HIGH POCKETS

Maybe a 10-gallon hat holds less than a gallon, but most Western clothing lives up to its reputation of being the best thing to wear in horse country.

In Colorado's Estes Park, cowhands and dudes wear essentially the same getups: high boots, high pockets, Stetson hats. There is a difference. A dude will blow a week's pay on a fancy-Dan rose-embroidered shirt, but a cowboy spends his poke on his boots. Miller's Stockmen's Store in Denver can make a McCoy out of a dude for under $30; a shadow rider (one who admires his shadow all day) of anyone with money to burn.

Barbara Stafford is a Texan to her boots ($49.50 to order), works at Sprague's Lodge above Denver in the summer. Here she saddles up in her favorite ranch clothes: Levis, Western shirt, hand-tooled belt with silver buckle and 3X beaver Stetson ($20).

Hand-tooled belts with trophy buckles range from $3 (above) to bejeweled Texas specials.

Cover girl, Joyce Sellers, shown here cooling boot-hot feet, wears embroidered gabardine shirt.

New boot has lower (1½ inches) heel, makes life less precarious for both cowboy and dude.

Down a mountain road at Stead's Ranch in Estes Park trot four vacationing girls dressed in denim, the West's favorite fabric. Traditional dark blue pants (left) are teamed with newly popular caballero shirt. The lighter blues are also lighter in weight. Both the pink skirt, for after-the-ride relaxing, and the striped pony pants (right) are favorites at Estes. Most Western garments have snaps of nickle-rimmed pearl instead of buttons, pointed yokes on shirts and jackets.

Horse Breeder Art Card (second from right) talks horses with three fanciers. His "Rancher" suit is custom-made by Gross of Denver in gray twill, is what stockmen wear to town and church. It has side-vented jacket, frontier-style pants, costs $97. Visitors wear such dress-up clothing as fringed suede jacket, embroidered gabardine shirt, such practical gear as denim pants and jacket.

SIX PHOTOS

CARL IWASAKI