Moccasin: Cowgirl Boots

Cowgirl Boots

No one really knows who the original inventor of cowgirl boots was. According to several different stories and legends, the first pair of cowgirl boots was made by either a shoemaker in Kansas, or by one in Texas. Either way, the story is still the same. After the Civil War was over in 1865, the cowgirls who were driving cattle across the country discovered that they needed a different style of boots. The ones worn during the war just didn’t suit the long hours riding on the trails: blazing through the brush and brambles, splashing through creeks and rivers, and riding with their feet in stirrups for hours at a time. Around 1870 some ingenious cowgirl took her boots to a shoemaker and asked for a pointy toe so he could get her foot into the stirrup more easily; a taller shaft to protect her legs; and a bigger, thicker, underslung heal so her foot wouldn’t come out of the stirrup during the rough riding on the trails. The knee-high design protected her legs from the thorns of mesquite trees, barbed wire, snakes, and other dangers. The cowgirl boots were pulled on with long mule-ear straps but were loose enough on the top so that they could be wiggled out of easily if the cowgilr was hung up in the stirrup and needed to get out in a hurry. The tough leather that the cowgirl boots were made from also protected the cowgilr’s ankles from being bruised by the wooden stirrups, and her legs from rubbing against the stirrup leathers. The cowgirl boots were stitched on the outside to keep the leather from buckling and eventually rubbing against the cowgirl’s leg.