The Best Horse Grooming Brushes
I joke a lot about using elbow grease to groom your horse, and while this is true, you must have the best brushes and tools to make this happen. There are tons of choices out there! Knowing what you need/want when you go to the store will help you. Or, buy everything. Test-driving is a legit way of doing things, especially at tack stores when you leave your budget at the barn.
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How to Pick the Best Brushes for Horses
- There are endless options and countless iterations of brushing tools for horses. Not to mention colors, too. How do you know what would work best? Ask yourself a few questions, and then you can go from there.
What does your horse need? Focus on the bristles.
- Many of the grooming tools available cater to varying lengths of horse hair and how sensitive these creatures can be. Use the bristles as a place to start comparison shopping.
Bristle length
- Longer bristles are great for flicking away dirt that you have brought up with your curry comb. Shorter bristles are great for smoothing the coat after you have curry-combed your horse and flicked away the dirt and hair to add more polish.
Thickness of bristles
- Generally speaking, the thicker the bristle, the larger the chunk of whatever will be removed. You may need more than one brush for your grooming kit. A thick-bristled brush for mud and clumps, a thin-bristled brush for the fine dust and hair.
Bristle material – natural or synthetic?
- I love natural bristle brushes for my horse’s coats. They are soft, dense, and effective. So thick, that you may need to brush your horse for a few strokes, then brush a metal curry comb to release what you just picked up.
- Synthetic bristle brushes are typically made of plastic and are a bit harder. I love love love the super stiff styles, these are great for cleaning saddle pads, horse boots, and the dirt away from the bottom of your pants. I’m not always a fan of these on horses, although some horses want all of the scratching all of the time.
These soft, natural bristles are great at removing the fine dust and dirt.
What does your horse like?
- What does your horse like? Stiff or soft? Some sensitive-skinned horses only like soft body brushes. They may be ticklish and prefer a stiff body brush for scratches.
What’s comfortable for you to hold?
- No brush in your grooming box is fantastic if you can’t even hold the darn thing. Make sure it won’t catch air by flying out of your hands.
- Elastic straps can be helpful to help you hold onto things.
- If bending your fingers and gripping doesn’t work well, look for horse brushes disguised as gloves.
Love these stiff synthetic brushes for doing the tough jobs.
The Top 5 Brushes for Horses – Reviews
- Try and choose super high-quality brushes for horses. If properly cared for, these will last a lifetime and work much better than a bargain version.
HandsOn Grooming Gloves
- Years and years ago, HandsOn reached out to me before they ever came to market. They asked if I would be interested in their new grooming gloves, and I was immediately skeptical. Highly skeptical. But sure, I’d try them!
- These simple and effective grooming gloves have many advantages besides bathing, grooming, and shedding. They are easy to wear, especially for arthritic hands, and you can vary how much pressure you use to suit your horse’s comfort. You get instant feedback from your horse.
- Grooming gloves are also suitable for faces, ears, bellies, legs, and places on your horse that regular brushes don’t easily fit.
These are HandsOn Gloves with special pricing! Only in the color gray.
Wet brushes for manes and tails
- These “wet” brushes are super for manes and tails for a few reasons. The bristles are far apart, helping to undo tangles. They are also wildly soft, ideal as a tail brush after bathing.
- The downside is they don’t hold a lot of hair, so you will need to work it through tails one section at a time. This can be good, as it forces you to detangle and brush one small area at a time, making your horse more comfortable.
Gentle and effective detangling for your horse's mane and tail.
Haas brushes
- All Haas brushes are the gold standard in traditional body and finishing brushes. I especially love the Parcour, as the bristles are plentiful, dense, and short. This style of finishing brush makes the best shine and also does well in making quarter marks.
- And these bad boys last FOREVER. Top-notch quality.
Wahl’s stiff brush
- I rarely use a stiff horse brush on horses. Instead, I clean mud from hooves, boots, stirrup treads, and just about anything that gets crusty. I’ll also scrub buckets, stall walls, and anything else that needs elbow grease. This one is easy to hold and use to clean just about everything.
Flexi brushes
- For maximum coverage and comfort while being easy to hold, use a flexi-style brush. These soft, bendable grooming tools easily pass over faces, legs, and other tricky areas. They are comfortable and convenient.
Honorable mention, the HandsOn Gloves finishing gloves
- I love to buff a horse to bring out maximum shine, and gloves make it easier. One side of these gloves is jute fabric, which adds polish as you swipe over your horse.
- The other fleece side is fantastic for applying fly sprays, lifting dust, and smoothing out sheen sprays. These are technically not brushes for horses, but they are still awesome.
The jute side buffs to add shine, the other side is fuzzy for lifting dust and applying fly sprays and grooming products.
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Go Shopping
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The jute side buffs to add shine, the other side is fuzzy for lifting dust and applying fly sprays and grooming products.
Sort of a mix between a finishing brush and a body brush. Soft for sensitive horses.
Keep all of your poops in a group with this handy tote.
Boost shine and create a smooth coat with this medium brush from the best of the best - HAAS. Go forth and shine!
Gentle and effective detangling for your horse's mane and tail.
These are HandsOn Gloves with special pricing! Only in the color gray.