what was the purpose of these boots?

[Alpo]

Those cavalry boots, that went up higher than the knee.

 

 

I can understand boots that protect maybe from the calf down. That would be to protect from the stirrup leathers rubbing on your leg.

 

But these things go up another 14 inches or so. They look cool. But what is the purpose? Just to look cool?

[J-BAR #18287]

Saddle sores happen all the way up from ankles to tush.  Thinking the higher the boot, the fewer sores on the rider.

 

 I went on YMCA trail rides as a kid.  Wish I had boots that went all the way up to the North Pole.

[Irish Pat]

Jeb wore what were called Dragoon Boots. they protect the rider’s legs and give them supportort 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Protection from sword cuts.

[Texas Lizard]

Ya, but how do get them off....

 

Texas Lizard

[Alpo]

Boot jack

[Texas Joker]

What's the purpose of chaps or chinks

[Alpo]

To protect your legs while riding in heavy brush.

 

But those are part of a military uniform. Not likely to be riding in heavy brush. Joe's sword cut makes more sense.

 

And while I can see how to take them off, I wonder how you put them on? A woman puts on stockings by gathering them up until her hands are down by the foot part and then once her foot's in the foot, rolling the leg part up her leg. I don't think you can roll the leg part of those boots up.

[Pat Riot]

13 hours ago, Alpo said:

Those cavalry boots, that went up higher than the knee.

 

 

I can understand boots that protect maybe from the calf down. That would be to protect from the stirrup leathers rubbing on your leg.

 

But these things go up another 14 inches or so. They look cool. But what is the purpose? Just to look cool?

To pick up chicks!

[Subdeacon Joe]

7 hours ago, Alpo said:

But those are part of a military uniform. Not likely to be riding in heavy brush. Joe's sword cut makes more sense.

 

If I'm reading the uniforms correctly, those are probably cuirassiers, heavy cavalry. But medium and light cav was used for scouting and ambush,  which often did involve riding in brush and bocage.

 

Putting on boots like that is really no different than putting on regular cowboy boots.  They don't encase the back of the knee. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Subdeacon Joe

[Alpo]

32 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

If I'm reading the uniforms correctly, those are probably cuirassiers, heavy cavalry

Donno. Those four guys blowed the trumpets to announce the King was there and they could proceed with the coronation. And they are leading the King into the church.

 

The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937, Ronald Coleman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, C. Aubrey Smith, David Niven. Best version out there, although I do like the '52 remake with Stewart Granger.

[Stump Water]

42 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

They don't encase the back of the knee. 

 

Ko-wrecked.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOygYmBiFaX/

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

15 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Saddle sores happen all the way up from ankles to tush.  Thinking the higher the boot, the fewer sores on the rider.

 

 I went on YMCA trail rides as a kid.  Wish I had boots that went all the way up to the North Pole.

Do you have a south pole?  Wouldn't that make your britches hang funny?

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

William Shatner discussed the scene where he jumped his horse across a gap in one of the later Star Trek movies.
He said the secret to preventing saddle sores was wearing pantyhose under his trousers.

Never tried that dodge myself and was never able to stay aboard Granddad's Appaloosa stallion long enough to acquire saddle sores!

 

[J-BAR #18287]

Thanks SJ, I learned a new word!

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Thanks SJ, I learned a new word!

 

 

Also called "hedgerow."

[sassnetguy50]

17 hours ago, Alpo said:

To protect your legs while riding in heavy brush.

 

But those are part of a military uniform. Not likely to be riding in heavy brush. Joe's sword cut makes more sense.

 

And while I can see how to take them off, I wonder how you put them on? A woman puts on stockings by gathering them up until her hands are down by the foot part and then once her foot's in the foot, rolling the leg part up her leg. I don't think you can roll the leg part of those boots up.

"Hooker boots" would be a better comparison.  A sturdy material rather than a stretchy net.  They put the foot in first, then pull.

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

On 9/29/2025 at 3:39 AM, Alpo said:

Boot jack

Why is it always Jack? Why doesn't boot Bob or boot Ted, or Boot Al ever step up and help take off boots?

[Alpo]

58 minutes ago, Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme said:

Why is it always Jack? Why doesn't boot Bob or boot Ted, or Boot Al ever step up and help take off boots?

In the movie Stalag 17, there is a scene where the commandant is talking to the high command on the phone. He's standing there in his sock feet. He puts on his boots so when he says jawohl! he can click his heels together. After the phone call is finished, he has his orderly straddle his leg and pull on the boot heel while he pushes his orderly from behind with his other foot.

 

He has a boot Fritz.

[Choctaw Jack]

Since we're asking why, why is it always " Jack Sh#t"?

Why not Bob or Ted or even Tom Sh#t ?

I've wondered this all my life!

Choctaw Jack

57 minutes ago, Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme said:

Why is it always Jack? Why doesn't boot Bob or boot Ted, or Boot Al ever step up and help take off boots?

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Why "Jack?"  Just because.
 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Jack

 

Quote

JACK, a word with a great variety of meanings and applications, all traceable to the common use of the word as a by-name of a man. The question has been much discussed whether “Jack” as a name is an adaptation of Fr. Jacques, i.e. James, from Lat. Jacobus, Gr. Ἰάκωβος, or whether it is a direct pet formation from John, which is its earliest and universal use in English. In the History of the Monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury, 1414, Jack is given as a form of John—Mos est Saxonum ... verba et nomina transformare ... ut ... pro Johanne Jankin sive Jacke (see E. W. B. Nicholson, The Pedigree of Jack and other Allied Names, 1892). “Jack” was early used as a general term for any man of the common people, especially in combination with the woman’s name Jill or Gill, as in the nursery rhyme. The New English Dictionary quotes from the Coventry Mysteries, 1450: “And I wole kepe the feet this tyde Thow ther come both Iakke and Gylle.” Familiar examples of this generic application of the name are Jack or Jack Tar for a sailor, which seems to date from the 17th century, and such compound uses as cheap-jack and steeple-jack, or such expressions as “jack in office,” “jack of all trades,” &c. It is a further extension of this that gives the name to the knave in a pack of cards, and also to various animals, as jackdaw, jack-snipe, jack-rabbit (a species of large prairie-hare); it is also used as a general name for pike.

The many applications of the word “jack” to mechanical devices and other objects follow two lines of reference, one to objects somewhat smaller than the ordinary, the other to appliances which take the place of direct manual labour or assist or save it. 

 

[Alpo]

Interestingly, I noticed that your quote from the encyclopedia does not reference the term man jack, as in requiring every man jack here to get out and do such and such.

 

Or do they only say that down here in the southeast?

[Stump Water]

Why is everything always for Pete's sake?

[Alpo]

I think it was trying to de-blaspheme "for Jesus sake". When people would say that in frustration that would be blaspheming - taking the Lord's name in vain.

 

So they went from Jesus to St Peter.

 

My opinion only.

[Subdeacon Joe]

19 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I think it was trying to de-blaspheme "for Jesus sake". When people would say that in frustration that would be blaspheming - taking the Lord's name in vain.

 

So they went from Jesus to St Peter.

 

My opinion only.

 

Exactly.  It's an example of a "minced oath." And of fairly recent origin. Late 19th or early 20th century. 

[Sedalia Dave]

On 9/29/2025 at 11:17 AM, Alpo said:

Donno. Those four guys blowed the trumpets to announce the King was there and they could proceed with the coronation. And they are leading the King into the church.

 

The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937, Ronald Coleman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, C. Aubrey Smith, David Niven. Best version out there, although I do like the '52 remake with Stewart Granger.

 

They're members of a cavalry unit assigned duties as royal guards. Therefore their ceremonial dress uniforms reflect the traditional uniforms of olde worn into battle.