Cowboy Boot Day isn’t what they’re calling the National Day of the American Cowboy, but at Allens Boots, that’s how we think of it.

Not that we’re complaining about the National Day of the American Cowboy. Just the opposite, in fact. But if we’re going to join the Senate in honoring “the contributions of the cowboy into the history of the American West,” you’ll have to cut us a little slack if we call it Cowboy Boot Day. It’s a heckuva lot shorter and it sounds better to us cowboy boot blog diehards.

Senate Resolution 130, or “the Cowboy Boot Day resolution,” was sponsored by Senator Craig Thomas (R-Wyoming) in response to organizing efforts from American Cowboy magazine, and it named last July 28, 2007, as the third annual Cowboy Boot Day. According to the official announcement, the celebration intends to “encourage Americans to live the values and the code of the cowboy boot.”

Okay, okay, so we stuck the word “boot” after the word “cowboy.” But aren’t they the same thing? Aren’t both cowboys and cowboy boots noted for these same characteristics?

• rugged
• hard-working
• uncomplicated
• strong
• low-maintenance (after being properly broken or boot-fit, of course)
• uncomplaining

We’d argue that a Cowboy Boot Day is just as apt a celebration of the cowboy esthetic as National Day of the American Cowboy. Plus, for gender equity, we’d like to tell the folks at American Cowboy that it’s a lot easier to have a Cowboy Boot Day than to set up celebrations for both cowboys and cowgirls. Don’t you think?

So as you set out your calendar for 2008, please pencil in Cowboy Boot Day. It’s the fourth Saturday in July. And make sure you shop for cowboy boots from Allens. Get those boots, shined, polished and ready for the occasion. Cowboy Boot Day!