Boarding and Blanket Storage

[MissAriel]

Granted I live in southern CA, so not very cold, but it is very common to have horses clipped and blanketed in a light weight turnout at night. I have never boarded somewhere that had designated storage for boarders’ blankets. You got the blanket bar on the stall and your designated area in a tack room to fill as you see fit - there may or may not be room for a tote of out-of-season blankets, depending on how much other gear you had.

I keep mine in a sturdy plastic tote at home when out of season. In winter I keep one sheet and one blanket at the barn to swap out depending on the temperature. I have a spare blanket I swap out if the primary one needs to be washed or dried.

[Xanthoria]

Our barn has a number of large hooks to hang blankets on. They were inside the barn (a huge old barn with loads of space) but for some reason the current BM booted them out under an overhang. Where they get eaten by mice. Mine stay in the garage at home - I only hang up wet muddy ones to dry off till I can take them home.

Dream barn? LOADS of lockable space for each horse’s tack and feed, separately. Electric rug drying racks for winter. A HUGE washing machine. And someone to run it One can dream…

[Casey09]

I generally only keep a medium weight and a light weight blanket at the barn. Usually he would have one or the other on. I have extras of each stored at home, so if anything happened I’d be able to take another one over there. Of course, I live close by and I’m not traveling. Absentee owners and those who go away for months at a time might be different. It’s nice to have a place to hang a cooler out to dry whether your horse is blanketed or not. I’d easily be able to have 1 tub at the barn, but hooks somewhere are nice for sweaty coolers that you don’t want to close up in a plastic box.

[OneTwoMany]

When I boarded as a junior, we each had a built in tack trunk in the tack room. All your gear went in your assigned tack trunk along with extra blankets, coolers, that weren’t on the stall door blanket bar. As an adult, I boarded at a barn where I was allowed two tack trunks for four horses. Any extra blankets I couldn’t fit in the two tack trunks were boxed and stored in the garage at home. Boarders were allowed to store blankets in the loft, but it wasn’t well organized and boarders often discovered their blankets were misplaced or badly damaged.

[BrookdaleBay]

At my barn, each boarder has one of those long, swinging blanket racks, one per horse. Each arm is about 5’ long and can hold A LOT of blankets. In the winter, his rain sheets and cotton stable sheet and folded up and hung at the back of the rack, while his heavy and mid weighs, plus liners, are hung on the rack length wise so they are easy to get to. In total, his rack holds 8 blankets. Other racks have at least 10. Sure the racks get heavy to swing, but us barn staff have lots of blankets to choose from and no horse will ever go without.

There are also shorter blanket arms in the breezeway to the back door to hang wet blankets, and the breeze ways to the front doors and to the indoor have individual racks for coolers and quarter sheets.

After blanket season, if the boarder requests it, the manager sends all blankets to the cleaners, otherwise the boarder sends their blankets out themselves. Tack trunks and Stanley’s are kept in the indoor, and blankets are kept there until needed, or they are taken home.

[One_Two_Three]

I’m in Florida, so we only ever really need a no fill turnout sheet, and a cooler for underneath on the extra chilly days. We have a hook dedicated to our blanket. Storage out of season and extras are our own responsibility, either inside your trunk (one trunk per horse) or off property.

[Lucassb]

When I boarded, it was typical to have stable clothing (generally Baker sheet, blanket) hung on bar in front of the stall. Turnouts would be hung separately elsewhere in the barn, normally where they would A) be able to hang to dry B) be convenient to the barn staff as they turned horses out or brought them in and C) where they would be out of the way/sight so their appearance did not detract from the neat and tidy aisle of stalls. Owners were either expected to handle laundering when needed/bringing spares so the horses had the proper clothes, or there would be a designated day when the clothes would be gathered to be either picked up or sent to the laundry service. (This was more common at the end of the season when they would be laundered one last time and then returned in neatly zipped clear plastic bags for storage.) It was common to have separate storage (loft, shed etc) for storing out of season horse clothing or spares.

Our local blanket place will actually happily store your winter blankets for you if you get them laundered there. It’s a nice service and lots of people take advantage of it.

[CHT]

We reorganized a 12 x 10 stall to fit two hooks for every horse, and room so most people can fit a mid sized rubbermade. The hoarders seem to be accepting the limitation now they see how much easier it is to find each persons things.

[BatCoach]

I’d love it if I could have dobbin’s wardrobe at the barn, but I share a stall front blanket rack with his neighbor, so typically a sheet and light to mid weight blanket goes on there once he is clipped. I cram my cooler & 1/4 sheet in our designated tack locker, but the rest of his togs live at home. I always keep an eye on the weather for when I need to bring out the heavier weight stuff, but it would be great to store my plastic bins of clean blankets at the barn.

[Emily_amp_Jake]

My barn doesn’t have a designated place for boarder’s blankets. I only have a winter blanket and a cooler for my mare. The cooler is in my tack tote under my saddle rack, and her blanket is usually on her in winter/has been stored in the trunk of my car all spring & summer. I keep it on top of my tack tote when it’s not in use. Not the best storage, but it works.

[RedHorses]

@CHT - might I suggest you define (in gallons or HxWxD) the acceptable size of Rubbermaid bin? If you don’t then people will begin to show up with ever larger (and more flimsy) totes (which stack poorly unless on the top of the heap).

I can get a surprising amount of blankets into a Rubbermaid that is labelled 24" x 16" x 16.5". Folded neatly, of course.

I personally prefer Rubbermaids because they hold a good bit and don’t go brittle and crack in the months of well below freezing weather that makes up our winters.

[CHT]

@RedHorses

@CHT - might I suggest you define (in gallons or HxWxD) the acceptable size of Rubbermaid bin? If you don’t then people will begin to show up with ever larger (and more flimsy) totes (which stack poorly unless on the top of the heap).

I can get a surprising amount of blankets into a Rubbermaid that is labelled 24" x 16" x 16.5". Folded neatly, of course.

I personally prefer Rubbermaids because they hold a good bit and don’t go brittle and crack in the months of well below freezing weather that makes up our winters.

I told people if you can fit a (adult) dead body in it, it is too big. A few people have the same large Rubbermade that I am using as an example of the most efficient size.

[RedHorses]

:lol:

[Renn_aissance]

@trubandloki

Most barns I have encountered you could have what fit on your door during the season they were needed. No other blanket storage was provided (though I suppose you could shove them into your tack locker). When blanket season ended you were expected to take them home.

Likewise.

In deep winter I have up to 5 blankets on the bar on my horse’s stall: stable sheet, turnout sheet, mid-light, midweight, and heavy. I’m not sure why the barn staff haven’t killed me yet but it probably has something to do with the fact that I rug him myself more than half the time and when layered the way I tend to, their blanket change is usually just “remove top layer.” (Older horse losing thermoregulation abilities who is usually at least high trace clipped and goes out overnight.) All 5 rugs fit tidily on the bar with no difficulty and with the way I fold them there is no issue with pulling off just one.

I phase them in and then pull them out of rotation as the weather warms in spring. The barn does offer laundering and storage for a fee but I prefer the laundromat, my backyard fence, and a couple of Tupperwares in my garage.

The coolers and quarter sheet live in my tack trunk.