Caring for your Winter Horse Blankets

Caring for Your Winter Horse Blankets How often should you wash your horse blankets? And how do you go about it? How often your blanket needs washing can depend on a lot of factors. Everyone has a different system, but here's a few things to think about. How often your horse wears his blanket is a big consideration. A horse that is blanketed all day, every day will generate more laundry than one that wears his blanket only on the coldest nights. What is your blanket made out of? A blanket with a nylon lining, often called coat polishing lining, will help keep the oils on your horse's coat instead allowing them to soak into his blanket. Sweat - While it is never good to allow a horse to sweat under his blanket, that does create salt and residue on his blanket that will make it require washing more often. Coat conditioners that leave oily residues on your horse can also get trapped in the fibers of the blanket and can increase the frequency of washing. Stall habits - If your horse tends to roll in the mud or in areas with urine or manure then his or her blankets will need extra care. Mud or other foreign material can make blankets heavy and stiff, which could make your horse uncomfortable. Wet conditions - a wet blanket is worse than no blanket. If your horse's blanket gets wet, it's always a good idea to have a spare to rotate so that you clean and dry out one while he is wearing the other. When you are ready to wash your blanket, here are a few tips. The first thing to do is to knock the loose mud and hair from the surface. You can do this with a good, stiff brush or a pressure washer (with no soap). For heavily soiled blankets, soaking can help. I like to put a small amount of detergent in a storage tub or a currently unused water trough and fill it up with water. Then soak the blankets overnight, but be sure you check the weather reports to make sure they won't freeze solid! If the blanket has removable straps, remove them and place them in a lingerie bag (often sold at tack stores as polo wrap washing bags) to keep them from becoming tangled, torn, or stretched out. To wash the blanket, I use high capacity machines, preferably without an agitator. The large front load machines at laundromats are my favorite. Toss the bag of straps in as well. Use mild detergents - some horses can have allergies to scents and residue from detergents. My personal preference is Dreft, made for washing clothes and blankets for newborn babies. I also use half the recommended amount. Rinsing is important! I run the wash cycle with the regular rinse, then I run the wash cycle again with no soap to make sure that there is no leftover soap. Drying the blankets can take a lot of time. They need to air dry, and if the temperatures are freezing, that can be tough. Hang them to dry so that air can reach as much as possible. I often hand them on fences, stocks, or on the slant dividers inside my trailer to get them all spread out to dry. I also turn them inside out or flip them over after a while to make sure they dry all the way through. My last secret tip - layers. If you have a show horse that is wearing blankets all the time, use a light weight nylon sheet as your first layer. You can easily wash a light sheet in your home washing machine, or even several at a time in a high capacity machine. This will allow you to keep a clean, non-irritating layer against your horse without washing the heavy blankets as often. If your horse is outside, or is a big roller, put a tough turnout sheet on as the last layer. You can then remove and wash that outer layer without leaving your horse out in the cold!