Firstly, I don’t know how large your horse is but I have always bought Shop Vacs with longer hoses. (I think my favourite has a 7 foot hose.) If you have to pick the unit up to vacuum the top part of the horse, it becomes a royal PITA very quickly! Plus, the dirt collected in the vac increases the canister’s weight as it fills.
I found that it wasn’t so much the sound of the motor that bothered a horse as they get used to it very quickly. The larger issue is the canister rolling around on the floor: that takes a little longer to get them to believe it’s not a monster looking to eat them!
TBH, I always tried to test specific models in the store if at all possible! (Yes, some stores had units on display and it’s not all that difficult. I know from experience how much suction you need to clean a winter coat efficiently and quickly.)
With respect to the smaller units being less noisy, yes, to some extent. However, the pitch of the motor tends to be a bit higher. It was never an issue with the horses, but I did have one longtime barn cat (whom I eventually retired to my house) who absolutely HATED the higher pitch of one portable Shop Vac I had. She would put up with it for a while but would then begin to get agitated, meowing constantly while circling the horse. If you weren’t done immediately, she escalated to nipping at my legs and if still ignored, she’d start to go after the horse! At that point, I’d finish quickly and as soon as the motor was turned off, cat would walk away. It happened more than once, so I know it was the sound of that particular vac that bothered her as she never did it with any other one I had!
, has been vacuumed before, and loved it!
