Wearing Seona's Chaps

In the UK a couple of weeks ago, I met a woman named Seona who had invented a new kind of chap--I generally am a traditionalist, preferring breeches and boots to chaps--I gave away my old 16-year-old pair a few years ago to my friend Amy. Seona's chaps caught my eye at the British Equestrian Trade Association fashion show because they were really the first innovative thing I'd seen in the UK.

So, you take a pair of stretchy jeans, cut out the seat, sew clarino inside the legs and attach zippers up the outside seam on each leg Belt them up and your on your way. Of course it's not that simple and it takes a good amount of business and design savvy to manufacture an entirely new kind of chap. You can wear breeches and boots under them, or breeches and paddocks, or even a long pair of shorts (which is handy here in the desert Southwest.

So I wore my new chaps today for the first time. I put them on right before my 10:30 lesson because I had every intention of riding the horse a bit before he had to be "on duty" with the student, but she was early and I was late. So I wore the chaps while I taught. Then to do chores and then to ride.

First observation: These chaps are cool! They make me feel somehow more hip than my usual riding gear. I might even attract a little attention if I went to the supermarket

Second observation: They are comfortable to ride in. After the first few minutes I didn't even remember I had them on. I didn't have a particularly good ride today (irritable with the wind, which is still blowing gosh darnit) but I was really, really comfy in my chaps.

Observation number three: I didn't want to take them off! I came back in the house and continued working at my computer, still wearing my chaps.

Its always inspiring when a fellow rider invents a product that you know is going to work. That's the case with Seona's chaps. She just has to find a U.S. distributor and that, unfortunately, is the hard part for her. I remember years ago wondering why they didn't put Velcro instead of buckles on galloping boots, and low and behold, they did. If only I'd thought of it and got to market first... Seona, who, by the way, has a wonderful sense of humor and is one of those people that oozes creativity, has one of those "Velcro" ideas, I think. A little refinement and they'll be on every teenage girl rider in the use. I'll be waiting to see what happens with FitFit (her company) (www.fitfit.co.uk She has much better photos on her website.