How do you dry your rugs?

R

Racing_Gal

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 June 2008
Messages
1,352
Visit site
as title really! I have four horses all with rugs on in the winter, I have a heater in the (very small) tack room but doesn't do a very good job, how do you dry them? I've got no room for rug racks so they end up thrown over things to try to spread them out to help them dry...bringing them in the house is not an option, I have a horse hating dad!
(I don't mean bring the horses in the house! My dad kicks off if I bring tack or anything horse smelling in to the house!)
 
Do they coem in at night in the winter? if so, the best way t dry them is to leave them on!! Unless they are soaked through, which doesnt tend to happen with the newer rugs these days.....

Or do you have an open ish barn you could make washing lines in?I find wind dries things better than just heat!
 
I'm with Lexie above - obviously if the rug is soaking wet inside then I wouldn't but as mine are all fairly new the insides stay dry and I just leave them on. Others at our yard try turning them inside out etc but they they are still damp in the morning. They usually look at my horses in horror that I've left rugs on wet but mine are always the ones who are lovely, warm and dry in the morning!
 
I have to be honest and say that I leave my turnouts on my youngsters cos I'm too cheap to buy them millions of turnouts and stable rugs as they grow!! Never had a problem, they very rarely get soaked through and it's the easiest way of drying them off! If the clipped horses come in wet then I leave theirs on for a couple of hours if I'm not riding so that they're at least half way dried off before morning. Nothing worse than lugging soggy rugs about
crazy.gif
 
I'm with all the others and leave them on the horses, in fact now only use turnout rugs as I like the shiny material inside them.

If you must change the rugs (and live onsite) go back out later once they are dry, but I wouldn't bother!

Less rugs to get washed once the summer comes round as well
wink.gif
 
As above.
I gave up with stable rugs and sodden turnouts 20 years ago when I bought my first Goretex rug.
The Rambos, Fals and nearly all good quality,modern rugs work perfectly well as turnout and stable rugs.

I only take mine off to ride!
 
Mine stay on all winter....if I took them off to dry out they would freeze solid, the horses are always warm underneath so I simply don't change them at all. Sometimes, if there has been an ice storm they do freeze anyway, they crackle and have been known to have icicles hanging off them.

At least with modern rugs they are so much more comfortable and designed to be left on most of them, I cringe at the memory of trying to move, let alone dry out, the old canvas NZ's. In the UK I finally came to my senses and had good winter turnouts which they practically lived in.

I worked on a private yard in Hampshire once, money no object kind of place, where the drying room had heated metal racks. Rugs came off sodden and by morning they were toasty warm and dry again. This was NOT a yard where horses slept in their raincoats , they had to have their stripey pj's on. The horses wouldn't have cared either way as long as they had grub infront of them.
 
Yep, as above.
Buy good quality, well fitting rugs that are breathable and leave them on.
Mine are always warm and toasty even if it's been pouring all day and they never have to have freezing rugs changed over during those yucky cold mornings !!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top