CowboyBootStories.Com

I was born into a family of farmers who thought they knew everything about raising and riding horses. My first horse was a little Shetland pony my grandfather gave us, and it is the same story you’ve heard a hundred times: I was riding that horse before I learned how to walk! Same exaggeration too!

From the moment I woke up each morning, with my toy rifle beside me in bed, until the last waking moment before slumber took over and I dreamed about all the cowboy magic, I was a little cowboy. I dreamed about riding horses, brave cowboys and fierce Indians (sorry…Native Americans), guns a-blaze, cowboy hats and…of course cowboy BOOTS! We were poor by most standards, and new things in those days didn’t just mean a trip to town. We’d plan and hope and dream, and maybe…just MAYBE someday some of those dreams would materialize.

My dream was a new pair of cowboy boots, and vary consistently I told my mother how much I wanted a pair. I mean, what kind of cowboy rides his own horse (albeit a Shetland) but doesn’t own a pair of cowboy boots??? It was truly a travesty, and I reminded her constantly.

As Christmas would approach each year on the farm, hiding places for Christmas gifts would always be a challenge for Mom. She was good…real good, but she had three boys and one girl that would scour the house from the basement to each bedroom…nothing was sacred. It was during one of those searching expeditions that I discovered a boot box tucked away really high (for a little cowboy anyway) in the basement, above where the canned frult was stored…an Acme Boot box…with a pair of black boots with light blue tops. Oh they were gorgeous and just what I wanted…and WHOA! Smell that brand new leather??? Nothing smelled as good as new leather boots! AND they were my size too!!! Well I couldn’t contain my excitement. I ran upstairs to show my mother what I’d found… Did I mention that she was good? …real good: she told me they for my cousin, Cathy Ann…same age…same size…nope … not mine.

Bummer. Hopes were dashed. Still riding that shetland in my sneakers…what kind of cowboy was I anyway…no boots…

Christmas Day…three AM (they couldn’t keep four kids in their beds much after three) I discovered those boots under the tree and my heart leaped…I mean it soared! Those Acme boots were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen…and they just fit! I wore them until they were about three sizes too small. I ran in them…I rode my horse in them…I wore them to school…I wore them to church…and yes I even slept in them. Know how to make a little cowboy happy? yep…new cowboy boots!

Sorry Cathy Ann…maybe next year.

I was a big fan the President Reagan. Not only because of what he did to turn our country around after Jimmy Carter, but because he seemed like a regular, happy guy.
I remember as a teen, watching press shots of Reagan working on his Ranch in California. Those images were America, and they inspired me to want to be a cowboy. Not the herd the herd, rope the calf cowboy, but I man who lived the values of the west. I wanted to be as happy as President Reagan looked when he was riding his horse on his ranch.
I couldn’t afford the ranch or the horse, but I was able to save up to buy my first pair of boots. They were Tony Lama, they were inexpensive and they were mine.
Now, as an adult I can afford any pair of boots I like and I have little place to ride and I often think back to how the Gipper inspired me to be a happy American and how he inspired me to buy my first pair of boots.

I am 12 years old and I started riding western when I was 9 years old. My first pair of boots were bought at a yard sale, they were another girls boots that looked like they were 10 years old. I thought they were the best thing ever. I am still wearing them. When I first got my boots they were 3 sizes to big, but that didn’t seem to matter to me. I am now 12 years old and the boots don’t quite fit but they are all I have and I don’t think that I will ever get rid of them. They make me feel like a real cowgirl.

My little niece is in love with horses, about 3 months ago we went out a leased her a horse. A little brown Arabian horse named Lucky.
Her family is of limited means so she was riding the horse in an old pair of tennis shoes. One day my wife and I decided to buy her a pair of cowboy boots. We are not horse people, or even boot people so we had no clue what to get her. The Boot City folks were so kind and they helped us pick out the great pair of Pink Ariat Boots for Kids, these were pro-baby.
Our niece now wears these boots everywhere including on the horse. Thank you so much.