When you are ready to store your blankets for the summer, please make certain to clean them first! Regular cleaning helps ensure a healthy environment and extends the life of your expensive blankets, pads, and other gear.
Cleaning Horse Blankets and Sheets
When it comes to washing your horse’s blankets, you have two options: washing them yourself, or using a laundry service.
If you’ve chosen the do-it-yourself route, you can use your own washer or head to the laundromat. If you’re going to try a laundromat, be sure to call first to make sure that horse blankets are allowed. It’s also a smart idea to do a pre-wash at the barn first to help save your washer. Just use a stiff brush to get any excess hair, mud, or dirt off the blanket, hose it off, and hang it to dry.
After your pre-wash at the barn, it’s time to hit the laundry! Ideally, you should follow the washing instructions provided by the manufacturer, and consider using a detergent specifically designed for horse blankets, like Dry Guy Horse Blanket Fabric Tech Wash. Once your blankets have been through the washer, you can hang them to dry. To help prevent the color from fading, consider hanging them in the shade rather than in the sun. Once your blankets are clean and dry, you’ll also want to consider re-waterproofing them.
If you’ve decided that you’d rather not wash them in your own washer, many areas offer horse blanket washing services. If you’ve never used a blanket laundry service before, ask around for recommendations. When you’re researching the different services available to you, a few things to consider are whether they apply a waterproofing coating after they’ve finish washing them, if they offer blanket repairs, and if they’ll pick up your dirty blankets and deliver your clean blankets back to your barn.
Store and Protect
Once the blanket is completely dry, use a storage bag, or if you want to be really fancy, a vacuum sealed bag to store it in during the warmer months. You can then put the individual blanket bags into a larger plastic container, like a Rubbermaid. This keeps them out of harm’s way (aka rodents, barn cats and other undesirable creatures you don’t want living in your blankets) until the next time you use them. Label the container and bag with the horse’s name and blanket weight/type (heavy, medium, light, etc.) for easy finding when the cold weather hits again.
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