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Hanging Blankets Inside Stalls

I have recently acquired horse property. While it’s very exciting, for a few months at least the horses are going to have to live in their run in sheds while the barn is being redone.

They all already have gates etc to close them off, but my big question is rug storage. There is no way to put blanket bars on the run ins. I have seen places, mostly in Europe, where people store rugs in their horse’s stalls. Has anyone done it? Suggestions?

Maybe use those bags designed to hold blankets hung on the gates, but outside where horses will be?
IIRC, they’re weather-resistant.
I’d expect anything inside a stall, in reach of a horse mouth, to become a toy.

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I occasionally leave blankets thrown over my stall dividers. My horses usually don’t bother them but I usually don’t lock them into the stalls.

Other options are the blanket bags mentioned by @2DogsFarm or I’ve been eyeing patio deck boxes meant for storing patio chair cushions as possible blanket storage.

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I store blankets for my 3 (horse, pony, mini) in a Rubbermaid-type tote.
In some 5+yrs, no vermin have bothered them.

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Same here. I put them in their blanket bags and in a rubbermaid. Works great.

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I used to do it all the time, although only while eating. My horses don’t stay inside overnight very often.

My adult horses never mess with them. But my baby horse thinks they are the most fun chew toys and even made a couple tears. Now blankets get stored nowhere near her.

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For off season storage I have some black plastic trunks I use. Alas I have so many blankets that I need to use several to store them all. No problem in the off season as the trunks stack. But during the season stacking and un stacking trunks to dig for and put up blankets it’s too inconvenient. Currently using the Mount Blanket Heap method during blanket season :joy:

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I think this will work for the off season, but right now they’re having 2-3 blanket changes a day and digging through totes sounds like a huge pain!

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We used to hang blanket wardrobes in stalls off hooks with all straps unhooked. It worked great… while we had a barn full of TB event horses.

Now I have a barn full of WB dressage horses and nothing can hang within reach.

I miss the days of blankets hanging in stalls… now I have piles of blankets folded on tack trunks… much messier looking.

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I assume you refer to blankets that are in regular daily use and you are not interested in bagging or boxing them every day.

I knocked together a couple of free standing fence sections from some leftover lumber and just hang blankets on them. I move them around as needed if blankets need to dry. My wonderful HOA busybodies frown on horse blankets hanging on fences within their view, meaning anywhere they can see one while patrolling in their golf carts. I moved and posed one of them for a picture.

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Our shedrow horses have their extra blankets stored inside their stalls. They are neatly hung on lengths of baking twine. It’s not my favorite, but there is really nowhere else to put them. We tried storing them in bins outside, but they mildewed.

My mare briefly played with the Velcro on hers, but did no damage. She does, however, poop all over them. :sob: None of the other four that have or have had that set up have done any damage to my knowledge.

We have one young one that could never be in this set up because he manages to eat his blankets when hung on stall front bars :joy:, but everyone else seems reasonable about it.

Edited: neatly, not nearly. Lol.

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I hang pony’s on his stall gate ‘wall’, the hanging buckles towards the aisle so he cannot play with them. He leaves them alone but he is pretty chill.

They will essentially be in shedrow stalls - there is no where to put them on fences and under cover. Same for blanket bags etc.

Oh, I see. My bad. Maybe the idea will help someone else though.

When I had my horses in similar circumstances, if the weather was nice, I’d pull their blankets and hang them over their corral gates But from time to time, one of them would drag them into their stall or turnout and stomp them into the footing. And if the weather changed unexpectedly I’d get home to soggy, frozen blankets. I tried throwing them in the hay shed but was astounded by how much damage the resident mice and voles could do in the course of a day.

Outdoor horses are probably not going to need that many blanket changes. Mine got them on at night and off during the day, at most. If it was cold and wet, I didn’t take them off. If the sun was shining, they came off. And I just took the blankets and left them in the garage, hung up to dry if they needed it. You get to adjust your level of pickiness when you keep them in more primitive conditions.

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I leave my guy’s blankets tossed over stall walls when I change blankets due to weather. They leave them alone— they are older and just go about their business. Young mouthy horses? Probably not a good choice.

I’d put a bar or peg type holder up and hang them inside the run in where they won’t blow around or be a hazard. See how it goes— they’ll most likely just ignore them.

Where I board, the pasture horses have their blankets in a heavy duty garbage can outside their pastures.

That many rug changes?! Sounds like you need to reconsider your rug regime.

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Some of us are just more obsessive than others. My horses each have 6 outdoor blankets. Insulation of each is zero, 50g, 100g, 220g, 330g, and 440g. And changes might sometimes be 2 or 3 times a day, but 1 change is more typical. I base my rug regimen pretty much like everyone else does: on temperature, rain, wind, and by feeling under the blanket for warmth and sweating. And each horse also has a cooler as well.

Having that many blankets per horse is why I built extra places to hang and organize them. Sometimes I do miss the days of having just a single New Zealand canvas rug per horse, though. I do have the benefit of being retired, having my own farm, and being a full-time horse care giver

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Sure - when the weather goes from 15F to 40F back to 15F there’s no way to avoid lots of rug changes. It’s not fair to clip them otherwise, unless you can commit to appropriate blanketing.

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