It had to happen. Sooner or later, expensive and uncooperative animals would be phased out in favor of hopping robots.
(Prototype Jockey-Ridden Hopping Robot)
For those of you who think that this is some sort of joke, well, it probably is. However, the guy behind the joke is Martin Buehler, an engineer at Boston Dynamics. They're the guys who make the BigDog robot, among other serious robotic projects.
Update 11-Oct-2016: Take a look at the Hopper from Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus (1954) by Isaac Asimov. End update:
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/2/2007)
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