shepherds and horses

[Amy West]

Answer? Not me.

But here's an observation. From, of all places, an OI saga:

In Hrafnkels saga freysgothi there's a character (Eyvindr) who is
stuck with the sheep up in the summer pastures. At one point he loses
track of a mess of sheep and hops on a horse to ride around looking
for them.

---Amy West

>[ok, ADS-Lers: anyone have any evidence of this extended sense of
>"cowboy"?]
>
>the image i get for "shepherd" *never* has the herders on horseback,
>but that just might be me.  now i'm wondering how the basque
>shepherds of nevada go about their job.
>
>[anyone know the answer to this question?]