I have not succumbed to the lure of these brushes. Yet. One thing that puts me off is the shape of many of them. I am used to brushes shaped like the mane brushes. My stubby fingers can reach around, hold them, and flick them. I wonder if I can get used to depending on the strap to hang on. Anyone have this issue?
Yes, I have this problem. I like buying small/kids brushes and curry combs because my hands are small, horses are tall, and my arms and hands get tired holding a brush that high.
I was lured in by this thread around Christmas and got one of the small (kids) stiff brushes and a regular Paracour I think. The small kids brush is a little bit too small, and definitely too small in the winter when I’m wearing gloves and can’t fit my hands under the strap. The Paracour is too large to really be a flicking brush, but so far, on my fairly clean horses it does a nice job with a swipe. I’ll have to wait until it’s mud season again to truly test the brush.
They do offer certain brushes in a smaller size. I have small, stubby fingers, that I usually equate to pork breakfast sausages. I got the regular sized brushes, but have not had a chance to use them hard yet due to weather. Just trying them on my hands though, they seem to work okay for my small hands.
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One of the ladies whose horse I ride saw my whole Shining Pack yesterday. She and her mother, who loves grooming the horses, both have small hands. I asked her if she thought she could use the brushes when I get her a Shining Pack of her own, and she said that these brushes are fine for their hands because of the strap holding the brush onto their hands.
My riding teacher is another lady with small hands. She has been happily using the Haas brushes I lent her to groom her problem child gelding who hated being groomed, until she introduced him to the Haas brushes. She has no problems handling the brushes and her gelding, probably for the first time in his life, now enjoys getting brushed.
I had the opposite problem. I prefer brushes with hand straps and had trouble finding any locally of decent quality. If I use a long, rectangular brush without a strap, I tend to fumble it or my fingers come down too far on the sides and I brush with my fingers too!
I don’t consider myself to have large hands (I’m a female with average sized hands, I would guess) but for whatever reason, the rectangular brushes are awkward for me. I was a little worried when I got my first Haas the strap might be too small, but they are not, the are perfect for my hands. I love the fit!
They might just take some getting used to. Because my hand-strap brushes before, I suppose were made for men, and they were really loose and sloppy, but that’s what I was used to using. Now that I am using the Haas, I find the fit perfect for me.
I bought the Haas Brenig Madoc brush with the idea of using it as a flick brush. But my horse is pretty woolly right now so I find the other brushes work better on her at the moment. I have a feeling the Brenig Madoc will make a nice flick brush for her summer coat.
Haas does make some longer, narrower shaped, flick-type brushes. But I haven’t tried them because I was giddy to find hand straps. 
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You are awesome to be supplying your barn with brushes. 
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I OWE these ladies and the lesson horses.
Because of them I can still walk on my own 2 feet 27 years after I was diagnosed with MS.
Besides, one lady, who just charges me $10.00 a ride, also drives round trip 30 miles the weekends my husband is not here so I can ride her horse for 30 minutes. I think she has earned herself some Haas brushes!
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Now THAT is truly a barn family. My heart is warm and glowing right now for you and these ladies!
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My lesson stable–my riding teacher, one daughter full time, other daughter when needed, and two granddaughters. I am really hoping that my lesson stable stays around for a while, at least until I die. I just told my riding teacher that I am aiming to still be riding at 80 at least, and preferably until I die. (I am 70).
The other stable is just the owner and her mother, and right now I am their only outside rider. I love that it is a barn with no boarders, that means if I think the horse I ride I can just give it to them and be pretty sure it is not going to grow feet and wander off into the wild blue yonder.
Because of my MS I irritate the horses I ride, I know this though the horses are very good to me and their objections are usually peaceable. Of course I listen to the horses! I am proceeding with the theory that each horse has a limit to how much irritation it can take before it gets mad and blows up. They like their bridles (I use my own, Micklem with the chin strap cut off, for the double bridle the bradoon hanger goes OVER the padded Micklem crown piece, with titanium double bridle bits), since they are elderly and achy I’ve gotten them BOT and Fenwick saddle pads, exercise boots, and poll caps, and my saddle is a Pegasus Butterfly jumping saddle that never limits their shoulder movement. I did all of that because of what the horses “told” me.
But I could tell that the curry combs and brushes sort of irritate them when groomed. I experimented with the curry combs but just shrugged my shoulders about the brushes, using them really, really lightly when needed. But the Haas brushes! Two horses who hated being groomed though they were good about it, are starting to settle down.
Now I await the next sort of expensive irritation that is bothering these horses. I can’t afford vet care (one reason why I no longer own a horse), but if I can reduce an irritation by buying something that is not horribly expensive, I figure that the horse will be much safer for me to ride (or at least give me a few seconds warning before exploding.)
At least it won’t be because they hate being groomed any more!
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I did take another look at my brushes the other day, and I’m quite certain the majority are made using synthetic bristles. Just the way the bristle is cut-off at the end, looks plastic-y. If there is any horsehair in there, it’s certainly a minority of bristles.
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That’s what I think too. And some seem more horse hair than others. For example, the Amazone looks like it has a lot of plastic bristles. It works great, it might be one of my favorites, but it’s fairly stiff and I think that’s because the bristles are mostly plastic. The Parcour seems to have more hair and is more dense. Almost as stiff as the Amazone but denser…if that makes any sense? I think it will be great for summer coats and I’m liking the Amazone for the winter coat, it’s almost a softer mud brush.
I thought about writing them and asking but in the end I figured it didn’t really matter anyway. Their website has a way to contact them but I don’t speak German and I don’t know if they speak English. But I thought about asking because the worst that can happen is I don’t hear back, right?
But like I said, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. I’ve shopped a lot at my local tack places (that don’t carry Haas) and their brushes are just as expensive. Some appear to be horse hair, some don’t and most have wooden backs which I think I want to stay away from for washing purposes.
I never really understood why some of the Haas brushes are priced so much higher than the others. For instance, some of the “horsehair” brushes are like $35 and some are like $20-25. I am thinking now that maybe the price reflects the amount of horsehair in the brush? But that’s just a theory I have, I have no idea if it’s true!
If anyone wants to ask (and/or speaks German?) here is their website contact page. I bookmarked it. 
A few minutes ago I sent an e-mail to Eqclusive with a link to this discussion asking if their 100% horsehair brushes are really horsehair or if they are synthetic. This whole discussion about the horsehair bristles being synthetic is really irritating me, and I want to know the truth.
FWIW I personally think the horsehair brushes are made of horsehair. I have been grooming on horses for over 50 years now, most of my dandy brushes had plastic bristles and the Haas horsehair brush bristles do NOT feel synthetic to my fingertips.
When Eqclusive responds I will let you all know.
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I wish you wouldn’t take this personal. You didn’t make the brushes. And the brushes are AWESOME. I just have my doubts they are 100% horse hair. I could be wrong. Haas calls them horse hair brushes, but do they say they are 100% horse hair? Maybe I just missed it.
I would like to continue to have nice conversations with you so please don’t take this as something personal when it’s not. If we were talking about saddles, wouldn’t you want to know what your saddle is made of? If the tree was wood with rawhide, fiberglass or Ralide? I look at this the same way. And I look at it as enjoyable conversation. I check this thread almost every day. 
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So I went ahead and wrote Haas. We will see if I get a reply. I wrote it in both English and used Google Translate to send a copy in German. This is what I wrote:
Lieber Haas, ich habe mich gefragt, ob deine “Rosshaar”-Bürsten (z.B. Amazone, Cavaliere, Diamond Gloss, etc.) zu 100% aus Pferdehaar bestehen oder enthalten sie auch synthetische Borsten? Ich liebe meine Haas Bürsten! Ich war nur neugierig, als ich mit einigen Freunden darüber diskutierte. Vielen Dank, (my name)
Dear Haas, I was wondering if your “horse hair” brushes (for example Amazone, Cavaliere, Diamond Gloss, etc.) are 100% horse hair or do they also contain synthetic bristles? I love my Haas brushes! I was just curious as I was discussing this with some friends. Thank you, (my name)
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Thank you so much @Mountain_Trails for e-mailing Haas. Maybe between Haas and Eqclusive we can find out the answer!
I am not taking this personally, at all. Reading this whole discussion led me to realize, based on my own horses’ reactions to grooming decades ago, that I had been really irritating my horses by using the synthetic bristle dandy brushes of 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago (those darn dandy brushes would wear out after a year or two of vigorous grooming). In fact, the ONE brush they actually seemed to enjoy was my Stubben leather back body brush some 30 or 40 years ago, I think I remember it as horsehair bristles.
I get a kick out of realizing that I am instrumental in getting the two most sensitive skinned horses at my lesson stable to finally agree peaceably to being groomed. It is SO NICE not to always have to have an eye on the horse’s reactions, so nice not to have to settle with getting the horse only halfway clean just because they would “tell” me “enough!!!”
My current lesson horse sometimes bordered on dangerous for me to groom since with my MS I often have trouble moving out of the way quickly, this is part of the reason my riding teacher does most of the grooming for my lesson. Now using the Haas curry comb and brushes he stands still in the wash-stall cross-ties, looking relaxed and sort of bored. Now, with the Haas brushes, I have a chance of getting him CLEAN just by grooming him without much danger to me.
And I think that these two horses appreciate not getting yelled at, lectured and corrected when they tell us that the grooming is driving them crazy. Now they can just relax, and maybe someday they will really enjoy being groomed.
Haas brushes for the win, whatever they are made of.
I will be irritated if they turn out not to be horsehair but my horse still likes them. I do think they’re likely treated with something for longevity of the fibers and that may be what is creating the “the end of this hair is awfully flat” appearance. I’ll be curious what you find out.
My horse would like you all to know that the Schimmel is great at getting mud out of the inside of your ears, should you ever find yourself with mud there. 10/10 ear scratching brush.
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I got an e-mail answer today from Team Eqclusive. They have not read the whole thread yet.
The relevant passage is “as most of the posts relate to singular Haas brushes and not brushes bought from us in Eqclusive packs, I will also forward your e-mail to Haas so we both have a chance to reply to those comments.”
Hopefully soon we will have a fact based answer between me from Eqclusive and @Mountain-Trails from Haas.
Shouldn’t matter where the brushes are purchased and if a brush is labeled a certain name, it should be the same no matter where purchased. If that’s not the case, I will most likely discontinue purchasing Haas Brushes.
Either they are horse hair or they aren’t. I don’t care either way as they are nice brushes, but it changes the way I clean them and care for them a bit.
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From the horse’s mouth:
Schönen, guten Tag Frau (my name),
recht herzlichen Dank für Ihre Anfrage!
Wenn Sie lange Haare haben oder jemand in Ihrer Nähe, dann nehmen Sie bitte einen Büschel Haare aus den langen Haaren in die Hand und fahren mit dem Büschel einmal über Ihre Haut. Was passiert? Nichts. Die Haare rutschen einfach über die Haut drüber. Haare selbst sind meistens einfach zu fein, um einen Effekt zu erzielen. Schließlich möchte man ja den Schmutz aus dem Fell bekommen und einen Massageeffekt erzielen. Aus diesem Grund sind in fast allen Bürsten, egal welcher Marke immer ein Teil Kunststoff zur Festigkeit dabei, um die Naturhaare etwas zu unterstützen und zu stärken.
Ich hoffe, dass ich Ihnen hiermit Auskunft geben konnte. Sollten Sie noch Fragen haben, sind wir immer gerne für Sie da!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
(name removed for privacy)
Vertrieb/Marketing
(Haas):
Translation from Google Translate:
Hello Mrs (my name),
Thank you very much for your inquiry!
If you have long hair or someone close to you, please take a tuft of hair from the long hair in your hand and run the tuft over your skin once. What is happening? Nothing. The hair just slips over the skin. Hair itself is mostly just too fine to achieve an effect. After all, you want to get the dirt out of your fur and achieve a massage effect. For this reason, almost all brushes, regardless of the brand, always contain a part of plastic for strength, in order to support and strengthen the natural hair.
I hope that I was able to give you information here. If you have any questions, we are always happy to help!
Kind regards
(name removed for privacy)
Sales
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Hi Jackie (and all). So glad I misunderstood about it feeling personal, it’s hard to gauge emotions on the Internet sometimes, which is why I like to stick these little emojis in everywhere. 
I don’t want anyone to take this “news” as a negative because I truly feel Haas brushes are AWESOME. And I don’t recall reading anywhere they swore they were 100% horse hair. (But some of the brief descriptions on seller’s websites might leave a person to believe that because it doesn’t say they are a mixture. I was expecting all natural bristles myself until I got my first order.)
I went ahead and took the Haas representative’s name out of the response letter just because I wasn’t sure if it was proper to post that on the Internet. After all, we all keep our real names private on here too.
I think Haas does a great job making their brushes practical and functional by using both modern and traditional materials. I love mine! And what’s kind of sad is I had been brushing my dear mare, who loves to be brushed, with a metal shedding blade most of the time. Now we take our time and I brush her with a series of Haas brushes and she loves it.
Okay, gonna run, I have another brush question I would like to get folks opinions on, but that’s going to have to wait until I have more time.
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