Pant Legs

I was reading on another web site a discussion about whether or not cowboys of the old west wore their pants inside their boots or outside. It was just the kind of inane discussion I like to get into. I remember being a teenager and buying "boot cut" jeans because they were so much cooler than the "stove pipe" kind. I still buy the 'boot cut" jeans (because I'm still cool) but I admit I still stick my trousers down inside my cavalry boots when I ride. If you don't the black dye on the girth straps gets all over your pants. The military trousers we wear are the "stove pipe" design so they don't lend themselves to being worn over the boots. I can't help but notice that in most historical photographs and illustrations that the cavalry wore their pants tucked into their boots. I have also noticed that guys who ride in the cavalry like to stick various items in the tops of the boots when they ride. Knives are the most common article but that is also the most common article to wind up in the arena sand. I've seen guys try and stick their pistols in their boot top when they are trying to switch from pistol to saber and can't get the pistol back into the holster on a moving horse (it takes practice, practice, practice). These guys usually end up paying a beverage fine because the pistol usually falls out. I've also read that in the old days that troopers would store chewing tobacco in the tops of their boots. I shudder to think about other items that might have been stored that way. Hopefully no one tried to put a banana or a pop sickle in there. Anyway, the military practice of wearing their trousers inside their boots may have spilled over into the civilian world as kind of a fashion statement or maybe it was just more practical to do that with high top boots.