Those high powered blowers they use at the grooming places on dogs. I have a small one for at-home baths for my pooch - can I use it on the horses in the winter to blow dirt off? Has anyone done it? Did you have any issues with static, or with the horse really really hating it for some reason?
I’ve never had good luck vacuuming, I feel like it’s pointless against a winter coat like the one my old guy gets - maybe more useful on a summer coat. Hoping blowing works better?
Since you have the unit already, best bet is probably to try it and see. Like any new thing, make sure you introduce it to the horse slowly and try to associate it with positive things. If you are in a situation where there are horses around that are not yours (e.g. a boarding stable), be aware of how the device might affect THEM, too. Your horse might be a Steady Eddy and not caring in the barn aisle as you blow him off, and the neighbors might be freaking out and you’ll need to back off and slow it down for their sake.
I’ve used an ordinary household hair dryer to dry sweaty horses many times.
I don’t think mine will care about the sound or sensation, unless it produces static.
@Mallard velocity dryers are much louder with a much higher air flow rate. Think “fluffy show steer” as the result lol
We use our Electrogroom horse vac on the blower setting, for drying and “dusting off” their winter coats before using the horse. It is noisy but horses accept it pretty quickly. Actually, using the narrow ended rubber nozzle on the hose, creates warm air after a bit of blowing. Air forced thru nozzle creates friction, warming the blown air.
it does take a while to get the horse dry with heavy winter coat, so plan on lots of time to get horse dry to the skin. Even then I leave a cooler on for a couple more hours to pull off hidden moisture, prevent chilling him. You can see the “dew” moisture on the outside of the cooler. If there is much, I change damp cooler for a dry one until there is no dew on the outside of the cooler.
yes…I know ! That is why I suggested an ordinary hair dryer. Works very well without the noise!
Oh this won’t be for drying out - at least not in my head. It’s for that dust and scurf that’s so hard to get off late winter. Hot toweling is always an option, but blowing it off sounds so much easier, haha.
We use a show steer blower/dryer multiple times per day on multiple horses from Nov - Mar. It works very well for blowing off dirt and crud and we’ve never had a static issue.
Awesome, thanks for the info! I think I’ll give it a try later this week.
Static can depend on your location. No humidity will cause more static, common in wintery, cold locations. We try to touch something after vacuuming, BEFORE we touch the horse. Have not found dryer sheets to be real helpful.
I grew up showing “fluffy show steers” (moderately fluffy ones anyway…I wasn’t a pro, lol). I’ll never forget someone frantically running up to me late one day at a November show asking if they could borrow my blower for their horse. They had to do a last minute substitution for that evening’s rodeo. He was light colored, and of course… It worked for a quick dry then!
Not sure how effective it actually is on the “winter scrunge” but it certainly can’t hurt to try, since you already own the machine!
I use a shop vac on blow because I’m cheap, and it’s amazing. Realllly gets them cleaner. Like a white saddle pad just stays white (except for sweat stains) in half the time of brushing and with better results. Blow works much better than suck. Works especially better on long winter fur since it gets down to the skin easier, but also amazing in summer. The main risk is that you will want MORE air pressure and start looking at leaf blowers (people actually use those). I have had vets who see a lot of horses comment on how clean mine was.
Haven’t had any static issues even using dry air on a dry horse, but thee static on the hose is annoying during shedding time, all that loose fur just sticks right on to the hose.
Use it outside because the dust coming off can be intense. I also like to put a fly mask on the horse just in case, even though I blow carefully away from the head. (You may also want a face cover for yourself any time your horse hasn’t been blown out in a while.)
Also while you’re there blow out your normal brushes and dry sponges, etc, even your tack bag if you use a bag instead of a box.
I would do it every.single.day except I don’t have a good setup and mucking around with running out the extension cord and rolling it back up is a headache.
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I have a horse dryer and a K-9 II Metro dog dryer. The dog dryer blows higher. All 8 of mine allow the horse dryer, though one has a few minutes of huffing and puffing. I plan to switch to dog dryer if I can. I do think it would blow a lot of dust off but I was surprised at how much the horse vacuum sucked off! It also saved my eyes and sinuses LOL
Update:
I tried it. HOLY CRAP. SO much dust came off. It was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done grooming wise. Both the young horse and the old man seemed to enjoy it greatly. The young one tried to “eat” the air stream, it was hysterical.
However, this will have to be an outdoor activity from now on. The dust storm created was really a sight to behold. I think I’ll shoot to do this once a week, with an extension cord to get just outside the end of the aisle.
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