Hanging Rugs

pistolpete

pistolpete

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How does everyone deal with rugs in use? We have five horses all of which use two or three rugs each at any one time. We have a drying area for when they are soaked but the rest of the time they are just in a heap! How does everyone organise rugs?
 
It's a pain, I agree! I don't have much to offer - we just dry where we can e.g. hung on rug rail, hung on stable door. I just try to keep enough spare rugs so he doesn't have to go back out in a soaking rug. It doesn't suit everyone, but some leave the rug on the horse to dry as it dries with their body heat.
 
Luckily we have the facility to pop them over the partitions between stables for drying out - but I know what you mean, there is just never enough room.

I do have a large five arm swinging rug rack that I fold and lay the rugs over the arms. I also have normal rug racks, like a towel rail, for their travelling rugs.

Its all about using the space you have as well as you can :)
 
I have some really strong 6ft clothes rails that are on wheels and they are great for hanging rugs on and they can be wheeled together and out of the way when needed.
 
If you fasten sheep hurdles together (number dependent on space available) and arrange them in a zig-zag so they stand firmly you have an instant rug rack
 
I made a rug rack with two pallets stood on their ends then slotted bars through the slats to hang the rugs on. Mine is screwed to the wall and floor as it is in an area where one of mine can reach and I didn't want her to rub on it and flatten it, so far she hasn't bothered with it and it has been there a couple of years now.

If you have no indoor area to put it you can build a bay outside with straw bales then put a tin roof over and more bales on top to hold it on. If you have to put it in an area where horses can eat the bales you can wrap the bales in plastic/silage sheet/tarpaulin etc so they can't eat them.
 
I have several ways of storing them, but they always end up in a heap on the gate. I do have hooks to hang them up on when wet, but I find spiders love this and to be honest I am sick of finding massive creepy crawlies on me or horse once I have put a different rug on. I hate spiders so even the thought of swapping for a different rug fills me with dread. The only good storage solution I have found is to keep them in a old chest freezer. No spiders can get in and it is fully water tight but can only fit a few of my rugs in them.
I tend to just use the same few rugs in the winter and leave wet rugs on the horses to dry unless they are soaked through.
 
I hang mine on coat hooks fixed quite high. I pass the fillet string D rings over the hooks. I get spiders in them but they are off the floor hopefully out of the reach of mice.
 
I have ropes hung from the beams threaded through a length of drainpipe. Rugs are hung over these, they tend to dry fairly quickly but I don't buy rugs that hold water.
 
I've got two long pieces of heavyduty gutterpipe threaded onto strong rope which is hung from my tackroom rafters - love them, brilliant for chucking rugs over and they are able to drip dry if wet etc. Otherwise, if they're not in regular use I fold them up and store them either on shelving or in big plastic boxes.
 
Wet turnouts are left on horse to dry overnight, all other rugs are either hung up in stable on mahoosive rug rail (plastic drainpipe, reinforced with wood down the middle - I think it's a good five foot long - suspended on hard-wearing rope) or if especially manky hung up on hooks (just fasten the front and sling over the hook) in the feed room so that the excess mud and gunk can be brushed off when dry. Those not in regular use are stored folded up neatly on shelves and in trunks in the garage at home. We have far too many - I am taking a good 10-15 of them to a local horsey car boot next weekend.

P
 
Hooks on baler twine hanging from rafters in spare stable for dry rugs and 2 X 8ft pole hanging horizontally on baler twine from rafters 5 foot off ground for wet rugs
 
Jericho said:
Hooks on baler twine hanging from rafters in spare stable for dry rugs and 2 X 8ft pole hanging horizontally on baler twine from rafters 5 foot off ground for wet rugs
Click to expand...

Eta to say that not sure what to do if you have no undercover! If you have a field shelter you could make rails along the walls in side - a livery yard I was on once did this so everyone kept their rugs in stable but no good if your horse likes to play with them like mine!
 
We used to just dangle old 3/4 length jump poles from bailing twine but we have a rug rack on this yard that we are all allocated a section of. We also have a rug rail by or outside our stable to hang rugs on and a laundry room which has a barley boiler boiling barley and washing machine and dryer so its quite warm in there when the doors shut, so we can hang rugs on there if we are desperate.

Each stable has a hay manger with access from outside the stable via a little door in the side. We often do up the breast strap and hang rugs from there. My friend badly tore her ankle ligament tripping up on a fillet string hung in this way years ago from a stable door at the last yard so I am always aware of how dangerous fillet strings can be when they are hung low or touch the floor so will try to hook them over the buckle on the surcingle so the rug doesn't hang completely down to the floor.
 
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