Fascination with Cowboy Boots

When life or vacation takes you Southwest, there develops an uncanny interest in cowboy boots. It happens right after your cowboy hat fetish is fed. Once your head is adorned with the western chapeau, look south, people, to festoon your feet with western wear too.

We could write books about cowboy boots. Such isn't my motive right here. Instead I want to update your perspective on that old but practical Western leather footwear, with particular focus on the top part of that shoe. Along with your hat, your cowboy boots say a lot about you.

Boot top

It's in the name. Cowboy boots are, well, boots. You put 'em on by sliding your foot through a leather cylinder that houses your leg. It's this part of the boot that gives folks both fascination and trouble.

Women, in particular, may find the boot tops incompatible with their legs. Either the calf is too bulky to fit into a narrow boot top or a skinny leg flops around a wide one inside. Either way, the tall boot top can present a daunting non-starter in finding a good fit.

Artistry in leather

The boot top exhibits the leather tooling artistry of the cowboy boot, however. It's why you buy cowboy boots in the first place. You can choose standard designs or have yours custom made. You can tell your life's story in your boot top. You can tell any story at all in your boot top. You can be as creative as you can, but be prepared to count out big bucks for special tales tooled onto the top of your boots.

Back at the Ranch Cowboy Boots in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has hundreds of special designs sure to fit even the most unique personalities. Flowers, bucking broncos, dragons, kokopelli figures, the queen of diamonds or the king of hearts, even a Japanese geisha can grace your boot top. I've identified at least fifty-seven designs just perfect for me. There goes my budget!

Alternatives to that pesky boot top

When the boot top provides intractable problems for fit over your leg, consider the alternatives. One is the shorter length boot top called the ankle boot. Another shorter one yet is the shoe boot. And finally, there is the mule, which has no boot top at all and no relation to that horse you're riding.

The ankle boot keeps the design features of a regular cowboy boot but goes up only as far as the calf. No need to stuff your whole leg into the boot. And still plenty of space exists for randy cowboy artistry in leather.

The shoe boot goes over the foot but stops at the ankle. A short zipper opens to allow ease of entry for the foot and a snug fit when zipped up. The cowboy boot artistry is confined to a smaller space yet. Your personal story in leather art will need abbreviating.

The mule, sometimes called a "slide," is the foot part of the cowboy boot without the boot. The mule removes any necessity for fitting your leg into the shoe. Neither is there a back behind your heel. Mules are supremely easy to get on, since the foot simply slides in. Cowboy boot artistry is confined to the instep, or top, of the shoe.

Charlie 1 Horse is a cowboy hat company that also makes boots. They make a mule I simply can't live without. A Lucchese brand boot it is, with a great fit, true to size, fashion forward, colorful inlaid or tooled leather artistry, and contemporary compliment to the hard-to-fit-you tradition of regular cowboy boots.

For the 'wild and wooly' in you

Cowboy boots, in all of its forms, can feed your fascination with the wild West. You can look and feel like a real cowboy without being one in fact. When you depart the Plains to points farther north, east, or to the coast, wearing your boots will say you've been there and done that like real cowboys do...

...with others wishing they had been there and done that too.