Well, I've finally done it, but only halfway, as usual.
As you know, I've been reading all these horse magazines, and I keep seeing 
the ads for Ariat boots.  They're supposed to be super comfortable, have a 
gel-pad in the forefoot portion where your toes live, an improved steel shank 
for better support while riding, etc.  I've seen testimonials in product 
reviews where cross-country officials wore them all day to stomp around the 
course and loved them.  I'm a big fan of comfortable shoes so I've been 
wanting to get some of these boots ever since I first saw the ads.  Trouble 
is, where do I get them since I don't have a tack shop nearby.  You know.
So then Nordstroms in San Francisco started carrying them.  If you haven't 
been to the Pacific Northwest, you should know that Nordy's started out life 
as a shoe shop and then gradually transmogrified over the decades into the 
big department store they are now.  But they haven't forgotten their roots, 
and the shoe departments are pretty good.  Come last September, when the San 
Francisco Grand Prix was running, they had a trunk show for Ariat.  Well, I 
was busy, I was broke, I couldn't really justify them, etc.  I didn't go.  
You know what a procrastinator I am.
Now my shoe shop in downtown Berkeley has an Ariat sign in the window.  Oooh, 
danger, within walking distance of my house.  I was still too broke, I didn't 
really *need* riding boots,  blah blah blah.  I stayed away.
Yesterday I was at work, put a foot down wrong, it hurt like heck, and I 
said, that's it, I'm buying new shoes or else.  Went on my lunch break to my 
downtown shoe shop to get a new pair of Easy Spirit walking shoes, my 
standard thing for work.  
I don't know what it is about spring, but there's something about being in a 
shoe store surrounded by all these open shoes and flimsy sandals and jellies 
and other bits of nothing, I always get this craving for a good solid pair of 
walking shoes or boots instead.  And when I came in the door, I went straight 
to where the Easy Spirit shoes usually live, but they've moved, and right on 
the way to where they used to be is a display of shoes from Ariat.  
I find the Easy Spirit display, and what's more, I find the saleswoman who 
sold me my last pair.  She sizes up the situation in the blink of the eye and 
warns me off:  "oh, no, you don't want to buy them today, we're having a 
trunk show Saturday and all the Easy Spirit styles will be on sale".  
So there I am with money burning a hole in my pocket from my paycheck the day 
before, and sore feet that are saying "new shoes NOW".  And yet I don't want 
to buy shoes that I can get cheaper three days later.  And as a retailer, I 
have a certain amount of fellow feeling for my saleswoman, who has just 
risked losing a sure sale now in favor of only a possible bigger sale on 
Saturday.  Across the store, I see the Ariat display. 
So I said, "well, as long as I'm here ..."
Savvy saleswoman brings me Ariat shoes and then lets me stand around in them 
for five or ten minutes while she writes up another customer and chats to me 
and to a third customer who has been listening to our conversation and 
doesn't know what a trunk show is.  Eventually I notice just how much better 
my feet feel, even standing in one place, since I have changed out of my 
totally thrashed Easy Spirits and am standing on this new improved Ariat gel 
bed.  Lots of good arch support which I desperately need.  And so on.  
You can guess the rest.  I am now the proud owner of a pair of Ariat Sport 
Mules, in oiled chocolate Nubuck.  These are sort of like boots but also like 
the kind of shoes that we would have called "clogs" while I was growing up; 
they look like boots in front but are open at the back (like clogs) so you 
can kick them on and off.  Only the Ariat ones are clever:  they have this 
wide strap which fits over the instep (the top of the shoe where your foot 
goes in).  It's connected with these two little rivets so if you want to, 
voila, you swing the strap around and then it tucks around your ankle and 
keeps the shoes on.  If you don't need it, it fits smoothly over the top and 
looks like a design feature.  They also have the high-tech heel cup in back, 
so the heel area has a bit of a rim on it instead of being just flat, which 
also helps the shoes stay on.  Very cool.  
Why the big fuss?  Well, this is the first pair of shoes I've ever bought 
which come with their own care and cleaning instructions, number one.  (It 
was very amusing for this city girl to see care instructions for shoes that 
warn you to clean the manure off every time because it is hard on the 
leather, although I didn't need to be warned about that particular point.)  
And it is certainly the only pair of shoes I've ever bought which came with a 
*warranty card*.   Maybe all riding boots have them, but coming from 
street-shoe hell where most of the manufacturers these days don't seem to 
care about fit or comfort or anything except the price point, I was 
impressed.  
So we'll see how they work out, but for right now, yes, my preliminary 
findings agree with the ads: these barn shoes are every bit as comfortable as 
the ads say they are.  The heels are solid and high enough to ride in, though 
I wouldn't ride in any open shoes, fancy heel strap or not -- it's just 
asking for trouble.  But they ought to give me a good test run for how 
comfortable the paddock shoes would be.  
Anyway, if you are in the market for new boots or barn shoes, check them out. 
 They are good looking shoes, they look well-made, the materials look good, 
and no, I'm not a secret agent for the company, it's only a coincidence that 
the company is based in northern California .  Too bad the shoes 
themselves are made outside of the US.  :-(
Now all I have to do is start saving my pennies for next fall when all the 
stores have boots again.  Then I can get the paddock shoes and the matching 
half-chaps.  And then all I'll need is a hard hat to be armed and dangerous.  
;-)
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