The Cowboy and His Horse

In the Western, the hero is always attached to his horse. You will never see a more angry Western character than a character whose horse has been killed or abused. In mythological settings of men becoming intertwined with animals as a symbol of their of the wildness within them that they're not really men. The cowboy hero who is literally attached to the hip by his horse hearkens back to that character who's not completely human there's something wild and animalistic about him.