Washing a Mattes sheepskin saddle pad in the washing machine

Long before horses entered my life, I had always washed my wool sweaters by hand using the "Woolite in the bathroom sink" method.  Wool is naturally dirt-repellent and typically doesn't need extreme cleaning, so the gentle soak/swish approach was a good way of keeping premature pilling to a minimum.

A dirty sheepskin saddle pad is a different story, however...

Unlike our half pads, these pads sat directly against two hardworking horses jumping over many obstacles.  So they did get very grimy despite the magical powers of the wool.  They definitely needed a thorough cleaning, so they went into the washing machine with care.

First, however, I removed the surface dirt and hair using the mini-turbine attachment on my Dyson vacuum cleaner, just like I do with conventional saddle pads.  Here is the result.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the wool was very matted down and grimy feeling, even after vacuuming.

Dirty Mattes sheepskin pads after vacuuming

Next I loaded one pad at a time into the agitator-free washing machine on the gentle setting with less than a capful of Melp.

Once the cycle had completed the pad looked foamy in some places.  I thought that the Melp had not gotten rinsed out completely, but then I noticed that tiny clumps of wool had shed during the washing.  There was not much of this shedding so I removed it by hand and then set the machine on Rinse/Spin only.

This time the pad looked great, no suds anywhere.  I dried it flat, sheepskin-up, on a drying rack.  Once dry I gently brushed the sheepskin with a slicker brush, and it then looked like this.

Clean and dry sheepskin saddle pad

Close-up of the fluffy wool.  So touchable!

Now the wool is clean, fluffy, and better able to perform its functions under saddles.

Remember to take care of your sheepskin properly and it will last a long long time!