One time I was visiting the hunt kennels for Avon Vale Hunt over in England. In the tack room, they had already done what I’m planning to do in my future barn. A bar, long enough to hang a horse blanket lengthwise, with a rope at each end, going up to pulleys mounted on the ceiling. Hang the blanket on the bar, then hoist it up into the overhead. It’s warm up there, and out of the way.
The pulley system is a very cool idea. I like the heated closet idea too. I haven’t framed in or wired my tack room yet, so I’m giving thought to making the back wall a floor-to-ceiling closet, and put a 100W flat panel radiant heater in there. They are just warm to the touch, no risk of igniting things that come in contact with it.
Dragging sodden blankets through the house into the basement is not fun and they get pretty stinky by winter’s end
I throw mine over the fence, connect my cross ties to each other to create a “clothesline” and hang them there. Also, I have a four pronged tack cleaning hook I hang from the ceiling when I clean harnesses, and I can hang 4 blankets on it.
[QUOTE=Major Mark;7783552]
One time I was visiting the hunt kennels for Avon Vale Hunt over in England. In the tack room, they had already done what I’m planning to do in my future barn. A bar, long enough to hang a horse blanket lengthwise, with a rope at each end, going up to pulleys mounted on the ceiling. Hang the blanket on the bar, then hoist it up into the overhead. It’s warm up there, and out of the way.[/QUOTE]
I’ve done something similar - really easy to rig from the barn ceiling, too.
To make it easier getting the rugs on and off, screw a spinner into each end of a thick piece of dowel, and then attach rope up to the pulley.
Hanging them from the ceiling gets them up high, so out of the way, and it’s generally warmer up there than in the rest of the barn. Cats can’t pee on them, dogs and wicked ponies can’t eat them, sleep on them, shred them or trample on them, either!
I feel really fortunate that our blankets only get wet a few times/year here. We hang them from the ends of our stalls with caribiners. When I had my stalls made, I had a loop welded on each end for this purpose.
I’m already considering? eye screws and a ‘cable’ type coated line (think outside dog stake out type)with snaps on each end. …set high enough you only use it when ya need it.
[QUOTE=ayrabz;7784789]
I’m already considering? eye screws and a ‘cable’ type coated line (think outside dog stake out type)with snaps on each end. …set high enough you only use it when ya need it.[/QUOTE]
We’ve done that, only with dowel, and it worked really well. I bought plastic piping that fitted loosely around the dowel so it would spin and made it easy to slide the blankets off.
The cable on its own - I think it would just snag annoyingly, making it hard to flatten out the rugs and/or remove them.
Don’t forget the fans. Your stall fans from summer, aimed at your wet horse blankets (hung or spread out over something) will speed the drying process a LOT.
Romany—
I was looking for a pix to show you, haven’t found one ‘yet’…but I was talking of putting the eye screws across from each other on the boards that run above the beams of the roof—so, each snap end would only be the ‘between the boards’ lengths, and undo one for each blanket, and run the chest portion on the cable (closed front, and hanging from it) and re snap. (no pulling off to release, but un snap) single blanket holders, but they shouldn’t sag/droop that way)
these roof boards are in the ‘adjoining shed’ to my aisleway, via a dutch door, where I keep minimal hay/bedding and my feed freezer.
OK, so I think you’re saying you’d have short, individual cable lengths between the joists (which are probably spaced ~16" apart). One blanket on each of those short cables, hanging from chest buckles. Am I picturing this right?
Do you have a way to get each blanket onto its hanger, while standing on the ground? I just think you will regret a setup where you have to get up on a ladder for each blanket you are hanging. Trying to operate a snap hook or even just a carabiner can be hard if it’s got weight on it (and especially when that snap is overhead and you are working with raised arms).
The pulley idea lets you put all the blankets on their hooks at ground level, and then raise them all together with less effort.
If you have the option of having them in a heated closet that is what I would do, I would not want to hoist a bunch of wet blankets into the ceiling. I guess it depends on the number of horses but at the end of the day it is the last thing I would want to do with numerous horses to tend in the winter.
http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt25/ayrabz/barn%20June%202013/059_zps78790a4b.jpg
this shot shows the run in…the barn attached has the raised roof/higher ceiling, but this run in shows the actual roof line of the attached storage shed on the opposite side (barely showing) of the area I’m speaking of. You can see its a gradual shed roof with exposed boards, and not that far off ground.
Then there’s the Rolls Royce option: http://www.horserugdriers.co.uk/shop/ 
It’s like heated towel bars, but for blankets!
I usually hang them in an extra stall or in the tack room with a fan directed at them. Without the fan it takes forever for them to dry.
