There has been a bit of controversy (strangely) over the question of whether ATVs are taking over the horse’s role on ranches across the West. The question has been taken personally by some, whose insistance on the pre-eminence of horses is just another sad example of the death-grip folks have on this whole romanticized cowboy. That idealized character never existed, let alone exists today. Now, even much of the allegorical imagery which evokes these deranged - and ultimately environmentally/politically destructive - myths is waning - fast.
John Glionna writes ATVs replacing horses to herd cattle on the range and is published in the San Fransisco Chronicle
Across California and the West, a growing number of ranchers are using ATVs for chores such as mending fences, feeding and watering cattle, herding and even lassoing steers — jobs for which they used horses exclusively just a generation ago. Some now call the ATV the “Japanese quarter horse.”