Etymology

The very old word derives from Anglo-Saxon sputa, spora, related to spornan, spurnan, to kick, spurn; cf. Medieval High German Sporn, modern German Sporn, Dutch spoor, Frisian spoar. The generalized sense of "anything that urges on, stimulus" is recorded in English from circa 1390.

Design

The parts of a spur include:

• The yoke, branch, or heel band, which wraps around the heel of the boot.
• The shank or neck, which extends from the back of the heel band and is the area that usually touches the horse
• The rowel, seen on some spurs, a small revolving wheel or disk with radiating points at the end attached to the shank.

Spurs are usually held on by a leather or leather-like strap, called a spur strap, that goes over the arch of the foot and under the sole in front of the boot heel. Some western designs have a leather strap that goes only over the top, with a heel chain or a rubber "tiedown" instead of a strap under the boot. There are also styles with no straps where the heel band simply is very tight and slips on wedged between the sole and heel of the boot. Some spur designs have a slot for running the spur strap through, others have "buttons," sometimes on the heel band itself and sometimes attached to the heel band by hinges, that allow a strap with buttonholes to be attached.

When used in military ranks, senior officers, and officers of all ranks in cavalry and other formerly mounted units of some armies, wear a form of spur in certain orders of dress which is known as the box spur, having no spur strap but a long metal prong opposite the neck, extending between the arms of the heel band, which is inserted into a specially fitted recess or "box" in the base of the boot heel. Due to the prong, such spurs can only be worn with appropriately equipped boots. This construction is shown in the illustrations of the swan neck and waterford spurs below.

Spurs seen in western riding may also have small curved-up hooks on the shank in front of the rowel, called "chap guards," that were originally used to prevent the rider's chaps from interfering with the rowels of the spur. Some cowboys also added small metal Pajados, also known as Jingo Bobs or Jingle Bobs, near the rowel, to create a jingling sound whenever the foot moved.

In the history of veterinary science, the word "rowel" described a small disk of leather or other material that was used as a seton stitch.

History

The spur's use cannot with certainty be traced further back than Ancient Rome. Early spurs had a neck that ended in a point, called a prick, riveted to the heel band. Prick spurs had straight necks in the 11th century and bent ones in the 12th. The earliest form of the horseman's spur armed the heel with a single prick. In England the rowel spur is shown upon the first seal of Henry III and on monuments of the 13th century, but it does not come into general use until the 14th century. The earliest rowels probably did not revolve but were fixed.