Wyoming Summer – Mary O’Hara

If you love horses, you have probably read Mary O’Hara’s classic novel, My Friend Flicka. Or perhaps you’ve seen the movie.

Flicka is drawn from the author’s real life with her husband Helge Sture-Vasa on the Remount Ranch, Wyoming in the 1930s.

I have always loved Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming, and have re-read the trilogy many times. As a child, I knew nothing of the author. As an adult, I was curious to read the memoir of her Wyoming experiences.

Published in 1963, Wyoming Summer details a summer Mary spent on the ranch, though she incorporated incidents from other summers. Names got changed. The Remount Ranch becomes the Goose Bar Ranch of fiction, yet I feel the name change is unnecessary. No reader would have trouble recognizing the Remount as the Goose Bar! Mary’s husband Helge is referred to as Michael. The Sture-Vasas become the Bergwins. My guess is the publisher preferred American-sounding names.

It’s a nice companion to the series, though not the same read. This book consists of vignettes and tidbits of life on the ranch, and some of Mary’s life off the ranch. There’s action and drama, and plenty of humor, life on the ranch was never boring!

I did feel that Mary went on more than necessary about her music. Most readers would prefer less emphasis on composing and more emphasis on ranch activities. But music was a large part of Mary’s life, so it was natural for her to write about it. I found myself rather sad that she was paid so little for her compositions. I wanted to hear her music, but could not locate any recordings.

Mary wrote much of herself into Nell and a great deal of her husband into Rob McLaughlin. Her real animals gave inspiration for the fictional. There are humorous incidents, dangerous accidents, and learning experiences, all told with the familiar tone of the trilogy. A nice comfort read to cozy up with!

If curious how an author incorporates very real experiences alongside fictional ones, this is about as good as it gets. I preferred this title to Flicka’s Friend, her posthumous autobiography. Long out-of-print, so I’d recommend checking your local library, or looking for it used on bookseller sites. It’s not hard to find, and inexpensive as reading copy.

Note: It seems I had this saved as a draft, only never finished tidying it up, oops!