Horse Laundry 101

Having a horse is tough on a borderline OCD person (like me) when it comes to keeping things clean. Rocko just doesn't have the same point of view about cleanliness as I do! Since none of our horses have been especially tidy, over the years I've developed a system for horse laundry. Horse laundry, if at all possible, goes to the laundromat. Laundromats hate horse owners. Many a front loading washing machine has had it's glass door cracked or broken by a metal horse blanket buckle. And the noise! It sounds like World War III when a horse blanket is being washed, with all the clanking of metal pieces inside a metal drum! In the past I've learned to sneak in the back door, start the laundry and sneak back out. Today I used a new technique.

Here's Rocko's lightweight blanket. It's supposed to be warm this weekend, (50's!!!), so I wanted to get it cleaned up before taking it out to the barn. In it's present state, it almost stands by itself.

Here's my helper.

These are a few of the offending buckles.

I wrapped them in old hand towels and washcloths, then wrapped rubber bands around the bundles to keep them on.

Then I was off the the laundromat. It has an awesome retro sign out front:

In went the blanket, $4.00 worth of quarters and some of my smelly homemade laundry detergent. Only the best for Rocko! Then I turned it on.

There was some clanking, but not like before. I sauntered instead of slinking out. My plan had worked, and Rocko's blanket is now nice and clean. That will last maybe 2 hours, if we're lucky.