A Moment in Time.Running as fast as the mustang pony could run, Pony Express riders raced across nearly 1900 miles of wilderness carrying the U.S. Mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. With nostrils flaring, lungs gasping for air, and muscles burning every ounce of energy the pony could muster, horse and rider climbed over mountains, crossed dry deserts, and forded rivers and streams through cold of winter, heat of summer, and threat of life—setting a delivery record unsurpassed by anything else in the early 1860s. The legend of the "pony," a race against time and a test of extreme endurance, quickly found a place in the hearts and emotions of Americans that still lives today.
Carefully study the genius of the Avard Fairbanks' Pony Express Monument. Fairbanks sculpture is a study in contrasts that captures a moment in history while symbolizing the interdependency of generations - the rider depending on the station keeper to be there for him as the younger generation depends on the older one and the older generations bidding farewell to the younger—an interdependence uniting young and old, and man and beast.
Dr. Fairbanks believes that great sculpture comprises the mastery of four elements—anatomy, action, balance, and rhythm. He used these to contrast the vigor of the fresh horse versus the fatigue of the spent horse, the excitement of the youthful rider charging off (his foot barely in the stirrup) versus the solidarity of the old station keeper who kept the horse waiting and bids "Godspeed" to the rider as he gallops away.
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