Ryan, could I suggest an alternate idea for the shoe heel?
This will require a little background ......... I raise and ride horses. Always have, to some degree probably will till the day I die. Still have 3. My Arabian stallion and my two Quarter horse reining horses.
I have ridden anything and everything I could get my hands on. That includes rough stock (rodeo stock) up to and including Arabian national level Park horses. Park horses are the peacock, high trotting horses. Have done varying things from barrel racing to world class over fences. National level reining and cutting horses. Been there, done that. Still do that, but to a lesser degree. Competing with the horses is mainly what brought me, from time to time, to the Southwestern states. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Scottsdale. AZ, as well as the plains area of Canada.
Doesn't mean I'm right about my guess. Just means that I do have some working experience in what I'm going to tell you. You could be ABSOLUTELY right that its a Victorian women's shoe heel. Just humor me a moment.
What I think you are looking at is a high heel, forward slung, cowboy boot heel. They are gender neutral. Although these days you can buy women's models and men's models there isn't any difference in the actual construction. Just depends on if you want them with pink accent bows <g>. They have very narrow heels that do not reach to the margins of the normal sole but fit under the body of the shoe. They are made specifically for riding. Unlike the Sinatra song "These boots are made for walkin". These type boots are made for riding. The heel on them is about 2 inches. Regardless if its a 6' 2" cowboy or a 5' 2" cowgirl.
The forward slung angle of the heel positions the foot forward and in correct balance in the stirrup. It also accommodates a large rowel spur and correctly positions your foot to keep the spur off when you don't want to engage it and to engage it with the full support of the heel when you do want it. The bad part about these style boots is, they aren't worth crap for walking. The heel is angled and narrows down to where it comes in contact with the ground. The heel of your foot is actually bigger than the area of the boot heel that comes in contact with the ground. Feels like you are walking on the head of a railroad spike. Because of their shape and where your weight hits the ground they are famous for breaking away from the boot. Just like the one in the video has separated from the boot.
Here's a good representative photo.
If you want to look it up its called a high heel style cowboy boot and I think the shape of the heel is called "Cuban style".
Now as to the metal "tap". This is where my redneck youth comes into play. Metal taps were all the rage in the 40's, 50's and into mid 60's. Just like what you are looking at. I can easily imagine old Herman applying a full metal tap to keep from having the boots re-heeled. Originally for dancers, regular folks adopted them to save shoe leather.
We, as kids, used them on every shoe we could fit them to.
