Although we are still contending with some summer temperatures, winter is right around the corner. With the decent weather, I opted to clean the stash of horse blankets. We'd had such a rough winter that when I took the blankets off for good, the blankets simply stayed put in a heap on the floor.
I know other horse owners are better and quickly cleaned and repaired their blankets so there would be no need to rush around and get ready for the first cold/wet snap. I, on the other hand, am not that type of person. I blame it on being a mom to a toddler.
Last year the herd wore blankets for a large portion of winter. In doing so, they ripped holes in the blankets, ripped out leg straps, and pretty well wrecked havoc on every blanket possible. I was able to eek out a few hours to myself to wash blankets and that's when it occurred to me.
What do other horse people do to clean their blankets?
I know some will go to the Laundromat and sneak their horse blanket in. My horse blankets were too disgusting and too many. It would have had to spend about as much in washing blankets as it would to buy one or two really good blankets.
Some people go to the car wash (but I've not seen too many people do that). Again, it would have had to spent more in power washing blankets as I would to buy one or two really good blankets.
I opted for the old fashioned method, elbow grease. I'm sure my method is incorrect and I do question some of my cleaning abilities and supplies. But if it helps to cut costs for someone else, I guess that's all that matters.
I ended up dragging out the hose with a good power washer nozzle, and sprayed down the outer cover. Then with a bucket of warm sudsy water (I used dish soap and am thinking I should have maybe look at something more horse friendly) and a stiff horse brush (a good method of getting your horse brushes clean!), I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed until the "mud" (we'll call it mud for my sake) was mostly removed and only a stain remained on the outer covering. Then I took the hose and rinsed off the outer covering. I knew the waterproofing was good when I would grab the blanket and it wasn't too heavy. However, I repeated the process on the inside and practically tipped over when trying to lift the blanket. The inner lining is NOT waterproof and with the batting on some, soaked up the water.
My biggest mistake was that some water got into the batting thanks to some holes (and a lot of it simply soaked through the soft material that goes against the horse's hair. I did have a half dozen blankets that had stinky water WITHIN the blanket, even after sitting out for three days. I was rather disappointed and wasn't sure what to do.
My only option, to cut the inside, soft lining and drain the stinky, dirty water. I hope that I didn't make a mistake in doing so but I HAD to get the water out. This winter will be the test to see if making a small hole in the lining did any damage.
After letting the blankets dry, I wanted to ensure that the waterproofing was still good. Some of the blankets had little to no waterproofing left after last year. For waterproofing, I simply bought deck water sealer/waterproofing. It works like a charm. I simply dump the waterproofing/sealer into a big butter dish (you know the kind...the "oh I can't believe it's not butter" dish), and with a fat paint brush, slathered the blanket with waterproofing.
With a gallon of waterproofing, I was able to get a total of six blankets completely waterproofed. If we hadn't had so much humidity, I expect the blankets would have dried within a few hours. As it was, a thunderstorm was rolling in, so I had to haul all six blankets into the garage and find places to prop them up and let them dry overnight. It's amazing how creative you can get to find places (saw horses, lawn chairs, wheel dolly, and even my toddler's toy car).
After the blankets were dry, I still had to repair them. I can't afford to send my blankets in to get washed and repaired (but what I would give to be able to.) We do not have a heavy duty sewing machine. My one dollar sewing machine doesn't even work at the moment. Instead I used a blunt needle and embroidery floss to sew up the gapping holes. I sewed up some holes last year using embroidery floss, so we'll see if this year's sewing holds out as well.
So what do you do to wash, waterproof, and repair your blankets?
This is Babe. We lost her last September. She was 31 years old and completely blind but tough as nails to the very end.
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