I don't own a pair of cowboy boots right now, but I wore out a measure of them back when I rode horses a lot. It's a style that seems ostentatious at first, but every apparently ostentatious aspect ends up having a practical ground. The high heel keeps your foot in the stirrup so they don't slip out the front of it. The pointed toes let it slip in and out from the back side easily, simplifying mounting and reducing the hazard of dismounting (especially when it is done without the rider being the one who intended it). The elaborate stitching stiffens the leather, letting it stand up tall against thorns and other hazards.
On the occasion, here's a piece by Molly Tuttle, a young singer of Western tunes.
3 comments:
Fringed leather jackets look a bit silly at first also, until you learn that they used the leather fringes to shed water and dry faster
That's true. I haven't ever tried fringed leather, but it's got a pragmatic case if you live somewhere it rains just enough that you need to dry quickly, but not so much that leather just rots.
One consequence of spending my 5th summer in Oklahoma with my grandparents was getting a pair of cowboy boots on my 6th birthday. Not standard little boy shoe wear in New England. I wore them for two years.
Molly Tuttle does well.
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