Editing Cowboy (section)

===Horses===
{{See also|Stock horse}}
The traditional means of transport for the cowboy, even in the modern era, is by [[equestrianism|horseback]]. [[Horse]]s can travel over terrain that vehicles cannot access. Horses, along with [[mule]]s and [[burro]]s, also serve as [[packhorse|pack animals]]. The most important horse on the ranch is the everyday working ranch horse that can perform a wide variety of tasks; horses trained to specialize exclusively in one set of skills such as [[calf roping|roping]] or [[cutting (sport)|cutting]] are very rarely used on ranches. Because the rider often needs to keep one hand free while working cattle, the horse must [[neck rein]] and have good ''cow sense''—it must instinctively know how to anticipate and react to cattle.

A good [[stock horse]] is on the small side, generally under 15.2 [[hand (length)|hands]] (62&nbsp;inches) tall at the [[withers]] and often under 1000 pounds, with a short back, sturdy legs and strong muscling, particularly in the hindquarters. While a [[team roping|steer roping]] horse may need to be larger and weigh more in order to hold a heavy adult [[cow]], [[bull]] or [[Cattle#Terminology|steer]] on a rope, a smaller, quick horse is needed for herding activities such as [[cutting (sport)|cutting]] or [[calf roping]]. The horse has to be intelligent, calm under pressure and have a certain degree of 'cow sense" – the ability to anticipate the movement and behavior of cattle.

Many breeds of horse make good stock horses, but the most common today in North America is the [[American Quarter Horse]], which is a [[list of horse breeds|horse breed]] developed primarily in [[Texas]] from a combination of [[Thoroughbred]] bloodstock crossed on horses of [[Mustang (horse)|mustang]] and other [[Iberian horse]] ancestry, with influences from the [[Arabian horse]] and horses developed on the east coast, such as the [[Morgan horse]] and now-[[extinct]] breeds such as the Chickasaw and Virginia Quarter-Miler.