Meet Our New Agent – Kenzie Holmberg
January 7, 2021
The struggle is real, how much does it cost to own a horse or manage a barn?
January 27, 2021
Can a brush really be that good?
I saw a post on Facebook about Haas grooming brushes this week, and it compelled me to find out more.
"OMG you guys, these brushes are AMAZING. I had NO IDEA he had that much dust against his skin. Best splurge EVER."
Like most horse people that have their favorite pitchforks and favorite brushes, I haven’t bought a new brush in years. I love my brushes, and if you take care of your equipment, they tend to last.
So, here I am compelled to learn more. Let me share with you some insight from my research:
Testimonials. I have two anchor points of testimonials. First was Jamie Stine, who posted the following in The Plaid Horse Adult Amateur Lounge, and Jamie graciously is allowing me to repost her excitement.
“For a “proper” grooming, you need a curry, stiff brush, medium or body brush, and a finishing brush. Stiff brush to get the big surface dirt off, medium/body to pull the scurf off of the skin, and finishing brush to pull the last dust off and distribute the oil through the hair coat. The stiffness of the stiff brush depends on your horse’s preference as well as the thickness of the coat. The body brush should be dense enough to get down to the skin but not abrasive, and the finishing brush should again be short, dense bristles but very soft.
Jamie's specific brush recommendation
So, I compared them to my other brushes, which are Winner’s Circle dandy type brushes and a soft goat hair finishing brush. The Haas grooming brushes I bought all have natural bristles, mostly horsehair. My Winner’s Circle brushes also have natural bristles: the stiff brush is a harder fiber with some plastic bristles mixed in, the medium brush is soft Tampico fiber. The Haas brushes are short, dense bristles packed closely together; the Winner’s Circle ones are standard dandy brushes with longer bristles.
The stiff brush I got, the Wurtzel, is pretty stiff, but he wasn’t bothered by the stiffness. I felt that it pulled the surface dust off pretty well.
The second brush, the Military, is a traditional body style brush with a raised edge and dense bristles in the middle; this brush pulls the dust right down off of the skin. My other medium brush, the tampico fiber one, I felt flicked the dirt and moved it out, but it takes a lot more work, and in areas like his wither and along the spine, I have to brush and brush and brush to make a difference, but with the new brush, it only took two passes to get all of that scurf up and out.
Featured above: The Haas Military Damen Grooming Brush
The third brush, the Cavalierre, is also mixed horsehair, very dense, with a raised edge. I would consider a soft brush or a finishing brush. It took the remainder of the dust and scurf off of the hair shafts and out of the coat. My goat hairbrush doesn’t do this. I have to spray it with coat spray to get the last dust picked up.
The final brush, the Diva, is literally ONLY to bring up the shine. It is horsehair on the outside and Mattes lambskin on the inside. It has no purpose other than to move the natural oils from the skin to the hair shafts. Grooming was quicker, and he got cleaner. The other nice thing is that they have handles. I drop or fling a brush every grooming session at least once with the dandy style brushes. No dropped or flung brushes today!”
I then started to look online for haas grooming brushes. And wow, there are quite a few, and it could blow your mind quickly.
Starting with the manufacturer's website
I first went to the manufacturer’s website. This link is fantastic. It presents you with a short video with an overview and takes you through a quiz to find the brushes that are right for you. I had settled in on the Eqclusive Chestnut Horse Pack. My challenge arose when they don’t tell you which brushes specifically are included in the kits. Because this is a European site, a secondary challenge I had to address was finding a U.S. website that has these brushes available.
I then found a review from a few years ago, which helped reinforce what Jamie said about her experience.
My brush selection
So, now I knew I wanted the following five brushes:
- Curry: Haas Striegel Der Gute Black (Curry comb)
- Stiff dirt removal: Haas Diamond Wurzel Stiff Body Brush
- Grooming 1: Haas Military Damen Grooming Brush
- Grooming 2: Haas Cavaliere Medium Horse Hair Bristles Body Brush
- Polishing: Haas Diamond Diva Horsehair Lambswool Brush
I then started my search to find these miracle brushes. My criteria was:
- Find a company in the U.S.
- Idenify that the company that carried all the brushes in the kit.
- Ensure the company had the brushes in stock (if the kits weren’t available).
I searched several sites but found that Riding Warehouse best met all my criteria. You will have to search through the numerous brushes to find the kit brushes, but Riding Warehouse did have them listed (at least for my Chestnut kit). I had to substitute the Haas Wurzelkardatsche Stiff Brush Blue for the Haas Diamond Wurzel Stiff Body Brush since it was on backorder for a month. Actually, the Diamond Wurzel Stiff Body Brush has a different look, which will make it easier to recognize this brush anyhow.
Ordering my Haas Grooming Brushes online
So, I placed my order, with delivery for all my brushes by the end of the week (I took advantage of free ground shipping for orders over $75). I can’t wait to try them out! Stay tuned.
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