Antique and Vintage Spurs

Spurs have been around for a couple of thousand years, worn by Celtic, Roman, and Arabian horsemen alike. In all that time, the design of spurs has changed little. A spur’s yoke is still secured to the back of the boot heel by straps. At the outside-bottom part of the yoke is a shank, which is often, but not always, adorned at its end with a decorative, spiked, rotating rowel.

While some spurs were made for English riding styles—the Prince of Wales, the Waterford—th...e spurs of the popular imagination are those made in the 19th-century American west, particularly in the Southwest, where the influence of Mexican jewelers and silversmiths had an huge impact on the design of these tools to spur horses to action.