Reading about the search for the perfect shedding curry made me think about how much I loved some of my old brushes, now alas long gone.
Growing up in Toronto in the fifties and sixties there was one tack shop, and 99% of the equipment came from England. There was ONE kind of rubber curry, rice straw dandy brush, hoof pick, mane comb and body brush. No difficult decisions to make when putting your grooming kit together!
I miss the body brushes. They had a flexible leather back that molded to your hand, and really short natural hair bristles to bring up that shine. I have never found a good replacement- most now have bristles that are too long, and even the expensive leather ones have rigid backs.
Anyone here have the perfect brush they would mourn if it disappeared?
The kids at the barn were amazed/horrified when I brought out the burlap twist and flannel squares.
We used to make our own body brushes out of pieces of thicker leather remnants from the saddlery.
You cut two pieces in an oval whichever size you like that fits your hand best.
You prepared the pieces by hand rubbing the edges smooth.
You cut from a thinner soft leather a handle.
You hand sew the handle around the edge to one piece.
You use the leather punch to make many holes in the other piece so it looks like a strainer.
You run lengths of tail hair thru the holes, you can make designs with different colors, like using black thru most holes and white thru some to form your favorite letter or design.
Once enough hair packed in the holes, you trim one end and use leather glue to flatten the hair ends down.
Then you sew both pieces together all along their edges.
Maybe add some extra stitching thru the leather in a few other places.
Then you trim the brush part down to whatever size you like the brush hairs to be.
Some like them longer than others.
If you liked a stiffer back on your brush, you could use two pieces of leather on that side.
Our saddler in our riding center would always put kids to making those.
He always had some spares for anyone that needed some.
@Bluey Wow, that is awesome!! Thanks for sharing. I need to keep that info. I love the idea of making a brush out of my deceased horse’s beautiful white tail. Right now it’s sitting in the garage and I don’t know what to do with it.
I just noticed that Smartpak started carrying Haas leather-backed brushes. Even though I already have Stubben and Equerry leather-backed brushes, I love my other Haas brushes so of course I have to try it. I’ll report back when it arrives!
https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/haas-medium-stiffness-thoroughbred-brush-19746
Oh I remember the good old days of the limited grooming kit, dandy brush, body brush, that had to be stroked across the metal curry after each stroke. Then a home made straw whisp, some of us never got the hang of that. Stable rubber for final polish, or course hoof pick and mane tail comb
,
I’m a recent convert to Haas, have a Schimmel for my new grey and a Diva on the way…
Don’t know, saddler just had plenty on hand, already washed and ready to use.
He taught us to sew with an awl and needle and wachsed thread.
We used pony horse saddler holders.
They still sell those today, I see:
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/prod…stitching-pony
You sat on a chair and held it between your legs.
It was a wood T with the short part of the T you sat on.
The long leg of the T two pieces of wood that held your leather piece/s together for you, so you could use both hands to sew with.
We didn’t have sewing machines for leather in those days.
We had a bigger version of the holder- you sat on a saddle shaped piece of wood, and the wooden clamp to hold your leather while you sewed was operated with your foot.
Bluey- where did you grow up that you learned this- in Europe? There weren’t any saddlers in our part of Canada in the 60’s, getting any kind of repairs done was nearly impossible let alone anything made from scratch. That has changed SO much!
My leistner brushes are freakin awesome and closest I can find the old school brushes.
You had the fancier saddler pony horse.
Those are for real work all day long and more steady than the smaller ones.
We have one of the smaller, portable ones, from when we were training race horses.
Great to put some stitches on leads, track halters and bridles.
I did grow up in Europe, where riding horses were mostly in riding centers.
Those had generally a blacksmith shop and basic saddlery for repairs and making some simple stuff, like halters and such.
Nice to know you can buy the leather backed ones today.
Those wooden ones are ok, but not as soft and easy to hold and groom with as the leather ones, especially if you have short bristles in them.
I’m not that old, but I have brushes in my collection that pre-date me.
I appreciate we have a variety of curries today. I have small hands, I also prefer “gummier” curries instead of the large, hard, one-size-fits-all variety. Also, all of the soft, nubby curries for cleaning intricate bony areas like the face and legs are truly appreciated by me.
IMO, synthetic hard brushes are a vast improvement on the stiff, natural-fiber dandy brushes. I know no horse who enjoys being brushed with something that hard and prickly.
But… body brushes today definitely do not stack up to those from the past. Those long, soft natural bristles do loads more than any of today’s synthetic counterparts. Even modern natural brushes don’t compare to the old ones in my collection.
I also still love my burlap cactus cloths and my rub rags.
Bluey-- making your own brushes sounds like a very cool skill!
https://marystack.com/stubben-flex-leather-back-brush/
https://marystack.com/haas-red-star-brush/
Here are a couple brushes with leather backs that will mold to your hand. I see a lot of brushes, and the Haas ones are so nice!
Also, I think people probably took better care of their brushes “back in the day” so they would last longer. Nowadays you find them squashed in buckets and totes and rarely cleaned. I always used my own brushes even when there were buckets of them available at a show barn.
Luvmyhackney, I just looked up Leistner brushes- those look wonderful!
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