What Is It?
Haas is a German company that has been around since 1919, producing high quality brushes for horses. Their brushes are known for longevity, and being all round quality products. Each brush has been carefully designed to be able to do it’s exact purpose. The use of synthetic materials also means the brushes are much more hygienic and easy to wash.
How Does It Work?
Eqclusive have put together sets of brushes from Haas to suit certain colours of horses and their coat types. There is a range between 4-5 brushes per set, depending on the horses’ colour. I am specifically looking at the Dark Bay/Black set for my black horse, Super Dave! Black horses tend to have sturdier hair that produces a lot of oil/sweat, so you can use harder brushes on them. By using the brushes in order, they work together to create a beautifully clean coat.
How To Use Them
1) The Parcour – Used to remove dust from deep within the coat.
2) The Lipizzaner – Removes sweat and oil to really clear the coat.
3) The Cavaliere – This brush removes the dirt brought up by the previous brushes.
4) The Coat Gloss – Removes any final bits of dirt whilst providing a shine to the coat.
5) The Diva Exklusiv – The final brush makes the coat super glossy for a show finish!
My Experience
I received these brushes when Dave was severely moulting, as I didn’t clip him this winter. He also only gets a proper groom once a month, due to me not being able to ride often. So, when I first went to use these brushes, Dave was quite a mess!
Starting with the Parcour brush, I went over his whole body and legs, just avoiding his head. He had solid mud on him at this point, but the brush was barely touching it, so I decided to get rid of any mud stuck to him with a plastic curry comb first. Once all of it was gone, I went back over with the Parcour. This really helped to bring up all the dirt and dust stuck in his coat. It also pulled out loads of loose hair. The one issue was, once all the hair started coming up, I couldn’t get rid of it! The area over his bum was very thick with hair and dust deep in the coat, and although the Parcour helped, it didn’t completely clear it.
Then I used the Lipizzaner brush over his body and legs, avoiding his head again. This brush did a good job to remove any dirt that was still in his coat. However, I couldn’t tell the difference between the jobs of the Parcour and Lipizzaner brushes. They both are hard brushes that remove dirt from the coat. I guess doing it twice in a row just helps to clean the coat more!
With the Cavaliere brush, I went over his body, legs and head, as this brush is slightly softer than the previous two. I was still careful around his head though, as they are quite big brushes compared to the size of a normal face brush. The Cavaliere is the last of the “cleaning” brushes and helped to remove any of the dirt brought up to the surface by the previous two brushes. I started to see that Dave’s coat was beginning to look cleaner now. I was still having trouble with the amount of hair that was coming off him though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Warmblood moult this much before!
The next brush is the Coat Gloss, which I used over his full body. This is a softer brush with thickly packed bristles. I enjoyed using this brush, as you can start to see a shine come through your horse’s coat whilst the remainder of the dirt disappeared. This was great at cleaning any sweat marks off Dave’s face from his turnout headcollar that he wears during the day. His legs even looked like they had been baby oiled by this point!
The final of the 5 brushes I used was the Diva Exklusiv. This is a really unique brush as it’s made of lambswool with a border of short black horse hair bristles. I’ll definitely be taking this brush with me to any shows in the future! I went over his full body with this brush and I loved how it picked up any last bits of dirt without pulling any more loose hair out. It really finished off the groom and Dave definitely looked clean at this point. It also leaves a natural shine to your horses coat. With the other brushes I cleaned the dirt out by using a plastic curry comb in between strokes, but I didn’t with this brush as it’s such a soft and delicate brush. Instead I used my fingers to flick off any loose hair/dirt stuck to it.
It took me at least 40mins to groom with the whole set, but I soon learnt you don’t need to take that much time on each brush. It may seem that you have more dirt to get off, but as you are using multiple brushes the dirt left will be taken off with subsequent brushes.
A few weeks later I went to use the set again. Dave hadn’t been brushed in between yet his coat still looked shiny! I was definitely impressed with that, as he has been turned out naked for a while now. I didn’t have as much time to groom before riding this time, so I chose to use a plastic curry comb to remove any dried mud, then the Parcour, the Cavaliere and the Coat Gloss for a quick groom that took around 15mins in total. This worked just as well and left his coat looking super clean and healthy!
When I made the video showing how to use the whole set, Dave had finished moulting. Hooray! This really gave the brushes a chance to work properly. I was much more impressed this time around and finally understood the hype behind these brushes! Black horses tend to be naturally shiny, but with these brushes Dave looked ready to go out for some dressage.
Pros
1) High quality brushes.
2) Leave a good shine to the coat.
3) Having the set will make you want to groom more!
Cons
1) Relatively pricey.
2) Seem quite delicate, although they are meant to last a long time.
Are They Worth It?
Yes! I have never had any good quality brushes before, and the most I’ve ever spent on a single brush was £10, so it was really lovely to use these luxury items. It really felt like you are giving your horse a spa treatment! I did find they definitely work better when your horse isn’t moulting or has a thinner coat. They aren’t a necessity, but if you compete a lot these would be amazing to add to the collection, so you can avoid bathing in the winter. They would be perfect for show horses too! I’d recommend buying a set over single brushes though, as they seem pricey to purchase that way. If you have multiple horses that are different colours, then they do a universal set to suit all. Treat yourself or get someone to treat you for a birthday present!
Price – £100 (price varies for each set).
Website – https://www.theyard-equine.co.uk/collections/haas-brushes.
Thank you for reading and feel free to ask any questions!
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Elise x
Brace Yourself 