I was under the impression it was the latter, but I'm still in hibernation from all the food I ate yesterday so I'm asking instead of trying to find it online (and then asking). If people who rented horses to the Post were private contractors, then they could rent horses to anyone (as long as they had a team for the next Post coach to go thundering through), and so there might be a 'connection' between express riders and the mail in that the natural thing would be for the express rider to use the same pool of horses (conveniently spaced and quickly available).
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