My fencing is Finish Line and Horseguard, so hanging a blanket on it isn’t an option. Never mind the fact that my horses absolutely wouldn’t leave anything hanging on the fence for more than 5 minutes.
4 Likes
Yes, I do have two of each weight blanket for each horse, so if one isn’t dry by dark, I put on the dry backup blanket. If it is below freezing outside or there is no sunlight, I hang the wet ones in a heated room in the barn to dry.
Having dealt with significant cases of rain rot on backs early in my horsing days, I swore that any blanket with a damp interior would not go back on a horse or be folded up so bacteria could grow and multiply on the blanket lining.
It’s a hill I choose to die on, but I understand those who can’t financially justify spare blankets and who are without heated drying areas. I have not always had money to spend on extra blankets or had my own barn. If I had to choose between a bag and hanging hooks, I’d opt for hanging hooks. And I’d hang with the lining side out.
2 Likes
I use hooks but not incredibly high…for the length issue, I hang by the front then hook the tail strap up on the hook as well.
I wouldn’t do that until the blankets are dry, but it works for me to keep them off the floor.
1 Like
We have hooks at the barn - I will take a photo when I’m there today. In the aisle there’s hooks for borders who stall their horses (hooks are numbered to match stall numbers). In the tack room there’s two rows of hooks in front of the fan of the heater (not close enough to cause fire risk, but close enough to help with the drying process). For the hooks in the tack room, it is considered courteous to only use the hooks while actively drying out your blankets, not for long term storage. If I leave a blanket there for more than a day or two I feel guilty (but never called out on it).
If blankets are not hanging on hooks they are packed away in storage totes. No one uses the blanket bags here.
I’m 5"6" and my hooks are set so that I can still reach them to hang the blankets without a step stool. I hang the blankets by the withers, not the chest straps, and even my 84" blanket stays off the floor that way. Some of them I do bunch up a little more that the top than others, and if they have a high neck, that gets folded back on itself a bit. It’s not perfect, but a lot more preferable than wet, dirty blankets hanging on the stalls doors!
Here’s our hook setup. Don’t mind the mess, it’s -30 to -40c these days so lots of blankets in rotation. Looks like one person has a bag but I know she just got new blankets at Christmas
2 Likes
One good thing about hooks is that you can use them to help dry too.
I have hooks all down my aisle, so I can kind of spread eagle the wet ones between them to help drying.
I don’t allow them in the tack room when they are nasty because they drip and smell, IME.
1 Like
I have actually started hanging my blankets inside my horse’s stall. I’m sure some horses would chew on them or pull them down, but she completely ignores them. My previous mare did as well as a few friends’ horse (all mares, coincidentally 
). With 84" blankets, I do have to use a step stool to reach them, and have them hung up so they stay off the ground. I also hang my coolers up here after use. When they are dry they go in stall front bags.
Yes, I have started hanging my blankets in the stall. She hasn’t touched them and it lets them air out. I did buy a blanket bag for when she gets to move to the ‘real’ barn. It has mesh sides for some circulation but that is for later. She is currently in a shed row and the bag would be in full sun and the weather (no overhang).
I also hang our turnout blankets away from the stalls. When we renovated the barn that came with our farm, we created a small aisle from the stalls to the hay/shavings storage area. We hang the blankets there so they’re out of the way:
We have 5 stalls and 10 blanket bars. Each one can hold up to two blankets. In the winter, they hold their sheets, mediums, and heavies. In the summer, they hold their sheets and fly sheets.
We also use stable blankets and sheets. These are stored on the blanket bars on their stalls, all folded in the same way so it looks neater:
The downside to this is that the blanket bars are on their stall doors. Our doors have gossip windows, and occasionally the horses grab their stable sheets and throw them on the ground or drag them into their stalls if they’re bored. We’re planning on building a new barn next to our indoor, and we’ll center the stall doors and put their blanket barns on the walls rather than the doors to keep them from being able to grab them.
4 Likes
I love how your barn is set up! So neat and tidy.
1 Like
Very much appreciate the photos. I can see that the step stool method has a lot to recommend to get the blankets up high enough to air out.
One of the most convenient solutions I’ve encountered, in an area where freezes are not common, was at a stable that was decommissioning their shed stalls, made of steel panel fence. The fence panels were still mounted upright under the shed, next to the barn. In that location the fence panels under shelter were perfect for hanging blankets horizontally. And anything else that needed to dry. Of course that wasn’t considered storage, just drying.
I have also gone to the plastic containers for dry blankets not in current use. Much easier to manage than folding & stacking.
As mentioned above, I do not use blanket bags for blankets, because of the humid wet climate conditions here.
1 Like
Thank you for the justification for taking advantage of the blanket sales on just now.
My horse lives on turnout with shed shelter and his current blankets are aging. The waterproofing just isn’t what it used to be. Even with multiple re-applications after cleaning. They are ok for a light rain here and there. But they aren’t standing up to consecutive winter days of rain that don’t allow time for a dry-out while on the horse.
But otherwise the old blankets are in good shape. So, they can now be backups when the main blankets need a day of rest and recovery.
I have also thought for a while now that multiples of every weight, for just one horse, are necessary for rotation when a blanket needs to dry / air. But wow on the budget. This widespread sale is helping. The online sales shops even still have my horse’s size, which usually is sold out by the time of the annual sales.
1 Like
OMG. 
That would have been another moment when I questioned my allegiance to this very strange species we call ‘horse’. 
Years ago, during some super-cold Colorado weather that had the horses enjoying indoor arena turnout of a fashion, my horse became enamored of a mouse hole that he discovered in a back wall of the arena. (How did a horse discover such a tiny hole at ground level in a wall? I know mice are terribly smelly, but still. None of the other horses even sniffed.)
He would stand next to it for 5 minutes at a time, neck down and nose against the hole, blasting his horsey breath into it, trying to figure out what it was all about. Thank goodness no mouse ever emerged while he was there, to possibly be eaten. Not sure mice could have made it out through the hurricane winds of his sniffing.
After that winter this horse remained extremely interested in mouse holes and mouse traverse ways, wherever he could find them. He was the only horse in the barn to be seen carefully sniffing along the barn foundations for mice. Maybe I could have rented him out to some pest control company that used sniffer beagles and the like to find the pests. 
6 Likes
For anyone looking for a good sale, I snagged a medium Rhino Wug varilayer from Stateline yesterday for $186!
2 Likes
