Tony Lama Boots

The American cowboy remains a mythic icon for millions of people around the world. Their ideas are based mostly on "westerns," TV shows and movies made in Hollywood about life in the Old West, when settlers established towns and set up ranches, farms and homesteads in the western part of North America during the latter half of the 19th century. The image of the cowboy was used to create one of the most successful corporate advertising campaigns ever, for Marlboro cigarettes. Levi's and Wrangler blue jeans are bought by urban consumers who have never been near a cow or horse, yet identify the clothes they wear with freedom and wide open spaces and the cowboy way of life. The cowboy may be the only profession that has inspired a writing genre, hundreds of movies and TV shows, a special type of music and a spectator sport-the rodeo.

 But there are still cowboys working cows today. Cowboying can be hard, dirty, often lonely, and sometimes, dangerous work. Branding calves on a roundup is an arduous task and requires multi-tasking. You have to be able to rope calves from a horse and wrestle them to the ground for branding.
When a cowboy messes up, his pride can be hurt by ridicule from other crew members, or worse, he can be seriously injured by a bucking horse or a kicking calf.

So cowboys learn to savor the good times. Wild rose bushes are in bloom along with choke­cherries, wafting their fresh fragrance as you ride past. The smell of crushed sagebrush mixed with horse sweat and saddle leather is like rare incense or a cowboy cologne. Being able to see the sunrise and sunset every day and to watch the stars come out at night is another simple pleasure. If you're a cowboy or if you just dream of the cowboy life, jeans, hat and a good pair of Tony Lamas is a necessity.