Please just…Please just…Breeches are close-fitting riding trousers that stop just below the knee, cut to disappear inside a tall boot and built to stop you sliding around in the saddle.
The word causes trouble because of everything around it. There are breeches, jodhpurs and riding tights, which are three different garments people use interchangeably. There are knee patches and full seats, which sound like trim options and are actually a discipline decision. And there are size labels reading 38 that turn out to mean US 24 in one garment and US 2 in another.
This guide covers all of it, in the order you are likely to need it.
Breeches vs Jodhpurs vs Riding Tights
The difference is length, and length decides what goes on your feet.
Breeches end just below the knee or at mid-calf, with a smooth closure at the bottom, usually a soft elastic sock bottom or a small Velcro tab, so nothing bunches inside a tall boot. They have a conventional fly and belt loops. This is what most adult riders wear.
Jodhpurs run the full length of the leg to the ankle, often with a small cuff. They are worn with short paddock boots and no half chaps, which is precisely why children ride in them. One garment, one boot, nothing extra to buy or outgrow.
Riding tights are the pull-on version with no fly, usually with a phone pocket on the thigh. They are the newest of the three and they have quietly become what a great many riders school in every day.
None of these is better than the others. Most riders own all three and pick by the day: tights for a hot schooling session, breeches for a lesson, and one clean conservative pair kept aside for the ring.
So why not just wear ordinary trousers? Search for breeches pants and you will find riding trousers under a different name, but the difference is a seam. Jeans and ordinary trousers have a thick inside leg seam sitting exactly where your leg meets the saddle, and an hour of that is genuinely painful. Breeches move that seam, flatten it, or remove it altogether.
Knee Patch or Full Seat?
Where the grip sits is the one specification that follows your discipline rather than your taste.
Knee-patch breeches carry grip material on the inside of the knee only. This is the standard for hunters, jumpers and equitation, where you ride a shorter stirrup and the knee does the gripping over a fence. Older pairs used suede or synthetic leather; most modern ones use printed silicone, which grips well and survives the washing machine.
Full-seat breeches extend that grip across the whole seat and inner leg. Dressage riders favour them because the extra contact helps you sit deep and quiet through collected work. The trade-off is a little more warmth and rather less ability to slide, which is the entire point.
If you are buying your first pair and do not yet know which way your riding will go, buy knee patch. It is the more forgiving of the two and it suits general schooling.
Schooling Colours and Show Colours
Everyday schooling breeches come in every colour made, and darker ones are wonderfully practical around horses.
Show breeches are a different matter, because the conventions are strict. Hunter and jumper riders compete in beige, tan or grey. Dressage riders wear white at recognised shows. If you are building a first wardrobe, the useful rule is to buy whatever colours you like for schooling and keep one clean conservative pair that never leaves the trailer except for competition.
That split is also the strongest argument for buying pre-owned. A show pair is worn a handful of times a season and spends the rest of the year on a hanger, so pairs come onto the resale market in genuinely excellent condition.
What Are Breeches Made Of?
Almost all modern riding breeches are a nylon or cotton blend with spandex or elastane for stretch, and the fabric is where a pair either earns its money or quietly fails. What you want is four-way stretch, giving across the leg as well as along it, because a saddle asks for movement in both directions.
Recovery matters more than stretch, though, and it is the thing nobody tests in a shop. Take a handful of fabric, pull it, and let go. A good pair snaps back immediately. A poor one stays slightly distorted, and that is precisely what will happen at the knee and seat after a month of riding.
Weight should match your climate rather than the season you happen to be shopping in. Midweight blends are the year-round workhorse. Lightweight technical fabrics feel wonderful in July but can go translucent when stretched, so hold a pair up to the light before you trust it with a summer of schooling.
Then look at how it is put together. Seams on the inside leg should be flat-locked or covered, because a raised seam there will rub against the saddle and eventually against you. Silicone grip should be intact and flexible rather than cracking, and a suede patch should be stitched down all the way round rather than glued on.
How Should Breeches Fit?
Closer than ordinary trousers, and closer than feels normal the first time. Snug through seat, thigh and calf, with no pinching at the waist and no bagging behind the knee.
The single most useful thing you can do is sit down in them, because breeches are cut for a bent leg rather than a standing one. A pair that feels very slightly forward-pulling when you stand upright is often perfect in the saddle, and a pair that feels wonderful standing can turn out to be cut wrong for riding. While you are sitting, watch the waistband at the back. It should stay put rather than gape.
Then look at your knee. With the leg bent as it would be over a fence, the grip patch should sit across the kneecap. If it has slid below, the pair is too long in the leg, and grip in the wrong place does nothing at all. Wrinkles tell you the rest: horizontal folds behind the knee or under the seat mean the pair is too big, while fabric straining across the thigh means it is too small.
The back rise is worth a separate look, because it is the measurement that catches people who buy on style. A mid to high rise keeps you covered when you tip forward into two-point. A low fashion rise will gape the moment you sit in a saddle, and no amount of stretch fixes it.
One last thing, and it applies to every brand: ignore the number on the label. Sizing varies wildly between makers, and between different years of the same maker. Go by measurements every time.
How European Size Labels Work
European makers do not use US sizing, and they do not use each other’s either. Italian houses such as Equiline run on one scale, French houses such as Dada Sport on another. Equiline publishes its own conversion, and these are the pairings from it.
| Italian | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 | 46 | 48 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US women’s breeches | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 |
An Italian 38 is a US 24 in breeches but a US 2 in a show coat. Coats and breeches run on completely different scales, so the same number on two garments from the same brand means two entirely different sizes. Read across the wrong row of a size chart and you are not one size out, you are in a different system.
The French and Italian systems are offset from each other. On our own listings a Dada Sport breech marked FR 34 is a US 24, and FR 32 is a US 22. Set that against the Italian table above and the same US 24 breech is an Italian 38 and a French 34, four numbers apart for an identical garment.
So before you order anything European, check whose system the label belongs to. It takes ten seconds and it is the difference between a pair that fits and a pair you have to sell on.
How to Judge a Pre-Owned Pair
Breeches suit the resale market well, because their failure points are visible rather than hidden. Riders also part with pairs for reasons that have nothing to do with wear: a change of size, a change of discipline, a change of mind about colour. Five checks will tell you which you are looking at, and all of them work from listing photographs if you know what to ask for.
- Start at the knees and seat, which take the most wear. Light pilling is normal and nothing to worry about. Fabric that has gone thin or shiny is not.
- Look closely at the grip. Silicone should be intact rather than flaking away, and a suede patch should still have texture rather than being worn slick.
- Test the elastic at the waistband and sock bottoms. Both should have firm snap-back, and elastic that has given up cannot be revived.
- Run the zip and check the seat seam. A stretched or broken seat seam is the one repair not worth paying for.
- Ask for measurements rather than the size. Waist, hip and inseam beat a label every time, particularly across different brands and different years.
A pair that passes all five is worth buying. You can see what riders are currently listing in riding breeches and riding tights, or browse the full shop for the rest of the kit.
Do Beginners Actually Need Breeches?
Not for the first few lessons. Leggings and any boot with a defined heel will get you through perfectly well, and most barns lend helmets, so you may need to buy nothing at all to start.
Once you are riding every week, it changes. The grip, the seam placement and the boot-friendly cut genuinely make riding easier, and they spare you the chafing that jeans cause. Buy once you know you are carrying on, and buy one well-fitting knee-patch pair in a practical colour before you buy anything else.
Frequently Asked Questions
Close-fitting riding trousers that end just below the knee or at mid-calf, designed to be worn with tall boots or with paddock boots and half chaps. They are cut for a bent leg, with flat seams that will not rub against the saddle and grip panels at the knee or seat.
“Britches”, rhyming with riches. The spelling and the pronunciation parted company centuries ago, which is why it catches almost everyone out the first time they read it.
Length. Breeches stop below the knee and are worn with tall boots or half chaps. Jodhpurs run the full length of the leg to the ankle and are worn with short paddock boots, which is why children usually ride in them.
Where the grip is. Knee patch has grip on the inside of the knee only and suits jumping, hunters and equitation. Full seat carries grip across the whole seat and inner leg and suits dressage, where you want to sit deep and still.
Yes, and plenty of riders live in them on barn days. Riding tights in particular double as ordinary leggings. Show whites are the exception and are best kept away from anything that stains.
A US 24 in Equiline’s own chart. Be careful though, because an Italian 38 show coat from the same brand is a US 2. Coats and breeches use different scales entirely.
Two or three schooling pairs and one show pair covers most riders comfortably. If you ride daily, a couple more saves you doing laundry every other night.
Up to a point. Price tracks fabric and construction closely in the mid range, and at the very top you are partly paying for fashion. That is exactly why lightly worn premium pairs are such good value on the resale market: you get the fabric and the construction without the fashion premium.
Building a Wardrobe
Reequestrian is the US peer to peer marketplace for buying and selling English equestrian gear. Riders list their own breeches, jodhpurs and tights directly, which means the person selling can tell you how a brand runs, whether it comes up small, and what it was ridden in. That is information no size chart gives you.
Browse riding breeches and see what riders are passing along right now.
Have a pair that no longer fits or no longer suits your discipline? List them for sale and put them toward the next size.
