New blanket phobia, need advice please.

[Maybeapril]

I’m not sure what I should do. My horse lives out 24/7 he has a run in to go into. It’s been in the 20’s at night. What I usually do is put a mid weight blanket on him at night. He has had extremely bad static all winter.
I’ve tried everything I’ve read on here and none of it would make the static stop.He is now terrified of the blanket coming off. I take it off every morning, because he would get hot if he had it on during the day. He is now circling me while I undo one strap at a time. I tried to put his haler on him and tie him while I take it off. He bolted when it came off and broke the metal part of the lead line.
This morning I put the halter on and unhooked the straps I unhooked him and he bolted with the halter on. I went to take off the halter and he bolted and it was half way off. He has turned this into some sort of crazy phobia of things coming off of him.
So, now I’m thinking I should just leave the blanket off and hope he doesn’t get cold. Maybe he will just forget about it and go back to being normal. He has a pretty good coat and I haven’t seen him shiver or act cold when he has it off. Should I just throw him more hay and leave off the blanket? Even in the low 20’s and very rarely teens? Will he forget the scary blanket and shock torture after a while?

[ThoroughbredFancy]

If he has a good coat, shelter and free choice hay, I'd just leave him naked.

[LuvMyTB]

Yes, but if he's already been wearing a blanket regularly, he may need it at this point.

If I were you, I'd spend a lot of time desensitizing with the blanket--drape it over him (NOT buckling any straps), pull it off, rinse & repeat a thousand times. Apply treats liberally. Don't tie him while you are doing this, either.

You might start the desensitizing with a sheet or cooler--lighter and easier to manage than a heavy blanket.

[LOVE*MY*NAGS]

You could also try a different brand of blanket. One of my horses had incredible static electricity from his baker blanket he wore at night. He also got staticky from a fleece cooler. I now have him in a weatherbeeta stable blanket and have no static at all. He always looked at me a little wild eyed when I took his baker off in the morning!!

[RomeosGirl]

Mine is developing this phobia also. So, tonight I'm going to try rubbing a dryer sheet all over the inside of the blanket. I'm hoping it will stop shocking him then & therefore stop the freakouts?!!?:eek::eek:
I'll let you know how it goes.

[Maybeapril]

Romeos girl, I tried it and it didn't work. Hopefully you'll have more luck than I.

I think I may leave the blanket off and go check on him at midnight and make sure he's not shivering. I'm just super worried that this is going to be a big problem. I'm also going to work with him this weekend putting on and taking off the blanket over and over again. But, if it shocks him every time I'm not sure it will work.

[brightskyfarm]

You might want to Ace him a bit while working with the blankets..

try ... a spray bottle mixed with alcohol and baby oil ...spray
generously on him before blanketing.... and get a nylon filled blanket instead.. .a showman is nice....wont get static

[twofatponies]

I hate the blanket static! I fold the blanket back in sections, patting the horse's back as I go (I get the shocks), and pat pat pat as I pull it off the rump. It seems to a) distract from the shocks and b) disperse the static.

Poor guy!

I think the static declines as the blanket gets dirty, too - the oils from the horse's coat get on the inside and make it less staticky.

[Chall]

Maybe someone like Tom King can jump in here, but I think the horse is acting as a grounder for the electricity. Maybe you can move them to rubber mats (if you have them in your aisles, if not buy one) and remove the blankets while you are both standing on it - all 4s, can't have one off the mat or the horse will still get shocked.

[onelanerode]

There is some kind of spray you can try ... Static Guard? I have a can of it in my tack box but have never actually tried it. That might be worth a try.

Poor guy. I feel for him. I've about had it with the static too. Every time I get up out of my cloth-covered chair at work I can hear the crackling, and if I get too close to the metal door frame, ZAP.

I'm kind of ready for flip-flop weather again. :(

[Cindyg]

There is some kind of spray you can try ... Static Guard? I have a can of it in my tack box(

Right. Try spraying the underside of the blanket before you put it on him.

Also, my barn has rubber mats. I hadn't thought of that as helping; but maybe it does. I don't get electrical shocks when unblanketing. Which is lucky for me because my horse is the sensitive, spooky type who would go nuts on me. He's almost afraid of the blanket just because it's kind of wavy (like a tarp, which he's deathly afraid of!) A shock would be the end of us all! :)

[Cindyg]

Another idea I just read about: pin a safety pin to the underside of the blanket to break up the static electricity. The article I read said you could pin a safety pin to the seam of a (human) skirt or slacks for the same effect. So, if that works, it might work on a horse blanket too.

I have not tried this, but it makes some sense to me, and I'll tell you why: About a year ago, I read a laundry tip to roll a small ball of aluminum foil and throw it in your dryer with every load. For some reason, this totally eliminates static cling. I don't know enough about science to know why this works. But it does. Try it. It does not *soften* cloth, and it does not eliminate wrinkles (like a fabric softener can); but it eliminates static electricity.

So since this works, there might be something to the idea of using a safety pin to get the same effect. Somebody try it and report back.

[RomeosGirl]

So far so good.
I tried the dryer sheet thing & so far I'm hearing that it is not shocking him! Now, I may have gone overboard with it, but here is what I did:
Rub one dryer sheet all over the inside of his blanket. Concentrating mostly on the fleece whither lining, as I think that is what is causing the shock.
Fresh dryer sheet rubbed all over inside of his sheet - same process.
Now here is where I went off the deep end - I took a third dryer sheet & rubbed it all over my horse!~ Well, not all of him but wherever the blanket would touch him & made sure to get his mane good.
It's been about a week since I did this & it hasn't shocked him yet. Now I'm just waiting to see how long it lasts!