Washing saddle pads

[DMK]

Clearly you have limited experience reading instructions on Amazon when it comes to cheap Chinese knockoffs. Those paradoxes are baked in. It’s understood that you get a cheap chachki and several reading minutes of “whaaaat?” all for the price of a cheap chachki.

However, while I don’t use them in the dryer, inevitably I don’t shake them all out of the washed clothes and they end up in the dryer where they do just fine. They also do remarkably well under the stove, because if one bounces away, I don’t always reach out before the cat does. For the record, the washer is upstairs. The oven is not.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Wow, it’s nice to know I wasn’t a total slob–I rode at a barn where you were required to wash your pad after ever ride (and there wasn’t an on-site machine, i.e., if you didn’t take it home and wash it and the barn owner “caught you” she would have words with you using it a second time unwashed on the horse).

[Hayburner]

I typically wash after every ride in the summer. I use the Haas rubber brush of my old vacuum with a pet hair hand attachment. I hand wash mine, rinse the dirt off first, then soak in laundry soap with oxi clean. Spin in washer, then hang dry. They always come out white again. Currently using the dressage baby pad by Oglivy and the fabric does t seem to hold onto dirt and sweat.

[Nous]

I bought a cheaper one off Amazon and I have to say it works a lot better and with a lot less effort than the CarPet Hair one I posted about. So thank you for the recommendation

[lorilu]

@Pehsness

Are there any tools to scrape off the hair from the underside before washing?

I use a shedding blade. Works really well. I have the springy metal one in which you attach the handles together.

[lorilu]

I use that brush when I shampoo my horse. Super job!!

[Pehsness]

Oh, that’s the only shedding blade I use - I’ll try it!

[atlatl]

I only use white pads, call me crazy. I wash them when they need it, but the longest I go is 5 rides or so. I vacuum the bottoms before washing in a front loader. I’m always amazed at how much hair and dirt comes off. Line dry, well actually I dry them over a wrought iron gate to dry.

[eightpondfarm]

i use boar bristle brushes and brush the underside, then i hose, then i pop into the washer folding them top side IN. Then i wash again without laundry soap, just water wash to get any soap residue out. Then i hang dry.

I have cushy training pads, they’re expensive, but so what…everything horsey is!

I wash them when they feel stiff once they’ve dried. That’s my test…the stiff-factor. lol.

[sparkygrace]

Thank you! Ordered and will be here Thursday! I have some hairy pads.

[Kyrabee]

I take mine to the laundromat. My washer (top load with no agitator) does squat with them and it is so hard to get them balanced. So, I head to the laundromat. I can put 2 in the medium size commercial washers and 3 in the jumbo one. Wash cycle is 24 minutes then I’m home to air dry them. The laundromat is a couple blocks away so not a big deal.

I take some of the Chlorox wipes and wipe and de-hair the inside of the washers.

[Buster]

I just take mine into the wash rack and hose them off. We have GREAT water pressure, so it gets all the hair off easily. I hose both sides, getting most of the grime off, then put them into a muck bucket and fill with water. I dump the water once or twice, but once it’s mostly clear, then I just hang to dry. Easy peasy. I do this at least once a week, leg wraps too.

[pluvinel]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

I rode at a barn where you were required to wash your pad after ever ride

Time to move barns. You guys are wayyyyy too sophisticated for me. I use a plain stiff grooming brush to get the hair off…and wash every …oh…oh…oh…I forget

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Ha, I’m glad to hear that! The barn owner was, let’s say, a bit of a control freak. I have so many stories…she hated me.

Once, though, her favorite student bought a friend to the barn who used the BO’s saddle pad on the student’s horse and didn’t wash it! Apparently, the BO was still fuming days later.

Of course, that was wrong, but after being told I was abusive without daily washing even in winter, I chuckled.

[DMK]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

Of course, that was wrong, but after being told I was abusive without daily washing even in winter, I chuckled.

What did she think their blankets were? Clean, pristine and residing in an alternate universe where dirt, mud, sweat and even urine stains never made it to the underside?

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

Ha, well, I can see the logic that there is, um, more friction with riding than a blanket! But yeah, it was a pain, because–at least for me–when I wash a saddle pad at home, even with vacuuming everything beforehand, it is still a project to clean up the washer afterward. If I’d stayed at that barn, I would have had to have invested in a power-washer for my home!

On the other hand, I once rode at a lesson barn that I swear almost never washed the pads. They were absolutely encrusted with dust and hair.

[GraceLikeRain]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

On the other hand, I once rode at a lesson barn that I swear almost never washed the pads. They were absolutely encrusted with dust and hair.

Literally every lesson barn I rode at from ages 5-15 had the grossest saddle pads in retrospect. In my mid teens I got my first horse and moved to a barn with more boarders. The trainer wasn’t spectacular at teaching but looking back she was feeding triple crown, washing saddle pads weekly, and really tried to treat her lesson string how someone would treat a personal horse. The contrast was eye opening and made me wonder how many care elements were overlooked at those earlier barns. For me saddle pads have become a proxy for how observant an owner is and the care they put towards other elements of care. Sure it is correlational not causal but I’ve yet to meet an owner with saddle pads crusty enough to walk away on their own that were meticulous about grooming, carefully inspecting legs pre/post ride, etc.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

I had the same experience–it was a big shift in my mindset moving from barns where lessons were the primary source of income to those which were mainly boarders. Looking back, I’m a little ashamed of how ignorant I was of basic stuff like ensuring saddles and pads were comfortable for the horse (and clean), and decent footing in paddocks and riding rings for horses.

[PonyPenny]

I vacuum mine with my Dyson and treat stains with Spray and Wash. They always come out sparkling white.

[MissusS]

OK I did a very dumb thing and washed a white saddle pad with a red one. Why? Because my brain was clearly leaking out of my ears that day and I didn’t think about it. And of course my white pad now has a pinkish tinge.

It’s an ogilvy friction free dressage pad so… not exactly the cheapest pad to have made this mistake with.

Any recommendations to get it back to sparkling white? I fear I’ve got few options available to me. I might give it a good soak in oxyclean.

This is why I don’t have white clothing. Because I would either ruin it by spilling on it while wearing it, or by washing it with other colours.