Since Louisiana's landscape does not include the vast rangelands of the American West, adaptations were needed in both North and South Louisiana. The marsh cowboys have made extra long reins to allow cowboys to stay out of the way of horses lunging through the mud. They learned how to put spurs on rubber boots and herd cattle by boat. Creole ponies successfully survived the heat and mosquitoes and could cope with the marsh with their small hooves. Cattle are wintered in the marshes but moved to higher ground during the summer to avoid mosquitoes in the marsh.
Cattle drives continue, but eighteen-wheel trucks have taken the place of the horseback cowboy.
North Louisiana, with its piney woods and thickets, also required special adaptations of cowboy lifestyle. The commonality of the ranch and rodeo culture persists throughout Louisiana. Performance genres found in cowboy culture include reciting cowboy poetry, auctioneering in French or English, and singing cowboy ballads in clubs and at festivals. Folktales from Louisiana , co-published in 1997 by the University Press of Mississippi and the Louisiana Division of the Arts.