Battle for cattle!
Tensions arise when Englishman Thomas decides to make a claim on Martha’s herd…
Cattle baron and English gentleman Thomas Trafford (Tom Hughes) is struggling to maintain his empire after last week’s homesteader ‘invasion’ resulted in the slaughter of his pregnant cattle.
Desperate to claw back some of his loss, he ‘legally’ claims a cattle herd belonging to Powder River local Martha Myers – and is taken aback when she puts up a fight, determined to protect her cattle and livelihood.
‘I was surprised by the character of Martha,’ says Valerie Pachner, who plays her. ‘Before, I’d only seen women in westerns as bartenders or prostitutes – I hadn’t seen a hardworking woman on her own. She surprised me, in a good way.’
Turning herself into a convincing homesteader involved weeks of rifle and horseback training.
‘The most important thing was learning to ride a horse. I didn’t know I’d love it so much,’ she explains. ‘My favourite moment was jumping into a herd of cattle – there was real fear!’
Tom also loved working with animals, but found they came with certain challenges…
‘With horses, you’re not dealing with a machine where you can tell it what to do,’ he grins. ‘You’ll be halfway through a scene and it’ll decide it’s the perfect time to go to the toilet!’