How to Fold and Store Your Winter Horse Blankets

How to Fold Your Horse Blankets for Storage

Properly folding your horse blankets for storage after the winter season is crucial to maintaining their condition and longevity. Here are the four simple steps to follow when folding and storing your horse blankets.

1. On a clean flat surface, lay your blanket down with it folded at the spine, surcingle/bellyband side facing you.
2. Bring the belly straps up and onto the body of the blanket; this will keep them tucked in.
3. Start at the back of the blanket, fold it into the middle, then do the same with the front of the blanket. You've folded the blanket to a third of the size now.
4. Lastly, take the bottom of the blanket and fold it up to the top. You can stop here, or on thinner sheets and coolers, you could fold the blanket one more time.

How to Fold Your Horse Blankets to Hang on a Stall Door

1. On a clean flat surface, lay your blanket down with it folded at the spine, surcingle/bellyband side facing you.
2. Bring the belly straps up and onto the body of the blanket; this will keep them tucked in.
3. Fold the blanket over so the spine and bottom of the blanket meet.
4. Lastly, pick the blanket up at the middle and fold, then fold at the middle a second time. This is also a great way to fold your blanket to hang neatly on a stall front blanket bar.

How to Store Your Horse Blankets

The way you store your horse blankets is equally essential to the cleaning and care of the blankets. Once you've cleaned and folded your blankets, you wouldn't want to leave them uncovered to gather dust or be destroyed by rodents, insects, or weather damage. There are a few ways to store your winter horse blankets to keep them protected, tidy, and out of the way when unused, including horse blanket bags, vacuumed sealed bags, and plastic tubs.

Horse Blanket Bags

Horse Blanket bags are a popular option because they come in various sizes and materials. Many can be hung up in your tack room or on stall doors. Most horse wear bags are polyester or nylon, making them more durable than plastic storage bags. Stall front bags allow you to store your every horse's blankets on their stall all year long. Alternatively, storage bags without straps to attach to stalls are great for hayloft, feed, or tack room storage options. These options are great for stacking and coordinating more blankets for each horse. Many of these blanket bags have built-in label slots or see-through sections to help identify what blankets are inside the horse wear bag.

Shop Horse Blanket Bags

Vacuumed Sealed Bags

To save even more space, vacuum-sealed storage bags are a popular option. The clear bags used on their own make it easy to tell what blankets are inside. They can also be used with other horse wear storage bags or tubs to fit more inside.

Plastic Tubs

Plastic tubs or totes are popular for blanket storage when you have concerns about critters getting into your blankets. They are also a stand-alone stacking option, unlike horse wear storage bags, which require shelves.

Tips and Tricks for Storing Your Horse Blankets

• Label your blanket bags or totes with the size and weight of the blankets included as well as your horse's name. This will make finding the blankets and sheets you need in fall and winter easier. An additional step is to tag each blanket as well. This is helpful when the blankets are in use, so no matter who needs to blanket your horse, they know which blanket is your medium weight or heavyweight.


• Check the elastic leg straps or tail cords on your blankets. If any are missing or need to be replaced, do so before storing your blanket. It's the worst when you pull your sheet or blanket out in the fall, only to realize there are no hind leg straps for you to use with it.


• Even after being washed, blankets can be musty after months of being in a blanket bag or tote. Add a few dryer sheets to your blanket storage bag or tote to keep your blankets fresh through the storage season.


• Sometimes your horse's blankets can be ultra-dirty or smelly, so you need to amp up how you wash your blanket. Schneiders® Odor Eliminator can be used as an additive in the wash cycle to remove odors such as mold, mildew, urine, or manure. It can also be diluted in a spray bottle to deodorize when needed.


• After years of washing your turnout blankets, you may need to touch up the waterproofing. A spray-on treatment like Schneiders® Spray On Blanket Re-Proofer will revitalize turnout blankets or sheets, allowing you additional years of use.