VIDEO HERE (9:30 minutes)
*****
I've worn cowboy boots my entire adult life. Hell, until just a few years ago, that was all I wore until I wore holes in the soles of my favorite shit kicker pointy toed boots. I couldn't find a cobbler around here, so I retired them and started wearing a round toe slip on work boot. I eventually did find a Mexican fella down in Gallatin that did leatherwork and boot resoling, so I am wearing them again occasionally.
Before I found the dude though, I was looking around online and Dwayne in the video ain't lyin', it's damned near impossible to find a pair of pointy toed boots anymore because everybody's wearing those butt-ugly square toed boots that I wouldn't be caught dead in. I haven't seen any pointy toed boots at all locally. I found a few pair online with that style of toe but they were either fancy or rough-out, so they were out. Besides, I really don't care to buy boots online, especially when we're talking at least a couple hundred bucks. I need to feel 'em on my feet before I pony up that kind of money.
When I first got out the army back in 1981, I went back to doing ranch work on the weekends for spending money. When I say ranch work, I ain't talking about herding cattle and yippie-ki-yi-yaying across the lone prairie on horseback, I'm talking all the mundane shit that most people don't think about - mucking troughs and stalls, repairing wire fences, digging holes, stacking hay, shit like that. Stuff that needed to be done but the owner or manager would rather hire somebody than do it themselves. My pointy-toed boots weren't cutting it. One of the guys I was working for directed me to a little back street western store that sold ropers like he was wearing. He said that style would suit me better.
A roper boot is a tight fitting leather lace up uninsulated boot with a narrow round toe and a tall walking heel, the boot standing about 10-11 inches tall. I think I paid just over a hundred bucks for my first pair and that was a pretty penny back then.
But man, they made a world of difference. They had a fairly aggressive sole so I wasn't slipping and sliding, and the ankle support was outrageous. I've had a pair of ropers ever since. I'm on my third pair now.
