I noticed SmartPak is selling their “gentle groomer” but before I drop $38 on a piece of rubber I figured I’d ask the COTH experts! 
Does anyone else live in a sandy soil area and do these work for getting sand out of the coat? I swear no matter how much I curry, brush with different brushes, use those pumice like grooming blocks, and even bathe my mare, the powdery FL sand won’t vacate her coat!
vacuum
Many people will disagree, but you can give your horse a soapy bath 5x a week and it helps a lot to keep the coat clean and shiny. Is it drying to the skin? Possibly, but it has really helped my skin crud prone horses fight off rain rot, and the bonus is that their coats are barely sandy or dusty, and they live out overnight. Saddle pads are much cleaner!
Another thing to try is 10x brushing. Curry as usual with rubber curry or mitt. Then use a soft brush, ten strokes per section, instead of just one light brushover. Use good pressure, count ten brush strokes, move one brush width down, ten strokes again, etc. Your arms will get tired. But, it really brings the dust up and leaves a soft, shiny coat if you do this every day.
EventerAJ that’s some dedication right there!
Have either of you used the Strip Hair grooming tool at all?
Don’t waste your money. I was gifted one a few years ago and it does nothing, nada, zilch! Honestly just a rubber curry mitt does a better job.
That’s sort of what I was afraid of lol - thanks!
Vacuum and bath are really it.
Hands-on gloves. Which work great on horses, dogs, and cats too to get sand and hair and dirt and flakey skin off.
I’ve never heard anything good about the strip hair thingy.
In another thread on Haas brushes, we seemed to conclude that natural fibre brushes (horsehair, pighair) do a better job grabbing dirt. But of course you also need to keep your brushes clean or they are just redistributing it.
I also think that if you are getting infinite amounts of “dust” lifting up, then you are probably seeing dandruff or skin scurf in addition to dust from the environment. You might want to think about adding flax or similar. A horse with a really tight shiny thin summer coat doesn’t pick up and retain that much environmental dust, and a good bath will get rid of what’s there.
I prefer tools like these ones - https://www.sheddieeddie.com/ they are great for shedding and year round grooming. Also great for cats and dogs.
I have one and like it mainly because both of my horses are sensitive and they actually like it. It does take off shedding hair well on short TB coats but I don’t know how it would work for a longer coat. It is a little hard to hold at first and really I still haven’t gotten used to it. I will say the only reason I bought one was that the website was having a buy one get one free so a friend and I split the cost. I wouldn’t pay full price for one of these. My favorite grooming tool for regular curring is the tiger tongue.
Yes!! I just pulled mine out and realized it’s one of the only things that DOES get all the sand up!! I love that thing!
You can pull my vacuum out of my cold, dead hands, I love it that much. It’s the only thing that really gets all the fine dusty dirt and scurf, besides bathing. Lol
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