In America, cowboys have a modern image: They drive pick-up trucks, work on ranches with ATVs, ride in the rodeo, wear cool shirts and they listen to country music that rocks! In short: Cowboys are cool! In Germany however it all looks very different!

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Here cowboys are connected only to the "wild west" - and that of course makes them old fashioned and out-dated! Cowboys in Germany (or Europe for that matter) hold a completely wrong image because of that!Sure, cowboys existed in the "wild west" - but so did police officers and 
soldiers (just to name two professions). But why are those not connected to the "wild west"? Especially when many western movies do not even portrait cowboys but law enforcement officers (Marshall, Sheriff) and soldiers (cavalry). Yet nobody today connects a police officer and a soldier to the "wild west"! It is no wonder that the cowboy lifestyle is not very popular over here! Who wants to be considered an extinct and out-datedperson?!? I certainly don`t! Nobody in the USA would dress up like in the "wild west" to go to a country music con- cert? And why should they? We live in the 21st century, not the "wild west". Yes, there are clubs in the USA that emrace the "wild west" culture. But those are historicclubs and they have them in Germany too, don`t they!?! Cause what about people at Medieval  Festivals (Ritterspiele or Mittelaltermarkt) or similar events? There is nothing wrong with that at all! But people don`t confuse "Medieval Festivals" with todays life in Germany! So why do they confuse todays cowboy with the "wild west"?!?

Ranch-Life in Cowboy Country