed. Land west of the continental divide is expansive and stretches for miles. People still choose to ranch in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nevada. These people are happy with a minimalist existence if it means being home on the range, something that Grant discovered at more than one point on his journey. Being able to travel for 2,000 miles by horse, there is enough land and water in the west, and in sparsely populated areas, the frontier is hardly closed. One hundred forty years after Turner’s statement, the west is as expansive and dangerous as ever.
Grant arrived in Sacramento on September 21, 2019. His two horses thrived on the journey and neither sustained little more a scratch. As one who loves animals, the fact that Chicken Fry and Badger lived happily ever after had me breath a sigh of relief. Grant lives on a large farmstead in New Mexico. He still works with horses and writes. These experiences recreating the pony express route comprise his first book. It is obvious that he is a western storyteller who can tell a good yarn at a campfire. All these adventures as a horseman should enable Grant to enjoy a long writing career. At the moment he still regales visitors about his journey recreating the pony express route and finding himself becoming one with the American west. A chock full of tidbits of information about the history of the route and the people who now live on it, Grant’s journey comes to life on these pages. As my season of summer road-trip reading is just getting started, what fun to rediscover the pony express route. While I have never experienced mail delivery from a horse rider, what a breathtaking experience it must have been.
4 stars
July 11, 2023
Subtitle: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West
Journalist (and cowboy) Will Grant states that he is a product of the USA West. Raised on a ranch just south of Denver, Colorado, he began riding horses when just a toddler. On a horse is where he wanted to be … always. But he also went to journalism school and began writing articles related to horses for various magazines. One fateful December, a magazine editor asked him what he knew about the Pony Express. “Fast horses and young men, I told him. He encouraged me to look further. So I did.”
I think most of us (or at least most residents of the USA) have heard of the Pony Express – a fast-paced horseback ride to carry the mail in the era before railroads had been completed linking the East and the West coasts. Grant decided to ride the same trail from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California (or as close an approximation of it as he could do in modern day) to better understand the challenges and joys encountered by the pony express riders.
While those Western heroes of the 19th century made the nearly 2,000-mile journey in an extremely fast-paced ten days (!), Grant wasn’t trying to set any speed records. He took his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry, on a walk; they took 142 days to cover the trail. He fills this memoir with his thoughts on the current-day West, sketches of the many people he met along the way, encounters with wildlife, distressing signs of human littering, expansive vistas, the extremes of weather, and much history of the 1860s American West.
I was completely fascinated by his account. And I learned a few things about the history … and myth … of the Pony Express.
The book includes some wonderful photographs of Grant and his horses on the journey.
Journalist (and cowboy) Will Grant states that he is a product of the USA West. Raised on a ranch just south of Denver, Colorado, he began riding horses when just a toddler. On a horse is where he wanted to be … always. But he also went to journalism school and began writing articles related to horses for various magazines. One fateful December, a magazine editor asked him what he knew about the Pony Express. “Fast horses and young men, I told him. He encouraged me to look further. So I did.”
I think most of us (or at least most residents of the USA) have heard of the Pony Express – a fast-paced horseback ride to carry the mail in the era before railroads had been completed linking the East and the West coasts. Grant decided to ride the same trail from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California (or as close an approximation of it as he could do in modern day) to better understand the challenges and joys encountered by the pony express riders.
While those Western heroes of the 19th century made the nearly 2,000-mile journey in an extremely fast-paced ten days (!), Grant wasn’t trying to set any speed records. He took his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry, on a walk; they took 142 days to cover the trail. He fills this memoir with his thoughts on the current-day West, sketches of the many people he met along the way, encounters with wildlife, distressing signs of human littering, expansive vistas, the extremes of weather, and much history of the 1860s American West.
I was completely fascinated by his account. And I learned a few things about the history … and myth … of the Pony Express.
The book includes some wonderful photographs of Grant and his horses on the journey.
July 11, 2023
I expected to like this book better than I did. I had read The Ride of Her Life awhile back. It was an epic story of one woman, a horse and a dog as they traveled from the North East to California. I loved that book. I thought this book would be something like that.
Instead, Mr. Grant left out the very details that would have made the story compelling. Instead of engaging the reader as if the reader was immersed in this epic journey with the author, he related historical facts that seemed to have no bearing on furthering the storyline. At every place he stopped, the story would morph into some sort of history of that area, the ancestors of the people he met or some other odd, disjointed tale for several paragraphs. Then, all of a sudden, with no real transition, the next paragraph would start with him leaving that area. There was no poetic talk of his love for his horses. Not much about his struggles or triumphs. Just ride, meet people, tell their stories, and odd historical facts about their people. Move on. I found it disappointing. It is readable but not remarkable.
Instead, Mr. Grant left out the very details that would have made the story compelling. Instead of engaging the reader as if the reader was immersed in this epic journey with the author, he related historical facts that seemed to have no bearing on furthering the storyline. At every place he stopped, the story would morph into some sort of history of that area, the ancestors of the people he met or some other odd, disjointed tale for several paragraphs. Then, all of a sudden, with no real transition, the next paragraph would start with him leaving that area. There was no poetic talk of his love for his horses. Not much about his struggles or triumphs. Just ride, meet people, tell their stories, and odd historical facts about their people. Move on. I found it disappointing. It is readable but not remarkable.
July 29, 2023
A well-told trail story. And interesting insights into America’s iconic Pony Express. Good horsemanship with glimpses of the wild Mustangs too.
June 10, 2023
Man went to private school. Not a real cowboy. Disappointing.
Also said he did the ride only for the money and the interest of his career. America today… ☹️
Also said he did the ride only for the money and the interest of his career. America today… ☹️
September 1, 2023
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 because pictures of Chicken Fry at the drive-thru were too cute.
I listened to this on audible, but I kinda regret not buying the hardback. I really enjoyed it all the way through. I think the pacing and length were just right. I liked the balance of encounters he had on the trail with facts and information about the west and the pony express.
It was oddly kinda heartwarming? The number of people wanting to lend him a hand or feed him or contribute was nice, and the tribute at the end very touching.
This is book is about a journalist cowboy who decided he wanted to know what it was like to ride the Pony Express trail. So he hunts down some fine horses, plans out his route, does some research, meets some friends, and travels from St Joseph Missouri to Sacramento, California all on horseback.
The audio narration was well done and would recommend it if you can resist the (very pretty) hard cover edition.
I listened to this on audible, but I kinda regret not buying the hardback. I really enjoyed it all the way through. I think the pacing and length were just right. I liked the balance of encounters he had on the trail with facts and information about the west and the pony express.
It was oddly kinda heartwarming? The number of people wanting to lend him a hand or feed him or contribute was nice, and the tribute at the end very touching.
This is book is about a journalist cowboy who decided he wanted to know what it was like to ride the Pony Express trail. So he hunts down some fine horses, plans out his route, does some research, meets some friends, and travels from St Joseph Missouri to Sacramento, California all on horseback.
The audio narration was well done and would recommend it if you can resist the (very pretty) hard cover edition.
August 5, 2023
An enjoyable read about Grant's 2019 142-day journey on horseback across the historic Pony Express trail (Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California). Grant obviously didn't recreate the journey with historical accuracy -- the actual Pony Express (1860-1861) advertised a 10-day journey conducted at breakneck speed by riders who changed horses at various stations along the way, whereas Grant's journey lasted 142 days with the same two horses for the whole ride (he rode one and used the other as a packhorse, alternating regularly), at a walking pace with ample rest days. He also shortcutted/cheated to reach the end of his trip midway through California by having the horses transported by trailer to the trail's final destination, the Pony Express Statue in Old Sacramento.
So while the journey wasn't historically accurate by any stretch of the imagination, Grant's angle was to learn more about the people who live along the historic trail and to experience desolate, largely uninhabited landscapes (in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada) that likely haven't changed much in the last 150 years. Having previously lived and traveled through many areas he mentioned, I could relate to many of the sights and scenery he described.
Further reading on American journeyers:
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck (2015) -- Grant cites this book several times. The book is about Buck and his brother's early 2010s journey in a covered wagon across the historic Oregon Trail.
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt (2003) -- much less well-known, Helga Estby walked across the US in 1896
Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery (2014) -- also less well-known, a biography of Emma Gatewood, who hiked the entire Appalachian trail from Maine to Georgia several times
So while the journey wasn't historically accurate by any stretch of the imagination, Grant's angle was to learn more about the people who live along the historic trail and to experience desolate, largely uninhabited landscapes (in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada) that likely haven't changed much in the last 150 years. Having previously lived and traveled through many areas he mentioned, I could relate to many of the sights and scenery he described.
Further reading on American journeyers:
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck (2015) -- Grant cites this book several times. The book is about Buck and his brother's early 2010s journey in a covered wagon across the historic Oregon Trail.
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt (2003) -- much less well-known, Helga Estby walked across the US in 1896
Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery (2014) -- also less well-known, a biography of Emma Gatewood, who hiked the entire Appalachian trail from Maine to Georgia several times
August 27, 2023
A great, very well-written book, and the best first-person “travel adventure” book that I’ve read in a long time. First off, the author knows what he is doing and is fully competent at it; he looks like he would fit right into the bunkhouse in an episode of “Yellowstone”. Secondly, his only agenda on the trip was to observe the country and learn something about the Pony Express and the people who live along that route today. He certainly succeeds at it and by the end of the book he comes to an understanding – as does the reader – about what a complex and challenging business it was for both the riders and the other people (and horses) that supported the operation. It's amazing that it worked as well as it did.
I live in Michigan but have always enjoyed our travels in the West, and have driven cars and ridden motorcycles in some of the same areas that he passed through. However, his route generally wandered quite far off the interstates and major highways into land rarely seen by the typical traveler. It opened a window into what this large territory really looks like at the ground level and the interesting types of people who inhabit it today. I was surprised to learn how much of the original trail and the way stations along it can still be found in the part that traverses the desert of northwestern Utah and across the basin-and-range terrain of Nevada. I also learned a lot about horses, partly from the two horses – “Chicken Fry” and “Badger” – that the author rode as well as the wild horses that he encountered along the way.
By the end, I gained a lot of insight into why a business that, surprisingly, barely lasted more than eighteen months still has its place in our national psyche over 160 years later.
I live in Michigan but have always enjoyed our travels in the West, and have driven cars and ridden motorcycles in some of the same areas that he passed through. However, his route generally wandered quite far off the interstates and major highways into land rarely seen by the typical traveler. It opened a window into what this large territory really looks like at the ground level and the interesting types of people who inhabit it today. I was surprised to learn how much of the original trail and the way stations along it can still be found in the part that traverses the desert of northwestern Utah and across the basin-and-range terrain of Nevada. I also learned a lot about horses, partly from the two horses – “Chicken Fry” and “Badger” – that the author rode as well as the wild horses that he encountered along the way.
By the end, I gained a lot of insight into why a business that, surprisingly, barely lasted more than eighteen months still has its place in our national psyche over 160 years later.
July 5, 2024
The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West 3 stars
The story of the trail of the Pony Express riders, told through the trip of one man (Will Grant) who journeyed with two horses and covered the cross-country ride in 2019. I enjoyed Grant's tale, but somehow the writing left something to be desired for me. I learned some fun facts, always a good thing and it was eye-opening at times at how much climate change has effected the country. Also his encounters with current guardians of the Pony Express stations kept my interest.
It was just an OK book for me though-others found it more engaging, so I can only say to try it yourself, it may be better for you,
The story of the trail of the Pony Express riders, told through the trip of one man (Will Grant) who journeyed with two horses and covered the cross-country ride in 2019. I enjoyed Grant's tale, but somehow the writing left something to be desired for me. I learned some fun facts, always a good thing and it was eye-opening at times at how much climate change has effected the country. Also his encounters with current guardians of the Pony Express stations kept my interest.
It was just an OK book for me though-others found it more engaging, so I can only say to try it yourself, it may be better for you,
August 13, 2023
Hard to put this one down. Fascinating and one of my favorite reads of the year. What an adventure of the people he met to say nothing of the history of the Pony Express which I knew little about prior to this book. I had no idea the PE only ran for 18 months. I so enjoyed his writing about the conflicts today in the farming community and written without any political opinion. Great writing that was so easy to read and enjoy. Loved the documentation and fantastic pictures.
July 6, 2023
Loved it! Don't care if he went to private school and isn't a cowboy. Enjoyed the journey with Will. Wonderful read. (Surprised to find a couple of typos though.)
April 28, 2024
A good listen! Easy to pick up and set down again, and still know what’s going on. It’s a fun read that lets you learn a lot about the West! I love American History and Geography and this book has both!
January 17, 2024
Very informational on subjects I knew nothing about but presented in a very digestible way. Books like this just make you want to be closer to nature and enjoy slower simpler experiences we don't often get the chance to have.
September 29, 2025
The Last Ride of the Pony Express was a great look into the history of the Pony Express and the state of the Western United States. While not necessarily a page-turner, this book kept me interested and reading to follow the many adventures and cast of characters Grant met on his journey. The book is full of great information about the Pony Express (most of which was surprising to me... it only ran for 18 months?) and the fact that it was written by someone who is both a writer and a proper horseman made it a really great read. I'd highly recommend - but only to those with an interest in horses, the West or the Pony Express itself - as it's a bit of a niche topic.
December 10, 2023
This would have been more interesting if Rinkor Buck had not done nearly the same trip in a covered wagon following the Oregon trail. The Oregon trail and the pony express followed the same routes for much of the trip. The main difference was Grant seeing the west from the top of a horse and Buck seeing it from behind the rear quarters of mules.
July 23, 2023
This is a quick, engaging read that provided me with a fresh set of eyes into a world that is close at hand, but not super familiar. Sagebrush and horses are a daily part of my life, but this kind of ride is something else entirely.
July 24, 2023
I loved parts of this and loved the audiobook narrator, but overall there were too many tangents, too much of the modern West and not enough history or horsemanship for me.
November 30, 2023
There were a few interesting tidbits about the Pony Express sprinkled throughout what was otherwise a dry and boring journey.
April 2, 2024
Not much happens in this banal trip.
September 25, 2024
Seemed like he spoke more about the people and how times are changing and random tirades into history spiels, dude should’ve made an outline.
Wasn’t what I was expecting.
Wasn’t what I was expecting.
June 15, 2023
The only thing Will Grant wanted to do growing up was to work with horses. He did that for some time but branched into journalism to better support himself.
While searching for a new project he latched onto the idea of riding across country on the Pony Express Trail.
The significance of the Pony Express is not as apparent as its execution is memorable. The value of what happened during those eighteen months has transgressed the tangible effects carried in the padlocked saddle bags. The Pony Express as a cultural symbol has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, and among the many artists, authors, journalists, and historians to depict and describe it, few have been able to resist romanticizing it.
His idea was to do it with two horses, one to ride and one as a pack horse. He didn't intend to race but to do so at a leisurely pace, so he could really immerse himself in the country, get to know people and protect his horses from injury.
This is an eminently readable book. I loved traveling along side Will and finding out all kinds of interesting things about the country, landscape, agriculture. There were many enjoyable moments in this book and I encourage anyone who likes a tale of slow travel to saddle up.
While searching for a new project he latched onto the idea of riding across country on the Pony Express Trail.
The significance of the Pony Express is not as apparent as its execution is memorable. The value of what happened during those eighteen months has transgressed the tangible effects carried in the padlocked saddle bags. The Pony Express as a cultural symbol has enjoyed a lot of traction over the years, and among the many artists, authors, journalists, and historians to depict and describe it, few have been able to resist romanticizing it.
His idea was to do it with two horses, one to ride and one as a pack horse. He didn't intend to race but to do so at a leisurely pace, so he could really immerse himself in the country, get to know people and protect his horses from injury.
This is an eminently readable book. I loved traveling along side Will and finding out all kinds of interesting things about the country, landscape, agriculture. There were many enjoyable moments in this book and I encourage anyone who likes a tale of slow travel to saddle up.
January 28, 2024
Cool travel adventure--the author decides to follow the route (as much as possible) taken by the legendary and short-lived Pony Express mail delivery service. And he does it on horseback, tool. He does not try to recreate the Pony Express schedule--the 10 day relay that the riders targeted was going to take him an entire season from May until September, 142 days. But he did it!
He did truck the horses around heavily populated areas a couple of times. I don't blame him for that--I'm sure it was the right thing to do for his horses' safety and his own enjoyment, not the mention avoiding the fury of people in cars who'd be held to the speed of a trotting horse. I was a little sorry not to hear his adventures "in traffic" but the episode crossing the Missouri River in St. Joseph was enough to satisfy me.
Lot of history in this book and a lot of people he met along the way. Great, great reading enjoyment. And a couple of award-deserving hero horses, too. Chicken Fry and Badger are the stars of this show!
He did truck the horses around heavily populated areas a couple of times. I don't blame him for that--I'm sure it was the right thing to do for his horses' safety and his own enjoyment, not the mention avoiding the fury of people in cars who'd be held to the speed of a trotting horse. I was a little sorry not to hear his adventures "in traffic" but the episode crossing the Missouri River in St. Joseph was enough to satisfy me.
Lot of history in this book and a lot of people he met along the way. Great, great reading enjoyment. And a couple of award-deserving hero horses, too. Chicken Fry and Badger are the stars of this show!
April 11, 2024
While it gets a little sluggish towards the midway point, I still loved this book. The blends of personal experience and history, descriptions of nature and descriptions of civilization, and observations on culture and love of horses are all concisely and evocatively written. The book doesn’t try to surprise you with the feel. It’s a journey, plain, but not simple, and that’s exactly what I hoped for from the moment I started.
August 28, 2024
⭐️4.5 I love interesting people and interesting stories, and boy this book was chock full of them. Yes, it’s about him riding the Pony Express trail, but it’s so much more — people he encounters along the way, ecological and sociological issues plaguing the West, and the mystery and unfeasibility of the Pony Express. I ate all of it right up. TBH if you asked me before I read this what the Pony Express was I wouldn’t have a good answer for you, but now I am so intrigued.
November 24, 2023
I was surprised by how interesting this was. I mean, I expected a travel journal story, sure, but it had so much heart and exposure of the people that live in the middle of America. I also am not super fond of horses, but it showed how much the author loves those animals and how much they love him back. Pretty cool.
June 18, 2025
Absolutely adored this book! It's the perfect blend of true adventure, historical education, American geography and modern events. My wife read it first and loved it, and it did not disappoint. Highly recommend for summer reading!
August 5, 2023
Jealous over his horseback riding. Not on camping. Yuck.
April 18, 2025
A great journey story. Authentic cowboy ride with great characters and stories of the road. Good book for a long trip
June 21, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed this! At times it was a little repetitive, and often I needed to read a paragraph more than once because there would be an odd transition, but still worth it.
January 16, 2025
I would loose my concentration on the story when the story line started telling some history of the trail and then go back to the actual ride of story!
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