Speak to me of coolers

[AllTheCarrots]

My lease horse lives out 24/7 in the DC area, and will remain unclipped and unblanketed this winter. He does have a box stall in the barn where he can hang out for a bit before turnout.

Even with building in a long, low-key walking period at the end of each ride, I expect he will sometimes still be wet under the saddle and girth when we return to the barn.

What sort of cooler do I need to help get him bone dry? Am leaning towards fleece because of the easier washability. Do I need one with a shaped neck, or will a standard stable-blanket type suffice? (My kids will attest that I’m the person who tells THEM to put on a sweater when I’M cold — which is pretty much always in the winter — so I don’t always trust my instincts when it comes to temperature.) I don’t think I want the large, square type, as I want to feel comfortable leaving him to his own devices while I putter around cleaning tack, sweeping the aisle, etc. (And since those devices are Arabian in nature, Constant Vigilance is my mantra.)

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions and recommendations!

[LCDR]

Wool. Most definitely wool.

[Amy3996]

Centaur Turbo Dry! Wicks away moisture really efficiently, easy to wash.

[Scribbler]

I find fleece is great for cooling a hot wet horse but wool works better and builds its own heat if the horse is cool and wet.

Also rubbing with a towel begore putting on the cooler really helps.

[theresak]

Depending on how sweaty the horse gets you might need multiple coolers to swap out as they get damp. I’ve got regular and high neck in both fleece and wool blend. I also resort to a human hair dryer sometimes to help my horse dry faster.

[LadyB]

Horseware Rambo Supreme Dry Rug, not the original grey one. The baby blue one… dries them in 10 minutes!

[Shagyas_Rock]

Wool is wildly unpractical I don’t know why anyone would bother with it. Yes it’s warm and absorbent.
But it doesn’t wick as well as fleece - and once it gets wet it takes FOREVER and EVER to dry.
And it’s difficult to launder - yes, you can wash it in cold with Woolite on the gentile cycle but you obviously cannot put it in the dryer. You have to line dry it. This can be problematic in the winter. . .
and did I mention it can take FOREVER to dry? So even if you’re lucky enough to have a clothesline indoors it can take up to 24 hours for those things to dry. Heck it takes my good, hand-wash only wool sweaters 24 hours to dry. Fleece, on the other hand - wicks beautifully, dries rapidly and is easy to care for;.It does the job perfectly, making wool - for all intents and purposes - obsolete…
There are a number of very nice fleece coolers on the market - some of them have a high, wrap around neck which you might want if you’re riding outside in cold temps and the horse’s neck gets sweaty.

[2DogsFarm]

I have both - wool & fleece - & really don’t find either superior for wicking ability.
I prefer fleece because it is easily machine-washable & can also go in the dryer.
With either fabric you can speed cooling by stuffing handfuls of hay between horse & cooler.
Creates airspace & hay is still perfectly edible after use.

[theresak]

I find that fleece doesn’t hold nearly as much moisture, so once the top of the fleece cooler shows some condensation, you need to switch to another cooler. Wool can hold much more moisture and keep it away from the hair and keep drying the horse.

Also, I use the wool blend from Schneider’s so I can put it in the washing machine and not worry so much about cleaning it. It dries in my house in under a day, but I usually only wash it (and all my coolers) in the spring before packing away for the season.

[scislandsprite]

I wonder if Coat Defense powder might be helpful to use before or after using a cooler? I am in a pretty warm barn so I don’t use coolers but the powder is really great for drying a sweaty horse in the winter as I don’t clip but my horse is very hairy so she gets fairly sweaty. It’s a staple in my grooming kit!

[Scribbler]

My wool cooler actually does dry overnight in my damp barn. It surprises me, but it does. I only have it on for cool out and it hasn’t needed a wash yet.

[LCDR]

I have several fleece coolers @Shagyas_Rock, and I personally prefer my wool cooler over any of them.

I have a big tack room, heated, air conditioned and de-humidifed, and a place to hang the wool cooler to dry with good air circulation after I use it. It dries in well under 24 hours.

The impractical and obsolete LCDR.

[JB]

How wet do you really expect him to get - skin-wet just under the saddle? Really wet on most of his body?

What time of day is the riding done?

Has he ever been exposed to a blow dryer, or shop vac on the blow setting?

Is a medium weight blanket an option some days if you’re riding in the late afternoon and it’s going to be cold enough overnight?

Riding mid-day and then getting things reasonably dry with vigorous toweling should be fine most days. I’ve done that for many Winters.

On the days I rode later, if it was going to be down too much below 40 within an hour or 2, I’d just put a medium weight turnout blanket on

I didn’t worry much about whether his skin was still damp under the saddle area.

I never worried much if his whole body was slightly damp and he was turned back out at noon, in the sun, after a morning ride, and it wasn’t 25* or windy

Movement with something on will dry him faster than standing around with anything on.

A mesh cooler under whatever you do end up using can help speed things up, by creating that air layer for more moisture to move into.

[Knubbsy]

Living in the DC area, winter survival is a combination of Coat defense and a cooler combo.

My mare is field board (and is already a bit wooly) north of DC and when she’s sweaty after a ride, I might throw a mesh cooler under but more likely it’s just a BOT sheet while hanging out in the cross ties. She’ll also wear a BOT sheet to the indoor to loosen up her back if it’s really chilly (I have a poly-fleece quarter skirt I’ll at least warm up in for both of our benefits).

[Scribbler]

The other thing is that wooly horses dry from the skin out. Their hair is a wicking blanket itself. If you part the hair you might see that they are already warm and dry and fluffy at skin level while wet on the surface.

I have put turnout sheets on slightly damp horses and they dry up perfectly fine after an hour.

[scislandsprite]

A little embarrassed to admit I didn’t realize they dried from the skin out. This does make a lot of sense though!

[Dutchmare433]

I posted on another thread and I figured I’d ask here as well…has anyone used the Rambo Sport cooler? I need a light weight cooler for winter in south Florida.

[Feathered_Feet]

Re: the wool versus fleece debate - I’m amazed at the pro-fleece people that major static electricity isn’t an issue for you? I had to switch to wool since I was shocking the bejeesus out of my horse in the winter and 1) she became quite leery of me, and 2) I really didn’t want to have to keep dipping my hands in water buckets in the middle of winter (and anti-static spray didn’t work). With the wool cooler, no more static!

It is also much thicker and therefore warmer than any of my fleece coolers (though that may be cooler-specific and I just got lucky with a thick one?). For what it’s worth, I am in the DC area and LOVE the Schneiders Dura-Tech wool cooler. When we first moved here I had several fleece ones but this one is way better - it’s warmer and I do think the horse dries faster (though I often stuff a few handfuls of hay underneath as was mentioned above). I think the neck straps are in a slightly awkward place on this cooler but at this price point I was very happy!!

[RedHorses]

It’s also why rubbing with a towel is often a bad idea as the moisture on the outside of the coat is pushed back into the drier hair by the skin.

What will be effective depends a great deal on the temperature of the barn and the ambient temperature. If the air outside the cooler is cold enough the horse’s sweat will steam through the cooler and condense on the outside. When riding the sweat will initially steam through the horse’s coat and condense on the tips of the hair. Throwing a cooler on at the beginning of the last walk work/cool out results in much of the sweat steam condensing on the cooler instead of the horse.

If the barn is warm and the horse not completely cool they can break into a secondary sweat under a wool or fleece cooler once back in the barn. I have used a light mesh lined with a CoolMax type wicking material in this sort of situation.

I find turnout blankets to be invaluable as the horse can be a bit damp when turned back out. I’m paying the bills and I make sure the blanket fits so the horse can wear a blanket for my convenience.

[Casey09]

I honestly haven’t noticed any more static on the coolers than I have on winter turnout blankets.