Taking the threadjack where it belongs - Haas brush thread

[Speedy_Alice]

Add me to the list of people who’ve gone down the rabbit hole! Had never heard of these brushes (thanks, COTH!) and know that I need need need them for my über Pigpen Lipizzaner who loves being groomed.
I’ve spent hours reading comments and online descriptions, and am wondering about the following to come up with my ultimate birthday/Christmas list:

~The Grey Set comes with the Military & Cavaliere, and in the guide those are linked with bay/chestnut horses… no mention of greys. And think I read somewhere in a comment that the Parcour is similar to the Cavaliere. In my notes I have many stars around the Parcour, I guess from reading so many positive comments. Are they similar enough that only one is needed? Any thoughts as to which of those to get?
~ do the original hard plastic curry and the newer, softer curry do the same job? If so, any thoughts as to which is better? I currently use a typical rubber curry; never thought much about how it might grab his hair. He doesn’t seem to mind it.
~ Am def planning on getting a Diva and Grundy’s Brush.
~ Any thoughts on the Lipizzaner brush? Since my boy is a Lipizzaner, I find myself drawn to it but it’s not in the guide, so I don’t know much about it.

Thanks for any insight! I can’t wait to use these on him, not only because he manages to make himself a nightmare to groom even when blanketed, but because he already loves being groomed, even with my blah Scheissy brushes.

[Renn_aissance]

@Speedy_Alice

And think I read somewhere in a comment that the Parcour is similar to the Cavaliere. In my notes I have many stars around the Parcour, I guess from reading so many positive comments. Are they similar enough that only one is needed? Any thoughts as to which of those to get?

The Cavaliere is for getting dirt from the skin up to the top coat. It has bristles of different lengths to help do this well. The Parcour is a short-bristled dandy brush for getting dirt off of the horse. I have both of these brushes but not the Military. The description of the Military brush makes it sound like the Cavaliere! I do find both the Cavaliere and Parcour to do different jobs, but if you have a smooth-coated horse who is not particularly plush, I would do the Parcour.

The Lipizzaner brush is good for getting dirt and dander out of the top coat and onto the surface. For my double-coated Irish Yak I do Cavaliere and Lipizzaner to get all the schmutz away from the skin, then Parcour to get it off of the body. When he is clipped, I usually start with the Parcour.

And he wants a Diva, so I’m glad you’re getting that for him.

[Speedy_Alice]

Renn_aissance, that is super helpful ~ thank you! So many choices…! Who knew brushes could make such a difference? I feel a bit abashed to have been so ignorant about these, when I was so diligent about the grooming gloves (we both love) and the Tiger Tongue (also love).

He’s a challenge to keep white-ish… can’t wait to see whether these will do the trick!

[Bebe_Falcon1]

My mare is NOT a fan of rubber curries … I think they grab her hair. She LOVES the hard curry though, it gets those scratchy spots under her neck and around her chest. Really gets her lips going Probably feels very much like another horse’s teeth.

The Parcour strikes me as an all-purpose body brush, you can’t really go wrong. And the Cavaliere has the two different bristle lengths. (I have both and don’t really notice a difference between the two … except maybe the Cavaliere does a better job of collecting the debris off her coat instead of just moving it around?). I don’t find either brush has particularly stiff bristles, so I don’t think they really get down to the skin as much as I’d like them to (also, my mare is little and furry so your results may vary).

There have been a lot of positive reviews on the Schimmel (stiff coconut fibres) too, which is one I’d like to try. Although I have no room in my caddy for anymore brushes …!!! (First time this has ever been a problem ) ETA: Ordered

[Speedy_Alice]

Thanks, Bebe, this helps a lot. It’s hard to know without being able to see them (and use them). I was thinking no to the Cavaliere, and then I read a review for it somewhere online where the person was just raving about how amazing it was, how effective…
I’ve been really slacking off on the grooming lately, as I’m always rushed for time at the barn, and the blanket has cut down on the amount of mess he’s making on his body (legs, neck, and rump still get pretty dirty) - just Tiger Tongue, or a quick curry and brush. I have a feeling these brushes will be game-changing…

[Posting_Trot]

If you have a gray horse, you definitely want the Schimmel. (Unless your horse is uber-sensitive).

[Speedy_Alice]

Thanks! I added that to the order. He doesn’t seem to be sensitive at all, although his grey/white coat is very prone to rubs from blankets/halters. Can’t wait to get these!

[scislandsprite]

I’m pretty unfamiliar with Haas brushes. Is there one that can really lift extra dirt and is more medium type? I have a synthetic bristle flick brush but it’s a tiny bit too stiff to get the extra bit of shine. I try to go for flick brushes with plant fiber or synthetic bristles but is horsehair significantly better? I don’t need anything too stiff, my horse is dirt colored + never rolls anywhere dirty so I don’t even really need a new brush but I do really want one.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Is your definition of dirt colored a light brown/muddy chestnut or dark brown?

If the horse is a light/brown muddly chestnut the Haas Military body brush might be a good one for you. It has more different colors of horse hair in the brush, and apparently the different colors of horsehair pick up and hold onto the dirt differently. Everything I read about it seemed to indicate the Military for chestnuts, palominos and buckskins/duns.

I just got my own Military brush and I have not had a chance to use it yet, but I am super eager to try it on the chestnut-dust magnet lesson horse I ride.

[scislandsprite]

She’s liver chestnut but I haven’t really looked into the colored sets since I have a friend who is studying equine genetics & said the different colored hairs don’t require different brushes. Apparently it’s really just Haas with their really good marketing team so I guess you can use brushes from the Grey Horse set on a bay or chestnut etc etc. Not entirely sure to be honest.
I think I might try the Wurzel since it’s supposedly rice root bristle?

[Jackie_Cochran]

I was looking at the Haas brushes for something a LITTLE less harsh feeling than the Schimmel.

My lesson horse, with super sensitive skin, accepted the Haas Wurzelkardatsche “rice root” brush. When I got it the bristles did not feel “right” to be a natural fiber brush, I did more research and found out that their “rice root” brushes are made of synthetic bristles.

The horse did not object to this brush, and it brought up a great deal of crud from the horse’s coat. So if you think you need a little bit more of a brush but the Schimmel is too harsh for your horse, the Wurzelkardatche damen (slightly smaller for women’s hands) seemed to work well on this prima donna aged chestnut gelding. I got no “watch it lady!” comments, and he did not act like this brush was an instrument of torture, his reaction to most regular dandy brushes, in other words he did not move while I used it.

Since it is winter and I am not riding as regularly as I wish to, I have not been able to get his full menu of objections. What I used on him were the Wurzelkardatche “rice root” brush, the Lipizzaner, the Cavaliere, and my Noir horsehair body brush. The best grooming session in years!

And yesterday my Haas Military brush arrived. It has horsehair from black, bay and chestnut horses (none of the other brushes seem to have chestnut hair in them), and the Eqclusive video said that this was the specific brush needed for chestnut horses. I am eager to try it out next week, the Universe permitting.

Maybe some day I will get this horse shining like a new copper penny.

I have ended up with so many Haas brushes that I will never use all of them in one day, so they are sitting in a box. This morning as I viewed my personal hair brush I decided to see if the Haas brushes would do OK with my long, fine hair.

The Haas brush did fine (I used the Military). The bristles got deeper down to my scalp just fine and this brush did not tear out too much hair. So all of you ladies, if you just have too many Haas brushes try brushing your own hair with them.

Right now I wish Haas made brushes for using on human hair, if they did I would buy one!

[scislandsprite]

Ah, that would explain why some websites said the Wurzel was rice root imitation bristle, thanks! Yes I like the Schimmel but my horse only lays in clean bedding so I doubt I’d get much use a stronger brush like that.

[Jackie_Cochran]

The Wurzelkardatsche “rice root” brush brought up a LOT of dandruff from the chestnut horse’s coat.

[scislandsprite]

Ah perfect thanks! My flick brush is very subpar so it doesn’t really brush all that well, I can’t pin whether it’s bristle density or length or something else. Oh well, at least there’s Haas lol.

[equinelibrium]

@scislandsprite

She’s liver chestnut but I haven’t really looked into the colored sets since I have a friend who is studying equine genetics & said the different colored hairs don’t require different brushes. Apparently it’s really just Haas with their really good marketing team so I guess you can use brushes from the Grey Horse set on a bay or chestnut etc etc. Not entirely sure to be honest.

I’m not a color geneticist (nor do I play one on TV), but I can definitely say that there’s a difference in my pinto’s white hairs vs black hairs. I don’t know how to describe it, but if you close your eyes and pet her, you can feel where the white spots are. Not sure why? Once upon a time I heard that the white patches have a lot more hairs per square inch, but I think that was made up by someone who wore dark colors and only saw the white hairs on their clothes after grooming

[JB]

White and dark hairs are indeed physically different. Pigment does change the texture. And, a lot of horses will shed their white hairs sooner and/or faster than their darker hairs, which is especially apparent in spotted appy genetics, or pintos with enough of each white/colored spots.

[Jackie_Cochran]

After perusing page after page of Haas brushes catalog descriptions I came to the conclusion that the Haas brush makers had discovered/rediscovered/found through research/listened to old hoary horsemen the fact that different colors of hair “attract” and remove different types of dirt, sometimes by size.

Maybe just 30 minutes grooming the horse (everything) is just not enough to explore the complexities of all the different Haas brushes. If I still owned a horse/horses it would be simple, but having lessons at a big barn means that at any time I can be changed to a completely different horse, different breed, different color, different level of training and different levels of sensitivity. I am exploring all of the the Haas brushes (as I can afford them).

I also have MS, bad balance, bad coordination, and I am pretty weak, so I am sure that I irritate the horses I ride (bless all lesson horses.) IF the Haas brushes put the horse into a calm, relaxed, happier, states of body and mind, it will be MUCH SAFER for me to ride them. At least they won’t be pissed off even before I mount.

[scislandsprite]

Yes I have seen pintos show their difference especially in the winter when the white hairs can get longer since black hairs are better at absorbing light.

Anyways I don’t think I explained very well as I don’t have a great understanding of it but that’s just what I remember from their research. Going to try and un-jumble my prior message in case I end up confusing anyone. I guess it’s that Haas has brushes specifically for each coat color and it’s Haas’ specific reasoning that they were explaining wasn’t scientifically backed. Ex: Chestnuts attract dust more than any other due to having finer softer hair, grey have the least sensitive coats, etc etc. Essentially the gist of what I gathered is that the specific color does not influence the quality and type of the hair of that color.

I suppose I agree with that as all of my horses have ironically been the opposite of what Haas says grooming-wise about their hair/coloring. However, regardless of any color horse at all, Haas is a very well made line of quality brushes which probably contributes to why they’re a staple.

[Jackie_Cochran]

I don’t know if anyone else has found this before, but I ran into a REALLY interesting tack site that has Haas brushes. It is ivccarriage (used to be Idaho Valley Carriage) a site for harness/carriage people and horses.

I guess that carriage horse owners also want to IMPRESS the public with the evidence that their horses are well cared for.

The interesting thing about this site is that withing their sort of limited descriptions they have a rating on their Softness Scale. I have no idea where they got this scale, or who does the testing. They do not carry the whole line of Haas brushes so this scale is not applied to the whole line of brushes, it should be.

1-10, 1-the stiffest, 10-the softest.

1. Schimmel
2. Military
   Turnier Large (I think this is the man’s size Amazone brush.)
3. Parcour
4. Cavaliere
5. Capriole
6. Welsh
7. Fellglanzburste
   Schmuseburste (Cuddle Brush)
   Kopfburste
8. Grundy’s Finest
9. Fellglanzburste Noir
10. Diva
    Micro Diva

Their prices on the brushes looked quite good.

[stb]

Somewhere in my exhaustive Haas brush research I found the listings for their color specific brush packs. I have a palomino and a chestnut, so of course they can’t use the same brushes;) Anyway, these brushes really work and the horses love them.

As far as the Schimmel brush goes, my palomino can be grumpy about grooming and he loves this brush, so don’t let the stiffness scare you away.

Somehow I overlooked the pastern brush in my research. Looks like I need to add to my collection.