From: Caitlin
Hey Jessica! You always have such good advice, I hope you can help me with my problem. I'm lazy (well, that's my real problem, but I'm not asking for help with that) and I sort of blew off cleaning my horse's winter blankets when I took them off this spring. I put them in trash bags and thought I'd take them to the laundromat and put them in the extra-large machine. Well anyway I just kind of forgot about them. Now I go to take them out and look at them, and they are GROSS. Dirty and greasy and all kinds of cobwebs and stuff. There's no way they'll let me do them at the laundromat now. My washing machine is too wimpy, and my Mom has a huge one but she won't even let me do saddle pads in hers. So.... what do I do? Please help me! I have to get these gross blankets cleaned up and dry so I can fix them (yeah, I was going to do that in the spring too, but I didn't). HELP!!!!
Caitlin and Blue Boy and Tigger, who GRIND mud into their blankets
Yes, I have an idea for you. Two ideas, actually.
1) Call around to all the local dry-cleaning establishments: some of them, in some towns, WILL clean horseblankets. They don't dry-clean them, but they'll sometimes wash & dry them for you. It's not cheap, maybe $15 or so per blanket, but it's a lot easier than doing it yourself. However, if your blankets are so disgusting that you'd be embarrassed to go to the dry-cleaners, try this instead.
2) Take your blankets AND a big stiff brush AND the horse shampoo of your choice and a bucket to a do-it-yourself CARWASH. Bring dry clothes and shoes for yourself (and wear your worst clothes and sneakers, because if you don't, by the time you finish, whatever you wear will BE your worst clothes and sneakers). Also bring a large towel (for yourself) and some huge trash bags (for the blankets) and a clean tarp (for the back of your car). And bring a LOT of quarters, more than you could possibly imagine using...
Spread each blanket on the floor of the carwash stall, and use either "wash" or "rinse" to get rid of as much mud and muck as you can from both sides of the blanket. The high-power spray will knock a LOT of dirt out of those blankets if you use it for long enough.
If the blankets are still greasy-dirty INSIDE, put them on the floor face-up, and use the bucket to mix a dilute solution of horse shampoo and water, then pour this onto the blankets and start in with the brush. When you've transferred most of the dirt to yourself, put more money in the machine and go back to rinsing. Rinse until you've got the dirt AND the soap out -- remember that dilute solution you made? That's why: if you use full-strength soap, it will take $50 worth of quarters and a loooooong time to rinse it out.
As you finish each blanket, walk on it to get as much water as possible OUT of it -- wet blankets are horribly drippy and incredibly heavy. If you have a friend with you, each of you take one end of the blanket and twist it. You'll get rid of more water that way.
Then hang the blankets over the hood of your car to drip while you get ready to take them home.
Put the towel on the car seat. Put the clean tarp in the back, wherever you plan to put the blankets. Then take the blankets, one at a time, and fold them as small as you can. Put them on the floor one last time, directly on top of the drain, and jump on them to squeeze out more water. Then push each one into a big plastic trash bag, get the trash bags into the car, on the tarp, and take them home (or to the dry-cleaning establishment, since NOW they're less embarrassing).
At home, hang them outdoors, over a wall or a fence or a few chairs or a very strong clothesline. If you have several dry sunny days in a row, you can dry even the heaviest blankets if you keep turning them. And at THIS point, you can start doing your blanket repairs.
You know, there's really a LOT to be said for keeping horses on 24/7 turnout and letting them grow their OWN blankets... ;-)
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.