half chap fit

I bought 2 pairs of Fuller fillies half chaps. One is wide the other is extra wide. They are both short height. The wide is very tight and hard to get on. It pinches a bit in the back because they are still too tall. The extra wide is a little loose, they gap in the back but zip on without a problem. They fit snuggly across my calf and they don't pinch in the back.
The extra wide would be my first choice but I'm afraid they will strech (they are leather with an elastic back) or I will loose weight.

Which would you choose?
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Leather does stretch, I know half chaps are supposed to be tight when you first wear them... but if they are too tight and really uncomfortable then I'd go for the extra wide.

Can you zip up the wide chaps? How uncomfortable are they? If they are just really tight, but not actually hurting you or putting too much strain on the zipper then I'd stick with the wide and hope they stretch out a bit. :)

The wides are tight enough that I can't hold the two sides together with my hands and they really do pinch the back of my knee. My sister said they had that too tight look. The extra wides gap in the back when I'm standind but fit over the back of my knee when I'm sitting.
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Have you thought about a different brand of half chap?
If you can zip them then that's the right size. They do stretch and since you will rarely bend your knee very much when in the saddle ( I mean not like more than 90 degrees) then I would go with the tighter. The stretch.
My chaps are hard to zip up, but once on they are very comfortable.

Have you tried Ariats? Their all around chaps are really nice and the extra wide is very generaous. Even my huge calfs were not big enough for their extra wides.

I have Dublin half chaps and they are the suede kind. I wear a size medium and mine stretch some...I would personally go with the tighter as well.You don't want them too loose. You want them to fit snug.

I haven't been able to find another brand that sells short half chaps that are nearly short enough. I guess my question is how tight should they fit? As tight as it will still be comfortable? Also about how much do you think they will stretch?

As to what somebody said to me about not bending me knee that much while riding: the chaps are about 1/2 to 1 inch too tall so they go over the back of my knee a bit. So when I bend my leg at all the smaller pair pinches while the bigger pair doesn't.

Well, I prefer tight half chaps. I like the feeling of them tightly hugging my muscles. It's a pain to zip up, because sometimes I hardly can't ( usually after washing them), but I think it really depends on what you prefer. Though I'd go with the tighter ones.

Because yours are leather they will stretch to fit your leg comfortably.

I recently bought a pair of ProChaps Half Chaps, and they are AWESOME. I have very big calves and the XXL's I got were tight to get on, in fact it took DH and I to squeeze me into them the first couple of times

Now they go on and zip up nicely, so I would vote for the smaller pair, they should be more comfortable as they stretch and break down a little behind the knee.

If they are leather then I would treat them the same as a new pair of long boots, get them on, sit in a bath of water until they are soaked through then walk around all day in them, they will conform to your legs and will feel a lot better behind the knee.

I've never heard of doing that before. Are you sure it wont damage the leather? Is there anything else I need to do to take care of them after that?

When I did my long boots I just polished them well when they were dry