Product Review: Grooming Hands

Currying isn’t exactly my favorite part of grooming—you end up inhaling or getting covered with 80% of the hair and dirt that is coming off, it is a recipe for shocking your horse with static, and Ax is too sensitive for a good curry anyway. But because I am a good horse owner, and I want to see my reflection in my horse’s clean coat, I still do it. In the past few years I’ve ditched my hard rubber curry and swapped it out for a jelly scrubber more for Ax’s sake than mine, but we both love the thing. I’m pretty committed to it at this point, but when the people at Grooming Hands offered me a pair of their grooming gloves I figured I would give them a try.

Right away I noticed how nice it was to be able to curry my horse without getting dirt and hair in between my fingers and under my rings. Ax was exceptionally dirty the day I used these (someone rolled in the mud) and, where I normally would have had dirt-covered hands that I would then need to wipe off on my breeches, my hands were clean.

Not only were my hands spotless, but the gloves worked much better than my trusty jelly scrubber to get all the way into his coat—I noticed more dandruff brought to the surface than normal. I was worried about Ax’s reaction to the gloves as the nubs are quite a bit stiffer than those on my jelly scrubber and he absolutely hated my old hard curry, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. The nubs on the palms were surprisingly soft for getting such a deep scrubbing in. These are officially my go-to for the days when Ax is a complete mud ball.

One of the big selling points of these gloves is the anti-static properties in the palms. Fortunately, the summer is pretty static-free for us here in Massachusetts (thanks, humidity), so I couldn’t fully test this feature just yet. The coming fall and winter is sure to bring some static to us soon, so I will have to update this aspect of the review then.

Because they get deeper into the coat, the gloves are great for bathing. I’m pretty sure I used half the amount of shampoo on Ax’s socks before our last show when I scrubbed them with the gloves as opposed to just my hands. I also found these great for getting rid of any scurf, cannon bone crud, and itching bug bites.

My one complaint about the gloves is that your hands aren’t free to feel for any heat, swelling, lumps, or bumps along the way. Normally I check for any of these while currying, and I had to either remove the gloves along the way or wait until I was onto the hard brush—a small inconveinence.

At $25.99, the Grooming Hands gloves are pricier than a normal curry, but if your horse is a mud-lover or dandruff-y then they’re worth it.

Thank you to the ladies at Grooming Hands for sending Ax and I a pair to try out!

-TC