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I’m totally going to use this reasoning with my DH. Brilliant.
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Thanks! I have one and she tolerates it better than a curry, for sure, but I don’t think it’s as effective in really getting up the dry skin.
She also hates the hands on gloves.
My other chestnut mare, on the other hand, loves anything I brush her with. 
Well the Schimmel arrived today (although I may actually be more excited about the coconut fibre mane brush) - and it’s arrival set-off a whole chain of events that culminated in a total clean-up of my entire caddy where they were to be reunited with their Haas siblings.
I mean, everything is literally sparkling over here right now. There is absolutely something about buying “nice” things (or the perception of having bought a “nice” thing) that makes you want to look after it exceptionally well.
Quick question though, I’m noticing the writing on the back of the straps is starting to rub away. Y’know, that identifies each brush so you don’t feel like a dum-dum for owning two or three of the very same brush (which is absolutely how I’ll feel if I can’t identify each by it’s specific name!). Has anyone successfully preserved this text? I’m a very part-time artist and have a lot of clear spray lacquer on-hand, I’m wondering about masking-off the rest of the brush with something and spraying the strap in the hopes that it’ll better protect that labelling 
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I fully blame this thread for my intense desire to replace my entire brush box with Haas brushes. I bought the Mustang and Diva based off this thread and am now in love with Haas brushes. My retired pinto who has that nice thick Cushing’s coat actually looked brushed properly for once. His coat didn’t appear as shaggy after a few passes with the Mustang and he looked a bit more glossy than normal after the Diva.
For my grey I was actually able to brush out her daily manure stains with minimal work! I’ve never gotten her this clean, without the use of sprays or water, while she has her winter shag going on.
My chestnut, who is usually a bit picky about her brushes didn’t love the Mustang overall but there were several spots on her body where she leaned into this brush. I’ll have to play around with different Haas brushes to find out which one suits her thinner skin.
It looks like my beloved Oster brushes are now going to go into the “guest” box in favor of building a whole new set of Haas brushes!
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I was toying with using a clear sealer carefully painted on or making labels with my Cricut then sealing those on once the original wears off. I had to label previous brushes with the Cricut and so far the labels have held up for 2 years and countless washings.
I just numbered mine with a silver sharpie, based on the order in which they should be used.
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I’m not sure if I want to be enabled to buy $$$ brushes or reassured to not bother spending money
I have a chestnut overo Paint mare who only wants to be touched on her own terms. She tolerates a horse hair finishing brush in summer, and is mostly tolerating a synthetic Dandy brush on her winter coat, though she did bite me good and big on the butt last month because of that brush. I’d say there is no difference between her red and white patches but as noted above the white are fluffy and 3D and will shed first.
As a kid I had a feral honey that was almost maximum white Tobiano probably bay roan base with a bay head and very small roan belly spots. She grew feral yak hair, sweated all year around, and was the itchiest horse who just loved her grooming all over. You could groom and scratch her all day and she would very gently groom you back. I bought her all kinds of brushes.
Since current mare just doesn’t like being groomed I figure that she will hate anything even Haas. The horse hair finishing brush is good, I don’t need to duplicate it.
I didn’t even think about labelling, actually! I ended up using a can of Testor’s Dullcote (which is like a matte lacquer) and covering the brush back with a paper towel, exposing only the leather strap.
Time will tell if if it holds up! But at least I’ve tried.
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If you do not need a horsehair brush but still would like to try out a Haas brush, the Haas Country brush is made of boar bristles, and unlike the other Haas brushes has a wooden back.
The chestnut prima donna gelding I ride who dislikes being groomed had no objections to the Haas Country boar bristle brush. To my hand the bristles feel less stiff than the Haas horsehair “dandy” brushes.
A few of the descriptions emphasize that this particular brush does not scratch the horse’s skin and does not cause any static electricity to zap the horse.
If you have a human boar bristle hair brush you could try it out on your horse to see if your horse has any particular objections to boar bristles before ordering the Haas one.
Hmm I do have human boar bristle brushes that I don’t need now I have short hair. I will try one out! If I get bitten again I will share the bruise photos, though.
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You could introduce a boar bristle brush gradually by using it on the mane and forelock first, then ask your horse’s opinion about it.
I ordered 6 brushes: the Schimmel, Fellglanzburste, Pony, Lipizzaner, Military, and Diva. After much anticipation, they arrived today, only to find (despite being advertised as ‘horsehair brushes’) … they’re mostly synthetic. Like 85% synthetic with a little bit of horsehair mixed in.
After some suspicion when I unpacked the box, I tried lighting one of the bristles - it melted into a ball of plastic. The Schimmel is the only pure natural fibre brush out of the bunch. Kind of frustrating because I shelled out the money for them expecting horsehair brushes, not synthetic-horsehair mixtures. I even selected the pony brush over the mustang because it was advertised as “A combination of strong horsehair and special brass bristles” rather than “synthetic bristles [mixed] with special fine brass wire”.
For those of you who have bought these Haas brushes: Is this new? Did Haas reformulate their brushes and make them part synthetic?
I did not expect synthetic at all, given that some brushes, like the Junior, are advertised as “selected horse hair and natural bristles with the smallest amount of synthetic fibres”, while the Lipizzaner, Military, and Fellglanzburste are all advertised as “horsehair”, no mention of plastic.
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Is there any way to tell at a glance which are synthetic? I have a hard time telling unless the bristles are obscure colors or very thick plastic ones. The thinner synthetic bristles that are black, brown, white etc. I can’t decipher well enough
What tipped me off was the fact that most of the bristle ends were flattened like they’d been squashed and cut rather than sliced cleanly. Real hair doesn’t really get wider when you cut it. It can be on an angle, but it’ won’t flatten out in my experience.
What confirmed it was pulling a bristle out and lighting it on fire. If a bristle shrivels into a ball - it’s plastic. If it burns - it’s hair/natural fibre.
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Interesting, I never realized this. Thanks for the info, I’ll have to try it on a couple bristles from my old brushes!
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Did you get the new improved Haas brushes?
Of the older Haas brushes I bought this year only one, the Damen Wurzelkardatsche “rice root” bristles had bristles that felt synthetic. It took reading every descriptive blurb on-line, and I finally ran into one that said that the “rice root” bristles were synthetic. They just felt too slick and smooth to my fingertips to be organic.
@Jackie_Cochran I’m not sure. When did the new Haas brushes come out? They would have been ordered by the shop from Haas itself around March/April 2021. Are the new ones you bought synthetic or natural or a blend?
Hi all, I’ve been a lurker here for a LONG time but just signed up so I could join in the Haas brush thread. 
I JUST ordered a handful of Haas brushes after reading in a bunch of places (but especially here) how great they are and after receiving some I also noticed that the “horse hair” brushes are actually a mixture of horse hair and synthetic bristles as @Clover5 mentioned a few posts above.
I haven’t actually tried them on my horse yet…(they are Christmas presents from my family) but I’ve examined them a lot and really love them as much as I can without actually getting a chance to use them!
But yes, one of the first things I noticed was that the majority of bristles on the horse hair brushes are actually synthetic. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, but I do think it should be stated in the item descriptions and it wasn’t that I could tell. But I can’t say I’m disappointed, they are lovely and I can’t wait to try them out. And I like that they are washable too. I am afraid to wash my “old” brushes because they are wood and want to warp.
So, here is what I have so far and my observations:
Amazone (some horse hair but looks mostly synthetic) Short, slightly stiffer bristles for a body brush.
Diamond Gloss (not sure of the horse hair/synthetic ratio since all the bristles are black, but I love the quality of this brush! The bristles are nice and densely packed.
Diamond Wurzel (synthetic rice root brush…looks like it will be a good one).
Fellglanzburste coat shine brush, love the dense bristles but most of them do appear to be synthetic with horse hair mixed in.
Brenig Madoc (all synthetic as expected, no surprise there). My cat loves this brush! And I want to use it as a flick brush on the horse…but the cat really wants to keep it!
On back order so I don’t know what they will be exactly like in person:
Cavaliere and Parcour
I also bought one of the hard curries. 
So as a new Haas brush owner, I don’t know if the synthetic/horse hair bristle mix is new or not. But I did notice it. And I still love the quality of the brushes and look forward to trying them out. Because their website is in German, and we are relying on the item descriptions from the places we order them from, I can’t help but wonder if we are missing some of the information from their website.
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I love the Brenig Maddox brush. It works great and brings up quite a shine.
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