Spurred by 'Fraidy Cat Eventing's
post about transformative grooming, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Horze body brush to compare to my beloved Leistner brushes from Teddy's Tack Trunk (reviewed
here). My decision was
totally not at all swayed by the fact that the brush handle is decked out with crystals. Nope. Not a factor at all. And at least since I have several full grooming kits (one at ACS, several at home), it wasn't a wasteful purchase! (Never mind DH over in the corner shaking his head disapprovingly at me)
Yesterday was the perfect day to test it out, as we had quite a bit of rain Wednesday (with more drizzle yesterday) so Ruby was nice and disgustingly muddy.
Here are the brush models:
Horze Deluxe Classic Body Brush
Cost: $13.95 plus applicable taxes/shipping (I got mine locally, so no shipping)
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| Stock photo from Horze website. |
Leistner Natural Brisle "Prinz" Body Brush
Cost: $21.25 plus applicable taxes/shipping
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| Stock photo from Teddy's Tack Trunk website. |
I threw her in the cross-ties and got to work. I started by photographing her on both sides. Close to equal amounts of mud.
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| Left side pre-brushing. |
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| Right side pre-brushing. |
Then, I attacked the clumps of mud with my trusty rubber curry.
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| Left side (don't know why flash didn't go off this time). |
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| Right side. |
After getting as much of the mud off as I could with the curry, I
started with the Horze brush (left side), and then the Prinz brush
(right side). I did my best to give equal attention to both sides, annnnnnnd
then I took more photos!
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| Left side (Horze brush). |
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| Right side (Prinz brush). |
Aside from DH, there were two other unbiased
people standing around, so I asked their opinion as well. One said they
both looked about equal, one preferred the side with the Horze brush,
and DH made a face at me... haha. I'll let the pictures tell the story!
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| I mean, it certainly raised some dust! Haha |
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| In the arena post-ride: Horze brush |
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| In the arena post-ride: Prinz brush |
In terms of craftsmanship, the Leistner brush wins hands down. It looks nicer, fits my hand better, and is obviously higher quality. The Horze brush had some loose bristles, some that weren't attached evenly, and the handle isn't nearly as nice (even with the sparkly crystals, wah). Don't get me wrong -- they're both nice brushes, but the Leistner is nicer. Is it 52.3297% nicer? (Yes I did the math lol). Ehhhh.
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| Ruby wanted some snuggles! (Don't mind me, I'm a train wreck) |
Ultimately, like with 90% of horse tack, it all comes down to personal preference! And that's a nice thing :) either treat yo'self and buy the fancy Leistner brush, or treat yo'self in a different way and buy the Horze brush. Both of them will remove dirt from your pony ;)
Update 1/28/18: After a little over a year of
very light use, the handle of the Horze brush is coming off. Which is fairly disappointing to me -- I have much cheaper brushes that are still kicking 5+ years later. The Horze brush was in my grooming kit at the house (and my Leistner brush was in the kit I kept at the barn with Ruby) so it saw WAYYYYY less use. No surprise, the Leistner still looks basically brand new. I guess you get what you pay for? (although again, I have $5 brushes that held up better, ugh).
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| It looks like the other side is about ready to break too. |
