Back in the day, a good pair of cowboy boots was worth it’s weight in gold. In fact, taking a dead man’s boots from him was sensible thing to do, since he wasn’t going to need them anymore and there was no sense wasting them.
Originally, Cowboy boots didn’t have a left and right. The wearer would try to move them to the other foot every other day so that they would wear even. Remember, a good pair of boots, even from Sears and Roebuck was $3.90! A lot of money. (the average cowboy made about $30 a month)
On the trail, the cowboy boot was the perfect horse riding shoe. It possessed a good solid heel for the stirrup and a shelf on the back of the heel to hold the spurs level. Just like the trail, when a cowboy went to town, there was mud and horse manure everywhere. Cleaning his boots was much easier than cleaning his pant legs, so the simplest way to protect them was to tuck them inside of the boots. That way, he could walk in horse poo almost up to his knees without getting his pants legs dirty. He just needed to find a good puddle and he could get a lot of grime off his boot before he went into the saloon or hotel. Best of all, his pants were still clean!
The simplest boots to pull on had flaps that hung down on the outside called “mule ears” – they gave the cowboy a little extra leverage to get them on. Just pull on the “ears”.
To take boots off, many hotels had “boot Jacks”, a simple device that grabs holds onto the heel of the boot while the cowboy pulled their foot out. The best boot jacks were risqué in design with ladies in provocative poses helping the cowboy out. (sorry, you are just going to have to use your imagination). If he was lucky, there was a actual woman there willing to pull them off for him. (cost more but worth it)
Next time you see a reenactment and see the cowboys with their pant’s tucked in, you’ll have a better idea of why they do it!
Frontier Legends Entertainment 