A ceremony at the Patee House Museum kicked off the annual “re-ride” of the Pony Express

Museum Director Gary Chilcote tells us the event was postponed earlier because of a herpes virus that can affect horses.

“We don’t know that any of the horses were actually affected,” Chilcote said.

“We’re talking about 550 riders, each in their own areas, across eight states,” he said.

“They were concerned that it could spread from one horse to another, and it can prove fatal to horses.”

The President of the National Pony Express Association Jim Swigart was on hand to introduce the first two riders, Richard King and his sister Kristin King of Stewartsville, Missouri.

Chilcote says the riders will cross eight states before arriving in Sacramento on August 27th.

The first rider for the Pony Express was a fellow named Johnny Fry. Chilcote offered this photograph of Fry, who later joined the Union Army and was killed in Baxter Springs, Kansas by Quantrill’s gang on Oct 7, 1863. (Photographs courtesy of the Patee House Museum)