How To Steam Clean A Saddle Pad

Blanket Maintenance

• Small vacuums are handy to remove dust and horsehair.

• Machine washing doesn't work for all pads and blankets, so cheque the label.

• Launder off the sweat because salt crystals tin be especially dissentious to fibers.

• Avoid heat and sunlight when drying pads and blankets, specially those with leather trim.

Your horse's comfort when you ride is important, so the money you spent on that saddle pad and blanket was worth the cost. If you lot have care of the pad or blanket, you'll make your investment last. You'll likewise proceed that pad and coating in shape so they can do their job - provide protection and comfort for your horse, help spread pressure level and preclude friction and rubbing that might create a sore.

Most pads and blankets are easy maintenance. Many can exist machine-washed and -dried, washed at a exercise-it-yourself carwash with water under force per unit area or just rinsed with a garden hose. The pad will likely have come with intendance instructions. If not, a quick telephone call to the manufacturer or their website may give you lot the information you need.

English Pads
English language pads are easiest to clean. Many are cotton quilted or fleece and are either machine washable or washable past manus. If you lot do launder the pad in a automobile, use cool water and don't use a rut cycle in your dryer to avoid the corners of the pad shrinking and crimper up.

English fleece pads can often exist machine-done on gentle bike and tumble dried on depression estrus. Almost English quilted pads are also automobile-washable and safe to dry in your dryer. However, some English language quilted pads are made of materials designed to wick away moisture, and the manufacturer recommends line drying.

Janet Nittman of Dover Saddlery said that generally the English pads offered by Dover tin can be washed in a forepart-load washing machine in cold water or by manus using mild soap. Practice non bleach or dry out-clean them. Either hang them to dry out or use the air-fluff cycle in your dryer.

Many English pads today have a gel insert, which yous can remove and and then wash the outer covering.

Storing Your Pad or Blanket

After apply, a pad or coating dries quickest if yous lay information technology out flat. It'southward best for short-term storage of fleece, wool and felt to drapery the pad or blanket over the saddle (on your saddle rack) later on it's dry or hang it on a pad rack in the tack room.

Never leave a saddle pad or coating hanging on a fence rail in the sun. After it'southward dry, put it away because ultraviolet rays can impairment natural fibers and constructed materials. Too much dominicus can shrink article of clothing leathers on a pad or the leather side of a sheepskin pad, or they could become stiff or crevice.

For long-term storage, pads or blankets should be in a absurd, dry out environment to avert mildew or mold. If the pad is completely dry and is not made of leather, yous can put it in a tight plastic bag to protect it. If there is any dampness, however, plastic will seal in the moisture and create ideal weather for mold. In a humid climate, a dehumidifer in your tack room may assist. If it'south to be stored for a while, put mothballs with a wool pad or blanket.

Don't store annihilation on pinnacle of your pad because that may printing down the fibers or make pressure marks on a foam pad. Yous should fold a pad or blanket in half, the way it naturally bends over the horse; never fold it backward. Only like a slice of paper that gets folded back and forth many times, this weakens the fibers and the center part of the pad will become thin and worn at the crease. Always shop pads and blankets upward off the floor then mice won't get at them.

Foam and synthetic slick pads should never be left exterior in the sun considering the UV rays tin can damage the textile. They'll hold upwardly best if folded their natural way and put in a identify past themselves in your tack room. If you lot store them on a saddle stand up nether your saddle, the stand up will often get out pressure indentations.

Western Synthetic Fleece Pads
Information technology's tempting to simply shake a Western pad to remove the clay, dried sweat and horsehair, but information technology's best to follow upwards by vacuuming or brushing. You should brush off stale salt from sweat and dirt every fourth dimension you ride considering a buildup will wear on the fibers.

You can also motorcar-wash these pads on gentle cycle and tumble dry them on low heat. Another selection is to pressure wash these pads (at a carwash or with a portable power washer for engines). In that case, you won't need soap considering the water nether pressure lifts out dirt and hair.

Water won't hurt virtually pads (fifty-fifty if they have wear leathers) as long as they are immune to dry properly later. If the fleece pad has a cloth top and felt interior, exercise non machine-wash or pressure level-wash it. Simply castor it off, hose information technology with water to rinse away dirt on the outside and hang it on the fence to dry.

Wool Blankets
While wool blankets tin exist kept fairly make clean after daily use just by snapping them against a fence, door, pipe or other solid surface, follow up by brushing with a medium to stiff horse brush to remove any pilus or dander left on the surface. Don't use annihilation as harsh as a metal currycomb because that may tear the fibers.

Toklat recommends brushing and hosing its Western woven wool blankets and Navajo blankets, rather than washing them. For Toklat wool pads (the Western woven pads or Navajo pads), the fleece portion can be brushed and hosed, and the pad hung to dry (never motorcar-washed).

Mayatex recommends manus-washing its blankets periodically. A blanket you lot utilise regularly can be washed in a tub of common cold water every threescore to xc days. (Exercise non machine wash.) For thorough cleaning, permit information technology soak in cold h2o for at to the lowest degree an hour. Mayatex does not recommend using soap because a blanket can retain soap after washing. Soap rest may seep throughout the porous wool each time information technology becomes soaked with sweat, which can irritate your horse'southward back.

Later soaking a blanket, gently wring it while nonetheless in the h2o. And so lift it out and wring again to remove equally much h2o as possible. In that way, when y'all hang it you lot won't create a pull on the fibers. Some manufacturers recommend hanging a wet blanket over a rail, while others recommend drying information technology apartment, like you lot would a wool sweater.

Brush the clammy blanket (whether it'due south hanging or spread out) with a soft to medium horse brush, then turn it over and brush the other side. Permit it air dry completely in the shade so that sunlight doesn't harm the fibers.

Wool Felt Pads
A wool felt pad can exist vacuumed betwixt washings to continue it cleaner and reduce the corporeality of washings needed. You can likewise use a rubber grooming mitt to curry the felt. Vacuuming or brushing also helps fluff up the fibers.

Toklat wool felt Western pads tin be hosed and hung to dry. Dover and Smith Brothers' Western wool pads tin be washed by scrubbing the dingy spots with a textile or sponge, using lukewarm h2o and a balmy liquid wool-washing soap. Rinse all the soap off with clean water and permit the pad to air dry.

An Equipedic Western pad has 2 layers of wool felt sandwiched effectually a layer of low-cal foam to assistance adjust the pad to the horse's shape. Richard Sacks of Equipedic said that the inserts tin be removed and the felt pad itself can be washed in a washing car (gentle cycle, vi to 10 minutes) in cold water with a liquid soap that you lot'd use for wool, such every bit Woolite, a leather therapy laundry detergent, EQ solution or Soil Release.

You can hose off the foam insert to clean off any sweat that might accept come through the felt, and so printing it down on a flat surface similar a tabletop to clasp the water out and dry it. Sacks advises that you back-scratch the felt portion regularly (as y'all would with any wool or felt pad), using a rubber mitt like you'd utilise on your equus caballus.

Many endurance riders accept found that Pert shampoo works well on these pads, since this shampoo rinses out easily. Some people use ability washers, with or without soap, but these pads are designed to exist machine-washed so you don't take to take it to a carwash.

A word of caution when car-washing fleece and wool pads and blankets: The twisting action of a washing auto can be hard on them, so don't machine-wash them oft. If y'all apply lather, it may accept several rinses to eliminate residue. That extra agitation time tears out fibers and shortens the life of the pad or blanket. Washings tin also be difficult on your machine if y'all end up with horsehair buildup in the h2o pump.

Pad Liners
Pad liners, usually fabricated of wool, sit betwixt your equus caballus and a blanket or pad. You lot can hose liners off or put them in a washing machine. Simply don't utilize hot water or the wool may shrink.

When a pad liner becomes really dirty, apply a skilful all-purpose cleaner, such as EasyAll, which is similar to foam sprays designed for carpets and works the same manner. You can spray the cleaner onto the pad liner, pad or blanket, and it goes deep into the fibers and lifts out the dirt. And so y'all just hose it off.

With whatsoever pad, blanket or liner, yous need to judge how ofttimes to launder information technology thoroughly. It's easy to see how much dust and clay have accumulated, just be aware of the common salt from your horse's sweat. The salt crystals can impairment the fibers of any pad or blanket.

Saddlepad Fitting

Ane mode to save clothing and tear on your blankets - besides every bit your equus caballus - is to take care in how you lot use the blanket. It doesn't matter whether you utilize a light cotton wool pad under an English language saddle, a Western felt pad or a liner under a saddle blanket. The basics of fitting the pad are the aforementioned.

1. Put the pad on the horse slightly alee of where it belongs.

2. Slowly slide information technology dorsum until it settles into the correct position on the equus caballus's dorsum. That will smooth the equus caballus's hairs, which will help minimize any irritation.

three. "Peak" the front end of the pad slightly, so that it tents up. Softer pads may not literally tent, but relaxing the front of the pad will make the adjacent pace easier.

iv. Put the saddle on the horse, settling it into position. Lift the front of the pad and push it upwardly into the pommel or swell of the saddle.

Creating a little ease in the front of the pad will permit the equus caballus's shoulders more freedom of movement, and will create less wear on the pad. The pad will make its fashion down onto the horse'due south back when the horse is worked. If, on the other manus, you saddle the horse with the pad already snug, the pad gets tightened even further, creating pressure on the withers and restricting the horse's ease of movement.

Sheepskin Pad
A sheepskin pad is a hide with the wool nevertheless on. The leather side goes next to the saddle and the fleece next to the horse. The quality and durability of a sheepskin pad depends on how it was tanned, and many sheepskin pads being sold now are washable, even in a washing automobile. Bank check with the manufacturer or instructions that came with the pad to see if applying a leather conditioner to help continue the leather side of a sheepskin supple is recommended.

Don't apply potent detergents when washing sheepskin because they can damage the leather and wool fibers. Instead, use a mild pilus shampoo, such every bit Pert.

Exist sure to ever dry a sheepskin pad without rut, preferably on your dryer'southward everyman setting of air fluff. Ameliorate still, hang it, which can have a couple of days.

Real sheepskin pads rarely demand washing. That'southward because the wool is springy and generally traps the sweat and dirt near the ends of the fleece fibers, away from the skin. Employ a pet castor or poodle brush (with a few rows of teeth) to elevator and brush out textile such as pilus, hay, burrs and seeds. Exist specially vigilant in the spring because the horse volition shed extra hair on the pad.

Synthetic Pads
There are many synthetic pads on the market, including those of constructed "safety," smoothen Neoprene pads and slick-surface pads. You tin clean most of these pads just by hosing them off, just check the manufacturer's instructions. Some recommend that you merely wipe the pad downwardly.

A pad fabricated of Neoprene or PVC foam should be cleaned after every ride because the common salt from your horse's sweat eats at the foam or rubber-like cloth and the grit wears it down. Excessive salt and sweat on a pad's underside or excessive exposure to sun on the topside can cause a pad to atomize and crack downward the middle.

One time clean, a synthetic pad can be left to drip dry out, which will accept much less time than a fleece or wool pad/blanket.

Leather Trim
Pad manufacturers recommend wiping the leather trim on pads and blankets clean with a damp cloth and applying a good leather conditioner afterward. Avert heat, specially in a dryer, with whatever pad that has leather.

You can wash or hose off the leather along with the pad, as long equally you recondition the leather. Lightly oil the wear leathers, like y'all would your saddle, so they won't become besides dry, shrink or curl.

The things that impairment leather almost are the same things that can impairment the pad itself - too much exposure to sun and the common salt, hair and dirt buildup coming through from the underside.

Allow'south face it, if you and your horse are out enjoying the trails or working hard in the arena, dirt and sweat are inevitable. Merely their event on your saddle pads and blankets are easily minimized.

For more information about all kinds or saddle pads go to www.saddlefitter.com