Bonanza Ride the Wind

"Bring the mail in on time or bring yourself in - dead."

This season 7 two parter was released as a cinema movie in much of Europe and it's now available in a special issue of DeAgonstini's Bonanza part work.

The story loosely based on the real Pony Express sees Little Joe taking on the job of rider with the mail service and Ben Cartwright becoming a major share holder in the company. It's a grand dream to see the post being delivered rapidly across the West but a war with the Piute's make things more than a little tricky. And soon the venture is having to fight Indians across a thousand mile line.

Doc McCoy turns up as a scheming journalist and the rest of the supporting cast is also made up of familiar TV faces - Stewart Moss and Victor Jory head up an impressive ensemble.

In reality the short lived Pony Express was a troubled venture from the start but it was extremely efficient and only one mail package was ever lost. And the service has become on of the true legends of the American West.


To minimise the amount of time it took a rider to change horses at a way station a special mail bag known as a mochilla was developed -it was up of a light leather cover with a purse like compartment called a cantina in each side into which the mail was padlocked. Each mochilla could hold 20ib of mail.

The Bonanza special edition is on sale now - a magazine and the DVD for £7.99. The DVD doesn't contain the movie version but instead opts for the two full episodes that made up the story. However it's a great transfer of what is a splendid couple of episodes of the long running and now legendary western series.