Dear WW: it's part of the difference with Western riding gear, and the English. No Englishman would appear at a fox hunt wearing cowboy rowels, which though necessary for stubborn mustangs, would be brutal to use on the most spirited English hunter horse, or race horse either. The English spur is just a little knob like the tip of the little finger.
Reminds me of old joke about the Texan who got invited to a fox-hunt, and after the hunt was over, was told by his host (a bit stiffly) that when the fox was sighted, the correct cry was "Tallyho!" Not "there goes the little redassed bastard!"