# grandparents horse hide blanket



## Geff Dochnahl (Jul 1, 2019)

hello, i am seeking information on the value of a horse hide sleigh blanket, that belonged to my grandparents. i am interested in selling this item, but know nothing about it. ive seen similar blankets, but nothing like it. i will enclose a picture . thank you, geff


----------



## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

I've never seen that before and sort of wish I didn't click :< Amazing the uses people had and have for various parts of an animal. Good luck in your search! Definitely never seen anything like that (from a horse) before.


----------



## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

I think you'd have better luck selling this to non-horse people. The mane... is a tad disturbing to me.


----------



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I don't know the value. Cowhides, unfinished, go for about $150-175 retail. 

You may get a better idea on western are collector sites.

I have seen this in houses. Always from a favorite horse, except once. That time the owner said, "No. I didn't particularly like the horse. He was a jiggety son of a gun. I just wanted to see him stand still!" 

Horse hide furniture used to be popular, too. And horse leather boots are very soft and durable.


----------



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I would try to find the traveling road show that does all kinds of items from rare and exotic to real treasures of antiques...The Antiques Road Show think it is called.
They might be able to tell you a value and a audience who might be interested in it...

:runninghorse2:...


----------



## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

I also find the mane disturbing lol idk why it's just that one part that throws me off. I can't imagine keeping it as a memento of a favorite horse. I would suggest contacting some leather workers/tanning businesses, people used to processing and selling cow hides should be able to give you a good idea of a horse hide even if antiquated. And on that note an antiques store MIGHT be able to help?


----------



## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I would assume that's an antique and probably very rare but I have no idea how you would figure out a worth or what market you would sell to. I would think maybe ask at an auction house? (for antiques - not animals)....


----------



## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

I know it creeps some horse people out but there are also those who would love this. In my part of the world there are for example people who still hitch up horses to sleighs in the winter. Might be perfect for someone like that (I always like to see old stuff being used as it was originally intended). If you look up horse hide lap blanket you'll find several examples on ebay right now.


----------



## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

I looked on ebay and found 15 examples of this same type of blanket--

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=horse+hide+blanket&_sacat=0

None of them appear to be generating much interest. I personally find them to be rather disgusting and wouldn't want to use it. I didn't know these were popular back in the day so no offense to the OP or his grandparents. I just feel that it would be best to donate these things to a local museum and leave it at that.


----------



## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

pasomountain said:


> I looked on ebay and found 15 examples of this same type of blanket--
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=horse+hide+blanket&_sacat=0
> 
> None of them appear to be generating much interest. I personally find them to be rather disgusting and wouldn't want to use it. I didn't know these were popular back in the day so no offense to the OP or his grandparents. I just feel that it would be best to donate these things to a local museum and leave it at that.


You probably wouldn't think they were quite so disgusting if 1. your routine form of winter transport was an open sled or sleigh (that hide would really cut the wind chill factor), and 2. you lived in a period where using every part of an animal (or plant) was standard practice, and 3. you had the Victorian sensibility toward memorializing the dead, which we tend to find morbid and weird today. It was common to make memorial jewelry out of the hair of the deceased, for one example. 

It's all in your point of view ...


----------



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

It's just the mane. I can't get past the mane, and I think that's the problem a lot of other people are having, too. I mean, why not just include the face, too. Ick.

But, no offense meant to OP. It's just creepy to me.


----------



## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

@Avna--Agreed. Key words here being "back in the day", "Victorian", and "museum" as in not something we need to do nowadays. I acknowledged it was different then. Many people in the modern age see horses as pets and not just utilitarian. Even to memorialize my pet horse like that is not very appealing to me. Making jewelry out of their tail hair would be kind of cool though. It is just my perspective.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I don't have to travel in open sleigh, I don't live in Victorian times and I find it really creepy. I like to put my feet against my husband's at night to warm them up underneath the covers. To memorialize him if he dies before me, I guess I'll hack off his feet, install battery operated warmers in them and keep them under the covers, lol! CREEPY!


----------



## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

waresbear said:


> I don't have to travel in open sleigh, I don't live in Victorian times and I find it really creepy. I like to put my feet against my husband's at night to warm them up underneath the covers. To memorialize him if he dies before me, I guess I'll hack off his feet, install battery operated warmers in them and keep them under the covers, lol! CREEPY!


I'll want to see pictures of that. Oh, maybe not.


----------



## Squeaky McMurdo (Sep 19, 2017)

I think it’s kind of cool. 

But then again, I have the skull and hide of my favorite packgoat, Ranger, on my wall. His horns were just so cool and he’s the reason I graduated to horses. I donated his carcass too. I really didn’t want him going to waste when he could bless a family in need. I couldn’t bring myself to eat him though.


----------



## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

From what I've seen on Ebay and yours looks to be in pretty good condition. I would day anywhere between 350. and 500.

It doesn't creep me out because I don't really see where it's any different than having a cow hide. People get attached to their cows too. 

Would I want someone to steal my horse and senselessly kill her for the hide? No. But I don't see anything wrong with using everything that can be used from an animal who is going to die anyway if that is what one wants to do.


----------



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Some of us get pretty close to our horses. Most have been grand partners in endeavors not of their choosing. 

You get sentimental about the horse that has stayed with you through hail storms, blizzards, blistering heat, glorious sunrises, perfect days with fields covered in wildflowers, that no other human and his horse will see that year, and knows his job so well he can correct YOU when you're about to mess up.

So, yeah... I can completely understand why, on both practical and sentimental levels, why people keep a horse's hide.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I see nothing wrong with it, but it gives me the creeps though. Fine for someone else, but I would not allow the thing in my house. Would give me night"mares"!


----------



## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

waresbear said:


> I don't have to travel in open sleigh, I don't live in Victorian times and I find it really creepy. I like to put my feet against my husband's at night to warm them up underneath the covers. To memorialize him if he dies before me, I guess I'll hack off his feet, install battery operated warmers in them and keep them under the covers, lol! CREEPY!


omg, I think a part of me just died. Don't know whether to say  or :rofl:


----------



## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

This reminds me when I was 9 yrs old and as horse crazy as a child could be. I didn't have my first pony yet, but I dreamed of them and constantly asked my Daddy to let me have one. For years I begged for a horse of my own. 

It was Christmas Eve, and earlier that year, my sister went to Iceland. When I unwrapped her gift to me, there was a pair of mittens with fur around the top. Just as I was about to pick them up out of the box, she mentioned the mittens were made from Icelandic pony hides :shock: She thought it was a good gift because I loved horses so much. I thought she was unbelievably cruel to give me something that meant a horse had to die to make. Up until that time, I had no idea that anyone ever killed horses :frown_color:

Anyway, I didn't touch those gloves, and felt so sick at the thought of them, I left the whole Christmas Eve celebration to retreat to my room and cry for the pony. I cried for me too, that my sister would give me such a horrible gift. It felt like a slap in the face. 

My mother came upstairs and demanded I apologize and thank my sister for the gift. I refused and had to miss dinner. 

The next day everyone tiptoed around me, and no one mentioned the mittens. I opened each Christmas present as if there was a snake inside ready to bite me. As soon as I could get away I went back to my room. It was the worst Christmas ever. 

Seeing this blanket brought all those feelings back; I felt 9 again...and sick to my stomach


----------



## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

@AnitaAnne, that is such a sad story. I hope you've gotten nothing but nice gifts since then.


----------



## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

JCnGrace said:


> @AnitaAnne, that is such a sad story. I hope you've gotten nothing but nice gifts since then.


You are a kind person, thank you


It is strange how something that happened so long ago, that I had not remembered in decades, can suddenly return in vivid detail. BAM suddenly back in time. 

I can hear the arguments drifting upstairs from the dinner table; my sister's husband telling how he had tried to dissuade her from buying those mittens, my sister hotly defending herself. My mother saying I was disrespectful, brothers and sisters all chiming in with voices raised. My father finally shutting down the subject with a fist to the table. Shattering silence.


----------



## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

I know @AnitaAnne, your story brought back my most traumatic Christmas and that was when I received my very first training bra as a stocking stuffer. LOL All there had been prewarned to watch so when I pulled it out everyone started laughing. I ran around smacking them with the bra. I was such a tomboy that it was a huge embarrassment to me.


----------



## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

JCnGrace said:


> I know @AnitaAnne, your story brought back my most traumatic Christmas and that was when I received my very first training bra as a stocking stuffer. LOL All there had been prewarned to watch so when I pulled it out everyone started laughing. I ran around smacking them with the bra. I was such a tomboy that it was a huge embarrassment to me.


Getting a training bra for Christmas? :eek_color: Everyone told to watch while you opened it?  Oh my, very traumatic for a young girl! Why do families like to provoke the children?


----------



## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

JCnGrace said:


> I know @AnitaAnne, your story brought back my most traumatic Christmas and that was when I received my very first training bra as a stocking stuffer. LOL All there had been prewarned to watch so when I pulled it out everyone started laughing. I ran around smacking them with the bra. I was such a tomboy that it was a huge embarrassment to me.


All I can say is WOW!! That wasn't very nice at all. As a young teen, I would have been mortified with this.


----------



## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

I'm sorry for those who have had traumatic Christmases... about the worst we ever had were my mom's insistence on including underwear in our Christmas stockings along with the other 'useful' stuff that found its way under the tree to balance out the fun stuff! 



Although a college roommate of mine had a horrifying/funny experience. Opening gifts one Christmas with her family, her grandmother gave her a box that had an....um, vibrating adult toy in it. Apparently, her Grandma said she knew my friend had been having some foot pain after surgery and thought the foot massager would be just the ticket. My friend said she couldn't decide whether it was funny or horrifying, especially at the age of 17, and nobody ever quite figured out if Grandma knew what it actually was or not. Her large family hooted and kidded about that for years. If someone got something they didn't care for, 'well, at least it wasn't a foot massager' was the common retort. The 'foot massager' is now a fun family memory since the grandmother has since passed, and someone gets a gag gift every year now dubbed the 'Foot Massager Memorial Gift'.


*this was the same grandmother that had a recipe for some sort of salmon cheese spread that everyone loved and insisted she bring to every family gathering. When grandma died, her family found dozens of cans of canned salmon cat food in her pantry, and she didn't have a cat... and the jury is still out on whether she used cat food in it on purpose, or whether she had grabbed a can by mistake at one point, used that, and then everyone raved so she figured she had to keep using it. 



As to the horsehide blanket-- horsehide lap robes and mittens were extremely common in the past. They were warm, light, and soft. My mom has a pair of horsehide mittens her dad owned and they are SO WARM in the winter. Nearly everyone had a pair of horsehide mittens for driving teams/buggies, with lap robes in the sleigh/buggy. You'll still see them in Amish areas or used by traditionalists. I would think $300 - $500 is a good price for an antique robe in good condition if you wish to sell it. It's a niche market, though-- traditionalists, museums, or those with a flair for the macabre will be your buyers. The mindset was different in the past--- a horse that was dying or going to be killed should be used if possible, so the hide was often saved, and horsehide was a finer, softer hide than cattle. Animals weren't killed just for the hides-- it was a byproduct that was used when it could be, for boots, robes, furniture, or gloves. A local farmer bought a sleigh out of an old estate a couple of years ago and there was still a buffalo hide and a horsehide laprobe under the seat, both in good condition. They're now displayed with the sleigh in his horse-drawn vehicle collection.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I wonder where granny purchased that "foot massager"?


----------



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

waresbear said:


> I wonder where granny purchased that "foot massager"?


I don't know about back then, but you can buy this stuff at Home Depot now. I wonder what aisle THAT is in?


----------



## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

I don't think people were uncaring or unsentimental back then, they just weren't wasteful. 

My grandparents were young adults right smack in the middle of the depression. They didn't even have children until the economy started getting better. My mom was her first child at the age of 35 which was considered pretty old to start having kids. Grandpa and grandma would give themselves a treat once a month. That treat was a bottle of soda pop that they shared. They looked forward to it and it kept them going. They just weren't wasteful and if they had a horse that died, I'm sure they would have kept the hide.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

This is true about wasteful. I was watching a Survivor Man episode. He was in Mongolia and he was staying with the Mongolian tribe that hunted off Icelandic ponies and used falcons. When the ponies were too weak to be used, they ate them and they used the hide, they gave the bones to the falcons, nothing went to waste. Again I find nothing wrong with it, but I don't live in Mongolia or in the depression, so my emotions tell me CREEPY.


----------



## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

My parents were both born shortly before the depression started and spent their childhood during it. 

My mother's family didn't have a horse, or a car or anything like that. Her father kept his job, but his salary was cut down to 1/4 of what it was. They were poor, very poor. 

My father's family owned a coal yard, and had a car. My grandfather had horses and drivers to deliver the coal. When the horses were no longer able to work, they were retired to pasture to live out their lives. 

My grandfather would fire any drivers he saw smoking a cigarette that didn't offer the horse one to eat. He said horse's like tobacco too. (I tested this out and it is true by the way)

He wasn't a wasteful man, but he did have empathy for the creatures that worked for him. My dad said he kind and fair to his employees, but seemed to put the horses wellbeing first. 

Different cultures have different traditions. I know the lap robes my father's family used were made of wool, not hides.


----------

