I purchased a long Myron Mclane Original apron from North East farrier supply. Bill dropped it off at my barn this morning allong with the rest of my order (what service!).
I opened up the box excited that I get to ditch my shorty Dura Pro Apron in favor of something with longer legs. Im a halfway tall guy 6'1 and not agresivley built, I weigh about 185lbs and have about a 33 inch waist. I went with the Medium - long. They looked and felt nice. So I tried them on.
Pretty much immediatly I was a bit disapointed about the fit on chaps on the inside of my legs. The leathers dont seem to wrap far enough around the inside of my leg. They go to about the seem in the pantleg maybe a little further (about the middle of my pants). My Dura Pro Apron wrapped much further in.
But they were Very light and comfortable and LONG. I was pretty excited about the length. I'm 6'1 and they came down to a few inches above my pant leg and were still VERY light.
The knife pockets were bit tight, but fit the knife well. This is good because I have problems with loseing knives out of my chap pockets on a regular basis. =] THey just fall out.. These stay in nice and snug. Its comforting... But The knife pockets were too high and too far wrapped to the outside. When I have the horses foot up I cannot acess the knife that is on the chap toward the horse. This is very anoying..
Another issue is that the velcro straps constantly made that velcro crinkle noise. This doesnt bother me but it seemed to get a few of the horses I was working pretty worried. In fact I moved a little under one and he leaped forward snorting and wide eyed.. This horse is typically good. This issue might go away when the chaps break in further..?
The chaps seemed of a very sturdy build quality. The fit was good, and didnt require much adjusting (asside form the inside of my leg). The waist belt has some elstic which helps you get a nice snug, but not overly tight fit. I I dint feel like they were falling off or too tight. I ditn have to re-adjust the belt after putting on the apron. This was nice. My other pairs of chaps I had to constantly adjust the damn things throughout the day.
But on my second horse of the day one of the saftey snap buttons pulled OUT of the chap belt it was rivited into. I dont think I can fix it without buying new parts. I'm a bit worried the other one will rip out too, but it held well. But this is not something to expect out of a brand new pair of chaps on the second horse.. Allthough they did hold up the rest of the day well. But this is probably a typical production issue. I dont feel like I bought an inferior product because of this. I'm sure it can be easily fixed, those types of things happen.
Another thing I did like was that the velcro straps from the inside of the leg were pretty darn wide. The problem i had with my Grand Circut apron was that every time I pulled the foot between my legs I would have to stuff the apron back down between my legs. This is a HUGE annoyance. The McLane apron however stayed put. This was very nice.
Even though my grand circut apron is quite a bit lighter on the scale the MM apron did not feel any heavier at all, in fact it felt lighter. I did find that i didnt notice a big differance when I took the Myron McLane apron off. I ussually notice when I take the Dura Pro off. I think this has a lot to do with how the McLane apron fits at the waist. It just stays put.
I did like the apron minus that inseem issue. That bothers me a lot and I find it hard to beleive that it would be diesigned like that. The knife pockets are a huge issue with me as well.
One half of me wishes that I just had someone make me a nice apron, but the other half really likes like way MM fits. I mean its comfortable as whearing your jeans and wears very light.
I like the apron, but I might have someone copy the design for myself with a few personal changes, or maybe even modify this one. I really like it, but a few things get under my skin. Perhaps some time will change that.
What do you think of this apron?
-Josh
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Extreme vaporizer