Custom Leather Footwear, Saddles, and Accessories
The cowboy wears real fancy things,
His hat, his boots, a tie.
But he is really not just dressing up
Did you ever wonder why
His hat is wide and his chaps have fringe
And his moderate good taste ain’t?
He wears conchos on this and tassels on that
Until he ends up looking quaint.
Well it all makes sense the way he looks.
There is a reason for each why.
I won’t take time to tell it all
But I’ll give the boots a try.
There was a time when cowboy boots
Weren’t cowboy boots at all.
And they might forever stayed that way
‘cept for Smiley Wyatt Ball.
Old Smiley’s bunch was moving cows
Right up the Chisholm Trail.
He’d brought those beasts through everything.
Through rain and wind and hail.
But one by one they were dropping dead.
One here, and then one there.
No, he lost the boys, not the cows
Because of their footwear.
That’s right, footwear, I mean their boots
They weren’t very agile
and when a cowboy’s boots ain’t right
his life can get real fragile.
Like, take the time that Injuns came
And the men all had to scoot.
‘Cept for Clinton Briggs who had bad luck
Getting the stirrup around his boot.
The closer they came the harder he tried
To mount that crazy colt.
But with a square toed boot he hopped and kicked,
Then he watched that jug head bolt.
And Pistol Jones, he fancied himself
A good hand might famed.
He’d yelp and hoot and buck them out
And do it all loose reined.
But sad the day he spurred too high
And his low heel went clean through.
Rag doll like, flopping around the stud
A prairie farewell for him too.
Those two went fast. Lucky in light
Of the long slow death of Clegg.
Boot tops too low and the leathers rough
Wore sores upon his leg.
Infection and flies and sickness came.
This stanza isn’t cute.
Such misery and carnage would not have been
With a higher stitched top boot.
Well, it was Smiley Wyatt and eight hundred head
That arrived in Kansas alone.
Olathe City had but one boot maker
And Smiley went right to his home.
The boots to be made seemed bizarre at best
To this old cobbler from Sicily.
High tops that were stitched
and pointy toes that would look so silly.
Well, Old Cob liked Wyatt and he told him that day
That he thought the women would laugh
At pixie toes and at bimbo heels
And at leather all the way up the calf.
But the Cobbler was wrong and Wyatt in luck
Because the women were all entranced.
Smiley looked the gals over and said, “Well shucks’
And went out on the town and danced.
So now a days real men wear cowboy boots
To the dismay of their wives.
They’re worn for the fit and support they give
And to improve their social lives.