Lori Wilde: Choosing Your Cowboy Boots

A Cowboy for Christmas is the last book in my Jubilee, Texas series, but I’m not done with cowboys. Not by a long shot. Today, I thought it might be fun to look at cowboy boots and how to choose your first pair.

When you think of cowboys, three images usually pop up—Stetson, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots. The cowboy “uniform” seems fairly straight forward, doesn’t it? But buying that first pair of cowboy boots is more complicated than you might think.

Size matters.

Your shoe size that is. Cowboy boots aren’t like other shoes. Don’t buy them expecting them to stretch or “break in”. They should fit like they were made especially for your foot. How they feel when you first put them on is how they’re going to feel. Cowboy boots are expensive so make sure they fit before you plunk down your money.

How shapely are you?

Cowboy boots come in pointy, round and square-toed styles. Because you will own this footwear for many years to come, don’t select the shape on current trends, but on the toe shape that suits you.

Color me excited

Cowboy boots come in as many colors and design as you can imagine. Black or brown go with anything. Red are classic attention getters. Look for a color and design that makes a statement about your personality.

The heel

There’s two basic kinds of heels on cowboy boots (although there are several variations of the two types.) There’s the “roper” heels—flatter and squarer. And the “riding” heels—slanted. The roper heel is more for working. The riding heel is to hold your foot in the stirrups of your saddle. Even though I don’t ride often, I prefer the slant of the riding heel to the roper heel.

To tuck or not to tuck

Unless you are working horses or cattle, do not tuck your jeans into your boots. Yes, you might want to show off your new boots, but you’ll signal you’re a cowboy boot-wearing amateur if you tuck your jeans into your boots if you’re not actively working livestock.

And there you have it. A quick boot tutorial. Have you every owned a pair of cowboy boots? Which cowboy would you most like to find wearing a pair of boots and nothing else underneath your Christmas tree?