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How to Wash Horse Blankets the Easy Way

At the end of a long winter, horse blankets can be so dirty that they look unsalvagable. In this Ultimate Guide to Cleaning Horse Blankets, I’ll show you how to wash horse blankets thoroughly- so you can totally clean and restore even the most soiled and weathered horse blankets- with less work and better results!

By learning how to wash horse blankets correctly, your blankets can look great and perform well for another season. In this post, you’ll learn:

Read on to learn my expert advice for washing horse blankets with less stress and struggle.

Ultimate guide to using, cleaning, storing, and caring for winter horse blankets

How to Clean Horse Blankets in the Spring

In our rush to enjoy spring weather with our horses, it can be tempting to remove horse blankets in the spring and toss them into storage to deal with late, but a bit of time caring for your blankets in spring means having fresh, repaired, ready-to-warm blankets to pull out on that first cold night next fall.

Below are the steps you should take each spring to ensure blanket longevity:

Removed Caked on Dirt Before Removing Blanket from Horse

If your spring has been a wet one, when you pull blankets off for the spring to switch to lightweight overnight sheets or no blanket at all, there’s a good chance your blanket will be covered with caked-on dirt. Since a blanket in this condition can’t go in a washing machine (and wouldn’t come clean if it did!) You’ll need to clean this caked-on mud off your blanket first.

I do this with a rubber curry comb (avoid the metal type as this can damage the nylon fabric of the exterior). Once that dirt is broken up a bit, you can use a stiff brush to remove as much as possible. You may have to repeat currying and then brushing a few times, depending on how dirty your blanket is.

3 Essential safety inspections to do before cleaning

Inspect for Tears

As you are brushing your horse’s blanket, look for tears. Once the first layer of dirt has been removed, check the nylon for signs of wear and abuse. Often tears start out tiny and can be repaired very easily, before being ripped wide-open and ruining the blanket. If you’re not sure how to repair a blanket, you can easily learn this skill from tutorials and YouTube videos, or you can find a local small business that does horse blanket repairs in many areas where horse ownership is common.

Remove leg straps and check elastic

The leg straps on your blanket should unclip and detach completely. Remove them and clean them separately. Inspect the elastic to see if it is too stretched out to be reused another year. The elastic used in horse blanket leg straps wear out quickly, luckily these are easy to replace.

Check buckles and hardware

The buckles and hardware used on horse blankets vary in quality significantly from one brand to another. Check and make sure that any quick-release buckles click together securely without resistance and stay buckled after buckling. Note any faulty hardware and check with your local tack store to see if they provide blanket repairs or recommend someone who does. Repairing is a sustainable way to protect the environment and save money.

It’s important that all of the hardware be fully functional in your horse blanket. Horse blankets that partially come off can be dangerous to a horse, since the blanket can be caught on something or prevent them from moving freely – potentially even causing a horse to become cast and colic.

Remove, turn it inside out, and place over a fence for inspection

Once you’ve inspected the outside of the blanket, its fabric, and hardware, it’s time to repeat the process on the inside of the blanket. Sometimes tears can be hidden under the blanket – horses are talented in their ability to break sheets and blankets!

De-hair the inside of your horse blanket

Unless your horse’s winter coat was clipped, you’ll probably find that when you remove horse blankets for the spring, some of your horse’s winter coat has already shed off into the interior of the horse blanket. A satin-finish interior lining can reduce this. Whether there’s a ton of horse hair or just a little bit, you’ll need to remove the bulk of it before you can continue with cleaning the horse blanket.

To remove horse hair from the interior of a horse blanket, use a rubber curry comb designed to collect horsehair. The same brushes that gather shedding hair from your horse’s body should work well on your horse’s blanket interior as well. A combination of currying and vacuuming is the best way to remove enough horsehair for a machine wash cycle to be effective.

Get your blanket ready to wash

Unless you have an ultra high capacity washer, you will probably need to take your horse’s blanket to a commercial laundry mat. The steps above should have the blanket clean enough that you won’t be turned away at the door, but for best results, you need to provide a little extra care.

The hardware on horse blankets banging around in a washer can cause issues, but more importantly, the tumbling of straps and their potential to attach to one another can potentially damage the blanket in the wash. To prevent the straps from tangling, remove any straps that can be removed and place them inside of an old pillowcase or very durable lingerie bag.

To protects the hardware that cannot be removed from the blanket, clip any quick-release buckles together, and cover surcingle buckles and any other metal parts with athletic socks, then tie those socks in place with string.

Prewash wash

Here’s my best blanket washing hack: scrub detergent into the fabric on the outside of the blanket before you head to the laundry mat.

Just like pretreating a stain on a T-shirt the night before washing is more effective for removing stains, giving your blanket a little extra time for the detergent to work can result in a cleaner blanket at the end of the wash cycle.

I do this by grabbing a scrub brush (a horse brush with plastic bristles and back can work) and some laundry detergent and giving the blanket a quick-once scrub with soapy water before loading it into a trash bag and taking it to the laundromat. You don’t have to use a lot of water, and it shouldn’t even be drippy when you’re done. Just use the bushels of the brush to massage the detergent into the fabric of the exterior layer of the blanket. This manually dislodges some dirt and allows the detergent to start to work before you ever get close to a washing machine.

Wash in a washing machine

Most laundry mats accept horse blankets, but some don’t. Pay attention to signs and honor them. You may also have luck visiting a 24-hour laundry mat and taking advantage of less popular times. Be mindful of others and don’t leave a mess behind. If the washer has dirt and fur when you’re done, clean it out or pay for an additional cycle.

Be sure and use a washer that is big enough for your horse blanket, it may cost a little extra but using the right size washer means that your blanket will actually be agitated and tossed in the washer- which is much more efficient at cleaning than if it’s shoved in a too-small washer where it can’t be agitated.

Let dry completely

Some people use commercial dryers on a low setting to dry their blankets. Arguably, this can improve the loft of the fill which results in more effective insulative capacity. Personally, I always let my horse blankets dry on a fence back home. It may take a day or two to be dry, and I typically give them an extra day just to be 100% certain that there is no excess moisture left in the material.

Most people stop here and pack away their horse blankets for the following year’s use. Below are a few extra tips that, if followed, will result in blankets feeling like new and working just like they were intended when you pull them out in the fall

Check Nylon for Fraying and Singe

Nylon webbing, with time and use, tends to fray. Tiny filaments of nylon form on the surface. This is mostly a cosmetic issue and doesn’t contribute to a mature wearing out of the strap, but it can be unsightly. To fix this, you can singe these tiny fibers back, creating a strap that looks new.

singing frayed nylon webbing

This can be carefully done with any heat source that can be aimed. Best results come from using a heat gun or small kitchen torch but it can be done with a lighter. Do this outdoors, away from anything flammable, and be aware that melting plastic will create fumes and nylon webbing can catch fire. Done correctly, the heat source should never come directly in contact with the nylon, only brushing near the filaments which will singe and draw away from the heat source.

Manually clean Velcro

Tack store superstores sell velcro cleaning brushes, but here’s a hack from a former tack store owner and horse blanket repairer: just use a safety pin! To clean Velcro or hook and loop you just need to insert a wire or needle between ridges of the stiff “hook” side.

A combination of using a needle to lift hair and fibers and using tweezers, pinching fingers, or even tape to remove those fibers completely, results in cleaner velcro. Cleaner velcro doesn’t just look better, it provides much better adhesion by letting the loop side connect and settle into the hook side of hook and loop.

Fluff fleece

If your horse blanket has fleece at the withers or neckline, by the end of winter it probably looks clumped and ugly. Most people think once fleece is clumped it can’t be fixed, but it can be fluffed using the same method we describe for restoring and cleaning fleece saddles pads! Use a slicker brush designed for dogs or a carding brush designed for combing wool fibers. Hold the fleece in place and brush the slicker brush across the surface briskly. This de-clumps the fibers of the fleece and returns it to plush fluffy padding.

Combed fleece is softer on skin, fluffier, and better insulates

Store Securely

All your expense in buying blankets, and effort in cleaning blankets, will be for nothing if you store your blanket in a way that exposes it to damage by weather or rodents. I store my blankets in Rubbermaid totes or zipper style bags made for bedding. Adding a little bit of cedar and, if you’ve recently purchased a new product that was packaged with silica, a silica packet can help ensure that the blanket will be clean, dry, and ready to use in the fall.

Tips for Washing Horse Blankets in Home Washing Machines

How to wash a horse blanket at home without damaging your washer and dryer

Depending on how you wash horse blankets, sheets, and coolers, the process can be hard on both the washer and the horse blankets. Commercial blanket washing services are available but are usually pricey, and laundromats may not be an option if there are staff on site that see you come in with horse blankets (horse blankets are explicitly banned at many commercial laundrymats)

But never fear! If you find yourself washing horse blankets at home, there are simple steps you can take to protect your washer and ensure that the blankets come out refreshed!

Protect the Metal:

Sometimes it’s possible to wash a horse blanket in a home washing machine. One of the best secrets for washing horse blankets in a home washing machine is covering the buckles and hardware with fabric.

Tips for washing Horse Blankets

We use tube socks, attached to the horse blanket with just a few stitches of strong thread (we use upholstery thread).  Covering the surcingles, removing the leg straps, and covering exposed D rings takes about five minutes but saves a lot of wear on our washing machine!

Gather up any straps that hang loose — like the surcingle strap. Place the tube sock over the entire length and stitch the sock toward the base of the strap. Adjust the slide on the strap so the strap is as short as possible before washing. This saves wear and tear and will also prevent the strap from getting twisted around the sheet or horse blanket in the wash.

Washing horse blanket

The problem with washing horse blankets at home tends to be volume. Blankets are often caked in horse hair on one side, dried mud on the other, and may have heavy fill insulation between the layers of fabric. The drum that fills and empties in a home washing machine may not be sufficient to move the fabric enough to lift and rise the debris away.  But there’s a solution:

Washing Horse Blankets at the Carwash

Unlike laundromats, car washes won’t chase you off for showing up with things that are really, really dirty- they even include heavy duty clips (meant for auto floor mats) that are perfect for holding a sheet or blanket in place while you blast the caked on layers of mud and horse hair.

The same method that works for refreshing outdoor furniture cushions- a trip to the carwash- works great for horse blankets and sheets.
The same method that works for refreshing outdoor furniture cushions- a trip to the carwash- works great for horse blankets and sheets.

Car washes work great when you just don’t want to deal with the expense of a powerwasher or the soapy, grimy runoff. The softened water and high pressure spray at a carwash will return gross old horse sheets and coolers to sparkling in minutes. I’ve even had great luck doing this with sheets that were starting to mildew from being wet too long- one trip to the car wash and letting them fully dry in a sunny spot in my yard had them looking and smelling like new again.

After I’d been taking my blankets and sheets to the carwash for a few years I bought a small, portable power washer. Guys, owning a homeowner-grade power washer was LIFE CHANGING. only exaggerating a little. The electric powered hand-held pressure washer units have a TON of power, are easy to use and maintain, and are about what you’d pay for a round or two of having someone professionally wash your blankets.

I like using a pressure washer for my blankets because most washing machine agitators only swish water past embedded dirt and debris- power washing my horse blankets cleans them through a through, and after being hung to dry in the sun they can be stored for the winter totally clean.

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Many times horse blankets, horse sheets, and turnout blankets and cannot be washed in a home washing machine and must be taken to the laundromat. But some lightweight sheets, turnout sheets, dress sheets, rain covers, and quarter sheets can be washed in a home washing machine.

How to wash a horse blanket at home without damaging your washer and dryer

How to Wash Horse Blankets

Total Time: 2 hours

Curry off any Dried Mud or Hair

Use the curry comb to remove excess dirt from the outside so it doesn’t turn to a muddy sludge in the washer. If your blanket has a liner that loose fur adheres to, curry the inside of the blanket to remove hair. Consider rinsing the exterior with a high pressure spray if available.

Check Blanket for Tears or Broken Hardware

Inspect the blanket carefully. Small tears in the spring can quickly turn into big rips during the first cold snap of the following fall! repairing tears, frayed, and weakened spots when the damage is minor can save hundreds by prolonging the life of a horse blanket for an extra year or two.
 

Remove Leg Straps and wash separately

Let straps are usually removable. Unclip the straps and place them into an old pillowcase. Knot the pillowcase and wash the pillowcase- protected leg straps with your blanket. This prevents the straps from tangling around the blanket in the wash and lessens wear and tear on your washing machine.

Buckle all Buckles & Cover with Vetwrap

Occasionally horse blankets can be damaged by washing. Often, this is through straps twisting around the blanket. Prevent this by
(1) buckling quick-release buckles to each other, and tightening any adjustable straps to shorten straps.
(2) wrapping buckles, D rings, and other hardware with vetwrap. This sticky, cushioning wrap helps prevent damage to the washing machine and muffles some of the irritating sound of washing horse blankets.

Wash in a high capacity washer

I always add Borax to my horse blanket washes to boost my detergent.

Rinse Carefully

It’s important to rinse the washed horse blanket completely, as soap or detergent residue can lead to skin problems for horses when the blanket is used again. When the washing cycle has completed run an extra rinse cycle or run a second wash cycle, this time without using detergent, to be sure that blankets are fully clean with no sap residue.

 

Let dry completely before using or storing

If you’re washing in low-humidity weather, you should be able to dry horse blankets outside in the sun. If the weather isn’t agreeable, you may be able to put the blanket in a clothes dryer for a short tumble, finish drying the blanket indoors, or some variation of these methods.

Store Properly

Good blanket storage requires a low humidity, rodent resistant storage. The best way to store your horse blankets in the off season is in clip-lock plastic storage bins with a block of cedar wood (to repel insects) and a packet of silica crystals to keep the humidity down and prevent potential mold growth.

Estimated Cost: 12 USD

Tools:

  • Curry Comb grooming brush
  • vetwrap (for wrapping buckles before washing)
  • large capacity washer
  • repair hardware/heavy duty sewing kit

FAQ’s

How to get rid of smells in horse blankets.

Washing your horse blanket should remove most odors, but if an unwanted smell lingers, there are a few easy remedies. The best way to permanently remove smells from a horse blanket is to place the clean and dried blanket in an airtight container with a natural odor absorber like unscented kitty litter or activated charcoal. To build a deodorizing storage box for your horse blanket, line the bottom of a plastic tote with kitty litter and/or activated charcoal (in a pinch, well-charred logs from an old campfire will also work), cover the layer well with an old towel or several layers of cloth, then place the blanket in the tote and close the lid. In 1-3 days you’ll notice a significant improvement in odor, and after 2-3 weeks your horse blanket should be free from unwanted smells.

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