I know this has been discussed before but the most recent thread I can find is several years old. My beast has a trace clip and still sweats a lot. I’m reluctant to clip him more because he lives out 24/7 and it gets really cold here in the winter. I’m looking for a really absorbent and warm cooler so I’m not sitting around for hours waiting for him to dry before I blanket him. Any ideas? Anything to avoid?
I personally like wool the best.
I have a lightweight fleece, the Amigo Mio, and you can easily see how it lifts the moisture off the horse. Sometimes using two layers works: Irish knit or waffle weave closest to the skin, and a fleece or wicking material over that.
I’ve seen layers that I have not tried: the Centaur Turbo Dry sheet, Climate Control, Thermatex, etc. Not really a fan of wool, with the newer technical fabrics available.
Thermatex, if you can find it.
I use acrylic squares as coolers, put on in layers. Moisture goes thru to the outside of top cooler, making it appear frosted. I then pull the top layer off, replace it with another square. The top lyer comes off again when frosted. Inner layer by skin is totally dry still. Time now is probably close to 1 hour of drying time. I check horse under cooler to see if he still needs covering or is dry.
Much can depend on hair thickness, how wet he got, in needed drying time. Most of ours dry with two coolers removed, inner layer is dry. Thick haired horse took 3 outer coolers before he was dry. None were clipped, so they had to be dry to go back outside again after work.
Another idea is blow drying with a vac nozzle. Forcing air thru smaller diameter nozzle from bigger hose makes friction, heating the blowing air to dry the animal. This can speed up drying but is still not super fast.
I use acrylic coolers because they need washing often, get stinky used daily doing layered drying off of horses. Acrylic washes and dries fast, no shrinkage like wool. With our volumes of coolers to handle, easy washing, drying, when done so often is a quality of high priority for me. Acrylic is less expensive and holds up well to the hard use.
Bucas has one called Shamrock Power, works really well and also has a non sticky smooth outer and full leg straps if you wanted to put them away to dry while you worked another without a cooler covered in bedding, or twisted and ripped. Also love my Rambo Newmarket…and biggest timesaver ever is clipping!
I usually put my Rambo Airmax cooler first and add another cooler on top. Either a jersey/coton one or a wool. The airmax gets the horse to dry in no time while the top cooler absord the moisture and keep the horse warm.
Wool is a pain to clean so having a layer underneath is just easier.
I use to blowdry my horse. It is a bit long but less than letting it dry on its own.
Clipping is just so much more convenient. Could you do a higher trace clip? (or remove spots where he’s sweating the most?
I have a wool cooler from Smith Worthington that beats the snot out of my fleece coolers for absorbing moisture.
I’ve given up on wool because it’s so hard to take care of…went to acrylic and use two so I can rotate them as layers every day
I much prefer wool coolers. My mare looks like a bear in the winter and I find that the wool dries her the fastest.
Nothing beats 100% wool.
This company in the UK has developed and is selling a terrific microfiber “Doggy Bag” - “wet, muddy dog goes in - clean, dry dog comes out” …
http://www.microfibrestore.co.uk/petcare.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mg2dqkYxyc
They are just starting to test an equine cooler version now - as so many of the UK horses aren’t fully clipped - just trace clipped -and its so time consuming to wait for those long coats to fully dry before you can throw their blankets back on them and leave them for the night
For sure it wont be ready for fall/winter 2015/2016 but it should be in production for fall/winter 2016/2017
The material itself is terrific and really does its job well on dogs and smaller animals and no reason to believe it wont do the same on wicking the moisture away on the horses
Just a heads up on a new product coming onto the market soon … 
Centaur Turbo-Dry is awesome.
I find my old wool cooler & newer fleece both do a good job wicking.
Fleece is far easier to care for.
To hurry drying time try going Old School & stuffing hay under the cooler.
The layer of air it creates speeds drying & when you pull it out: Dinner!
