Breakthrough in horse laundry!

[starhorse]

I have just had a true breakthrough in horse laundry! My fleece quarter sheet has always been impossible to get truly clean - the hair is just impossible, and those hair rollers just don’t do the trick (or take 100 sheets to do the trick).

Then, I made an amazing discovery. I washed the quarter sheet, and after it was spun but still damp, I hung it and used a shedding blade on it. The outcome was absolutely incredible. It looks almost brand new. Be careful around stitching and seams, but otherwise, it was super easy and effective. It’s now hanging dry. Does not work quite as well on saddle pads, but those seem to dry and hair kind of falls off more easily. The fleece has always been a nightmare, but now I feel like a genius.

I was so excited and had to share!

[mjs8]

Hmm. I’m not sure I know what you mean. Maybe you could come over and show me? I have at least a dozen or so blankets that need to be washed and cleaned. Maybe by the 12th demo, I’ll understand.

Awesome tip! Thanks for sharing!

[ReadtheLyric09]

[QUOTE=starhorse;8126101]
Does not work quite as well on saddle pads, but those seem to dry and hair kind of falls off more easily.

I was so excited and had to share![/QUOTE]

A vacuum works very well on saddle pads! Flip the pad over to the underside, vacuum hairy parts or parts with dried dirt, place in washing machine, viola! Machine has never been so clean after washing horse items and pads always look pristine.

I have a central vac, but a cheap handheld hoover would work wonderful too, I imagine.

[talkofthetown]

Wait, I’m hung up on the washing part. You can put fleece in the washing machine? I have a full fleece show cooler that was draped in the guest bedroom…the cat discovered her awesome new cat bed that the Humans provided, and I haven’t been able to get it clean since.

[red_mares]

Unless you’ve got actual sheepskin, most anything will go in a washer. Most fleece is a poly blend & completely washable. Dryer might pull off some of the fuzzy.

[mvp]

OP, you mean one of those old skool metal bendy shedding blades?

Did you find that it scraped off some fluff of the fleece, too? Or just sorted hair from fleece in a pure way?

I think cat hair is hair of a different animal in terms of separating it from fleece. And the hair of a long-haired cat is even different/worse in the cat hair direction. I hope someone will experiment with a shedding blade on long-hair cat hair. That would be a very useful public service.

[Bensmom]

Polar fleece, such as talkofthetown’s cooler, can go in the washing machine. Wooly fleece can too, but you have to be much more careful with what you wash it with and how you wash it.

Talkofthetown, if I remember correctly, your cooler is polarfleece and not wool, so you should be able to wash away, just like you would a polarfleece sweatshirt – just be careful of the buckles and straps if you are using a central agitator machine.

It won’t remove the cat hair, though. Sounds like a wash + shedding blade may be the magic ticket. Razzy hair is EVERYWHERE on my dark green pf cooler and washing it has done nothing. I’m going to try this technique next!!

[talkofthetown]

That’s what you get for buying a Grey Mare! :lol:

[starhorse]

I’m not exactly sure what kind of fleece. It’s one of the Rambo quarter sheets with stripes. I did put it in the washer (not sure if that was bad, but it came out fine!) and then yep, used an old school shedding blade. It didn’t really pull the fleece at all! Just separated the hair from the fleece beautifully. The only places I noticed “tugs” was at the seams - it definitely was catching where there was stitching. I also tried with my dog’s shedding blade (a bit smaller “teeth”) and it seemed to work even better.

I also think a key part of this is that it was still damp.

FYI, I also tried it on some fleece pullovers, and it worked equally well, except it was a little trickier due to surface space difference. More seams/zippers = more catching from the shedding blade.