So what? We’re Scandinavians...

Woke up and experienced somewhat brighter light outside the window. I screwed up my eyes and carefully pulled away the curtain and surprisingly saw a 5-centimeter snow cover on the ground. The feather light snowflakes descended from the sky. Hmm, we didn’t know how to dress for today. The weather forecast for Hulett had been sunny and +20 °C for several weeks now, so neither of us had prepared for any snow. Bummer it had to be snow the last day at the ranch. And I would be riding my favorite horse Chocolate one last time… so what could I do?

During breakfast at 7.30am our wrangler Lance came by and asked, “Are you gonna ride today?” and looked at us as if we were from outer space or something. We said; “Of course!” and laughed. Lance shock his head and said something like; “You guys are crazy!”. I answered him right back; “So what? We’re Scandinavians!” I mean a little snow doesn’t kill you For those of you who read this need to know that Lance also lives in Florida and returns there when the winter ravages in Wyoming. So, Lance thought it was freezing today.

Also, the horses weren’t too happy about being taken from the pasture. Neither had they grown any winter fur and were freezing. Chocolate did not want to be grabbed and walked away from me time after time. But after deceiving her I managed to put the halter on. After a quick grooming, saddling and bridling we mounted the horses. We drove a cow and her calf back to rest of the herd. Easier said than done, since the ground under the snow wasn’t frozen it was only muddy. And as mentioned before none of the horses had any shoes on. When we turned around and headed back towards the ranch you could feel neither fingers nor toes. And when we arrived at the ranch it started to rain. So, all cold and wet we took care of the horses and rushed to put them back out in the pasture again. Then we all ran inside the guesthouse to warm up and shower warm after our little adventure. For lunch we got pizza, totally fine after a cold and wet morning out in the saddle. We got four pizzas to choose from with various toppings.

In the afternoon at 1.30pm it was time for shooting. The weather was still bad and it didn’t want to stop raining and now the rain was mixed with snow. But they opened up a barn so we could stand inside under the roof and shoot out from there. Lance had invited another cowboy who brought a whole arsenal with firearms. A .22 long, a semi-automatic .22 long, a 30.30 and a shotgun is what I can remember the names of. Furthermore, he also brought handguns and we also got to try Lance's own handgun if we wanted to. I tried the semi-automatic .22 long and then I was done. Biggest reason for that were the three German men who were just all over the place and didn’t handle the firearms safely enough for me standing there right next to them. It was best to stay out of their way so to speak. Otherwise I would have tried the other firearms too.

By 5.45pm all the guests, the staff and the ranch owners drove off to Hulett for our last dinner at a restaurant and later visiting a pub. Personally I could have skipped that bar… because in the US you are still aloud to smoke inside bars and restaurants. And boy did the clothes smelled cigarettes when we came back to the ranch later that evening? During the evening a few of us visited the artist Bob Coronato who had his little art gallery just further down on the street. A small grown dark-haired middle-aged man welcomed us with a smile even though it was Friday evening. He told us about his art work with enthusiasm and if you ask me, he is a great artist. Bob used a special printing technique in some of his art and also painted big oil paintings. The motives were horses of course, cowboys and Indians. He’s actually pretty famous within the cowboy world in the western USA and hired by a lot of magazines, editors and other clients. We got back at the ranch at 11pm.