Hashknife Pony Express: An Annual Community Tradition

HIS Horsemanship students ride in The Hashknife Pony Express parade on January 30, 2024.

The Sheriff’s Posse - Holbrook, AZ

For many of our students, the term “community” is often foreign to them. What does it mean to live in community with those around us? How do patrons serve their community? One way that we encourage our students to be active in our small town of Holbrook, Arizona, is that we not only attend, but participate in the annual Hashknife Pony Express parade, which takes place in January before the Pony Express Riders are sworn in as honorary mail messengers and begin their trek south with the local mail. The Navajo County Sheriff’s Posse leads the procession.

A Pony Express Rider gives a little show.

Part of the reason behind the Hashknife Pony Express is to “keep some of the old west alive”, but for many of the riders - their main purpose is the communities and townsfolk they serve along the route.

The ride is 200 miles. It begins in Holbrook and ends in Scottsdale, Arizona. The riders start at 8:00 a.m. sharp on the first day. “The mail doesn’t stop,” says Steve Thomas, a Pony Express rider who, along with his riding partner, Gary Hayes, visited HIS on Monday, January 29, to collect Pony Express letters from our students into a mail bag that would be used.  

HIS students await the procession and HIS horsemanship riders to pass by.

It takes three days to reach Scottsdale from Holbrook. Mail is U.S. First Class mail, so it has to be secured in a Federal Post Office at the end of each day by the last rider, who must arrive by 4:45 p.m. There are 27 riders in total in this event. They lope a mile at a time and “leapfrog,” much like a relay until the mail reaches its southern destination.

The Hashknife Pony Express Riders swearing in ceremony.

Gary Hayes (right) makes the first hand-off of the relay in Holbrook, AZ, to his riding partner, Steve Thomas (left).

HIS is the only school, so far, with the privilege to ride in the Hashknife Pony Express parade that takes place the day before the event. Our horsemanship class bathes their horses the night before and heads out early the next morning for the staging area. After a brief warm-up, they fall in line with the riders of The Sheriff’s Posse and the Hashknife Pony Express. Then, all begin to make their way through town, passing many patrons - mostly comprising of students from several schools along the route. Our own students are among them and cheer proudly when they see our banner and horses approaching. The parade ends behind the Sheriff’s building, where all Pony Express Riders are sworn in.

While HIS is a community all on its own, we make every effort to ensure that our students have the opportunity to engage with our community off campus as well. We have an upcoming service day in which our students will clean up an area designated by the Chamber of Commerce. We learned of this opportunity after our administration hosted the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce's Breakfast Break, a monthly networking meeting for Chamber members. 

Steve Thomas, a Hashknife Pony Express Rider, makes his way to the next hand-off.

We look forward to giving back to our community in this way, and we thank God for teachable moments to show our students what it means to belong to a larger community and the importance of community service.