Page:Patches (1928).pdf/223

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prize money, which was enough to buy six horses and a brand new coach.

Thinking that the crowd had had excitement enough for the present, the next feature was more sober. It was the great mounted cavalcade of cowboys and cow girls. The five hundred cowboys and the two hundred cow girls who had come out in the parade half an hour before again mounted their steeds and rode slowly around the track. As they passed the judges' stand they were carefully inspected and the most typical cowboy and cow girl each received a handsome purse of gold.

The fourth event was also historic for it was nothing more or less than a relay pony express race, a race intended to show the efficiency of the pony express and what it had meant to the west as a means of communication.

Each contestant was allowed two horses and two assistants. The distance for the race was one mile, the first horse was to run the first quarter and the third quarter, the second horse the second and the fourth.

When a madly racing express pony reached the end of the first quarter his rider had to dismount, then put the saddle and bridle on the new horse who was standing nearby and also to change his mail bags. When everything was in readiness he was off again.