ReWater-proofing

[missamandarose]

How long should a re-waterproofing last on a turnout?

I had my heavy weight turnout professionally cleaned & re-waterproofed in the fall, but last week my BO told me that my poor horse was soaked after an overnight rain. So it lasted only about 3 months. My horse is on 24/7 turnout, but a friend who pasture boards her horses elsewhere said her blankets are just fine. She used the same blanket cleaner for cleaning/waterproofing just a couple weeks before me. :confused:

Anyway... just wondering if this is a normal time frame for the waterproofing to last or not... and wondering if I should invest in a new heavy weight turnout for next year. The blanket is in really good shape overall, and I think is only a few years old.

[LauraKY]

It should have lasted longer. A lot of cleaners just use a spray on waterproofing. I bring them home and soak them in NikWax in a baby pool. Seems to hold them all year...even the older ones. I tried sponging it on, but it didn't work as well. You might want to get a sheet for next year to layer over, just in case.

[jn4jenny]

Define "soaked". I've had many a BO tell me that a horse was "soaked" under a blanket and this turned out to mean "it rained like hell to the point where water was dripping down the horse's neck, it dripped naturally into the front/chest part of the blanket, and therefore the horse's chest and part of its shoulders were soaked."

That's a far cry from blanket failure but it can make it look like the blanket "failed". Of course if any part of the flanks or back were soaked, that's blanket failure.

If I were you, I'd test-drive the blanket with a garden hose or some buckets of water. You'll have an answer pretty quickly. If the waterproofing has truly failed, then consider either replacing it or using the spray waterproofing stuff to buy yourself another year of protection.

[joyful]

Agree with jn4jenny about how water can run down the neck... I use Nikwax every year. One horse has it last all year, the other I have to re-do it - he rolls a million times a day! I guess it depend on the horse and the blanket... like everything else in the horse world - there's no one easy answer!

[missamandarose]

Thanks for your insight, guys.

His back/sides were indeed wet on the morning in question :( I also asked a couple other friends about this and one suggestion was, after I have the blanket cleaned for summer storage, waterproofing it again myself, even after the cleaner does it. I'd like to be able to get as much use out of this blanket as possible since it is in otherwise very good condition, and Alfie isn't really hard on his "clothes".