As the boot went into the stirrup it obviously runs into the heel; the heels have two purposes. The first one is obviously to stop the boot from going straight through the stirrup. More importantly, way back when there was no pavement, no concrete or anything like that, so when the cowboys would dismount off their horses their heel typically was little bit taller. So they would dig it into the ground to allow them to get off their horse safely and have some sort of stability for the foot. The heel also had another purpose; it also held the spur in place. There is something called a spur edge or heel rand, which extended out from the actual heel part of the boot and it created somewhat of a shelf. So the spur was able to rest on top of that. So that helped keep the spur in place.
The boots were made out of any leather that was available then at that point; whether it was calf or cow or whatever the case may be. That usually was just cowhide (something that was really abundant). They would obviously use the meat for food and used their skin for clothing and whatnot. Way back then, typically the boot tops were up to your knees and that served two purposes. The most important being that there were no tractors or anything like that to clear the brush and weeds from wherever you were going. So typically they would be riding through really tall grass and briers and things like that. So it would protect their legs from being scratched up and it also would protect their trousers. Today you see a lot of cowboys tuck their jeans or their pants into their boots to protect them even further. As time went on, people started wearing them more and more. So people wanted a little bit more decoration; they wanted them in different colors; they wanted them in different styles and different toes. So all of that has led to where we are today with bright color tops and fancy stitching and embroidery. Way back then, they didn't have electronic sewing machine so they had to hand stitch everything. So the greater the decoration on the top of the boot the more prestigious it looked. Of course they were more expensive also.
