It's amazing to me how much cooler it seems to have my lower leg open - maybe the knee patches on the riding breeches trap a lot of heat.
On top of that, I always ride with half chaps. They're the first thing I take off the minute we arrive back at the barn. Our daughter Abby tried riding in cycling shorts one time. Her legs were scratched on every exposed surface. It's just too brushy and most of our trails are too narrow for shorts. The other day, just coming down onto Creekside on the access trail I got stabbed in the leg with a sharp broken branch of something. It tore a round hole in my tights and left an 8" scratch up my thigh. I felt quite the warrior with blood dripping down my tights, but it's too expensive to have to keep replacing tights and the half chaps really do offer some protection. Nancy
