In 1994, cowboy boots went out of style and the partnership crumbled. Ferry started his own company, Old Gringo Boots, now a hot label.

Benattar blames the decline in the sale of high-end boots to "fat-assed" line dancers, who he refers to as "transwestites."

"They wore hokey costumes and cheap, uncomfortable boots and destroyed the 'cool' factor for the cowboy boot," he says.

While the Real Deal rides bucking broncs and collects prize buckles, the rest of us slip into our Wranglers and Stetsons and sashay through town as if we owned the place. Those of us who have spent time in the saddle feel especially smug, but even 'transwestites' (those people our daddies described as all hat and no cattle) are welcome when the stock show is in town. We join hands with ranchers, rodeo cowboys, fiddlers, farriers and boot salesmen for a nostalgic celebration of our Western roots. Then we pack up and head back to our real lives in 21st-century Colorado.

DRAG queens like to say that anything you wear is a form of drag. After all, when the day ends the yuppie guy trades his power tie for sweats and a cap worn backward; the businesswoman's practical pantsuit and sensible two-inch heels get exchanged for things tighter, clingier, blacker. So why shouldn't businessmen dressed as cowboys in a Houston bar be called, as one fellow drinker put it, ''transwestites''?