How to Clean Your Leistner Natural Bristle Horse Grooming Brushes

Toi Wall

Horse grooming brushes with natural bristles and fibers will not need to be washed. Instead, while you groom your horse, use a curry comb to brush off the excess dirt and dust from your brushes about every 4-6 strokes of use. Use your fingers in the goat hair brushes, not the curry. Be more gentle with mud brushes when cleaning with the curry.

Do not use water directly on the brushes or immerse in water. The wood cannot get wet at all. Instead, use a damp cloth with warm water and gently rub the bristles remove dirt.

For the goat hair brushes, sprinkle a small amount of corn starch on the bristles and use your fingers to gently brush of the excess. Do not use water on the
goat hair brushes.

Read more →

Welcome Suzannah Rogers, TTT's Ambassador

Toi Wall

Suzannah Rogers is an accomplished 16 year old from South Carolina and is home schooled so that she can further her education in dressage. Her goals are to have a perfect partnership with her pony, Rush, as they move up the levels of dressage and one day compete PSG and one day Grand Prix with her trainer Sandra Bussey.

Adrenaline Rush is Suzannah's 15 year old 14.2 halflinger sport gelding. They are currently riding and competing at Third level. They earned a selection into Lendon Gray's Winter Intensive Program in Wellington, Florida, which was a fantastic time!

Suzannah and Rush are the 2017 USEF Dressage Pony Rider National Champion. In addition, they are the 2017 NDPC FEI pony champion, 2017 Reserve champion in second level for NDPC, 2017 USDF Regional championships champion training level.

Suzannah's been in pony club her entire life up till 2014, and has also done eventing, show jumping, and tetrathalon. Teddy's Tack Trunk is looking forward to following her future endeavors and welcome her as our new Ambassador!

Read more →

Teddy's Tack Trunk Leistner Brush Reviews

Toi Wall

   

Teddy's Tack Trunk has had some great reviews specifically on Leistner brushes, from bloggers in the horse world. These women (so far no men) love to seek out different horse related products to try and if they like it or dislike it enough, they just might do a review. The blogs are a source for all types of horse care, tack, and clothing reviews, as well as writings about experiences on riding, showing, training, breeding, horse health care, and anything else they may come up with. They are honest, funny, and informational and are worth following or at least pursuing around their sites.


Below are some of the blog reviews of Teddy's Tack Trunk and the Leistner brushes that we carry. Note the creative, fun names the bloggers have too! 

Call My Agent

The $900 Facebook Pony 
(search her site for other Leistner brush reviews and reviews on other products that Teddy's Tack Trunk carries)

Sprinkler Bandits

Confessions of a Dressage Barbie

The Graduated Equestrian

Patently Bay

The Printable Pony

Tailored Mane

Thanks to these bloggers for their support! 

Read more →

Deciding Which Leistner Brush to Choose

Deciding Which Leistner Brush to Choose

Toi Wall

 

There are many Leistner Horse Grooming Brushes to choose from and sometimes it can get confusing as to which brush to use and when to use it. The basic rule of thumb is during the grooming process, start with the stiffest brush and end with the softest brush.

Here are the steps for grooming and the brushes appropriate for each step. You can view the brushes here.

Step 1: Curry
The curry comb loosens the dirt, invigorates the skin, releases the oils, and helps to release dander, mud, and hair.

Step 2: Mud – stiff
The mud brush deep cleans the coat with the stiff bristles and also loosens mud.
- Country Mud
- Course Bristle Small Mud
- Coco Fiber Brush
- Mixed Bristle Dandy

Step 3: Dandy Flick – medium
The dandy flick removes the loosened dirt, dust, dander, and hair by using a flicking motion with the brush.
- Dandy Dust Brush
- Sweepy Flick Brush
- Mixed Bristle Dandy

Step 4: Body Brush – medium soft

Body brushes smooth the coat and removes the dirt and dust left behind by the dandy flick brush. Body brushes are available in different styles and sizes to accommodate personal preferences.
- Prinz
- Beauty
- Grand Gilbert
- Fury
- Satchmo
- Esprit Angled (dual use medium soft and medium bristles)
- Haflinger

Step 5: Finishing – soft
Finishing brushes get the last of the dust on the coat revealing the shine.
- Dandy Coat Shine (soft)
- Large Goat Hair (very soft)

Face Brushes
Softer bristles for the face.
- Goat Hair (very soft)
- Horse Hair (medium soft)

Hooves
Scrubbing brush for the hooves that gets at the nooks and crannies.
-Hoof Brush w/Handle

Mane & Tail
Brushes that don't pull the hair but gets the tangles out.
- Hedgehog style that fits in the hand
- Dual Sided Horse Hair w/Handle
- Dual Sided Boar Bristles w/Handle

Thank you to Heather, who writes The Graduated Equestrian Blog, for giving me the idea to put this guide together.

Read more →

International Shipping

Toi Wall

Teddy's Tack Trunk is happy to ship internationally. In order to accommodate our international customers and provide the best shipping price, we ask that you email us at toi@teddystacktrunk.com with the products that you are interested in buying. Be sure to include your full name and address, as well. We will then send you a no obligation invoice amount with the shipping quote.

We ship via USPS for international orders and will do our best to find the most economical way to deliver these orders. We do not mark up shipping nor add any handling charges. In fact, we provide a discount based on actual shipping charges of at least 10%.

Read more →

Zephyr's Garden Anti-Fungal Review from $900 Facebook Pony

Toi Wall

Here's another great review from  Amanda, who writes the equestrian blog, The $900 Facebook Pony.

Along with her friend, Bobby, they review how the Zephyr's Garden Anti-Fungal product line worked for their horses.

Read all about it at The $900 Facebook Pony Blog.

Read more →

World Class Grooming Sponsorship

Toi Wall

Teddy's Tack Trunk is pleased to be a sponsor of  World-Class Grooming for Horses: The English Rider's Complete Guide to Daily Care and Competition. Cat Hill and Emma Ford, are the authors of this book and they have had successful careers grooming at all of the world class competitions at the highest level.

The book is full of how-to's and tips on all aspects of horse care, from feeding and farm management to competition and show preparation and management. It also has many nice photos that accompany the step by step guides on many of the topics.

There is also a lot of horse grooming information, such as brushing, bathing, clipping, and braiding.

Teddy's Tack Trunk is sponsoring a series of clinics that Cat and Emma are conducting that provide a "more in-depth grooming and horse care education."

For more information on the book and their clinics, you can see their website and Facebook page at the links below:

World Class Grooming

Facebook

 

Read more →

Leistner Horse Grooming Brushes - Materials

Toi Wall

William Leistner uses a variety of materials when it comes to making their horse grooming brushes.

For example, they use 86 different wooden back designs made from carefully processed beech wood and pear wood from European forests which are sustainably managed.

In addition, they make 80 different (in type and length) bristles, hair and fiber materials. Their natural bristled brushes use the following types of materials:

pig bristles
wild boar bristles
horsehair
goat hair
coco fiber
natural union mix fibers - made from palmyra plants
tampico (Mexican fibers) - made from agave plants

Below are some of the brushes that we carry at Teddy's Tack Trunk, including a detailed description of the materials used.

Many of the brushes also have vegetable tanned, leather strap handles and because they are hand nailed, they can be adjusted, if needed. Push a small screwdriver under the nail head and remove the nail with slight pressure. Or, take it to a leather shop and they would be able to do it, as well.

Natural Bristle "Grand Gilbert" Body Brush
Lacquered beech wood base, 100% horse hair bristles.

Natural Bristle "Country" Mud Brush
Natural, raw beech wood base, union fiber and tampico mixed fibers

Natural Bristle Luxurious Goat Hair Face Brush
Lacquered beech wood base, 100% goat hair bristles

Natural Bristle Dandy Dust (Flick) Brush
Lacquered beech wood base, natural tampico bristles

Natural Bristle "Fury" Body Brush
Lacquered pear wood base, 100% horse hair bristles

Our full line of Leistner Horse Grooming Brushes can be found here.

Read more →

Product Review from The $900 FB Pony

Toi Wall

As a retailer of horse products, I am always looking for ways to get the word out on Teddy's Tack Trunk and the products we sell. I'm always online, not only researching products for the store, but also looking for horse tack to buy, training information, horse health information, etc. I'm active as a lurker, for the most part, on social media. I read horse related message boards, am on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I like reading blogs about many different topics too. 

I came across a blog called, The $900 Facebook Pony which I originally found through a horse message board. The blogger, Amanda, is an excellent writer and that is what originally kept me going back to read her posts. She's also a knowledgeable horse person that has been riding since she was a kid. She does eventing and not only writes about training and showing but also writes reviews on horse products.

I sent one of our Leistner Prinz brushes to Amanda and asked her to do a review. I will let her blog post tell the rest of the story. You can find it here:

The Best Brush Ever (I'm Not Kidding)

 

Read more →

Teddy the Haflinger - Favorite Recent Photos

Toi Wall

I always see photos of horses running through a field and would love to get a good action shot of Teddy. Nope. He is always either grazing or sleeping in his pasture. I've never witnessed him in a fit of zoomies nor has he galloped and played with his friends in the pasture. In fact, I've only seen him canter out there just a handful of times and that, of course, was feeding time. 

Anyway, here are some of my recent photos of Teddy that I like..

I converted this one to black and white that turned out quite nice, I think. It had been raining for days and the sky was gloomy and gray.

 

This one is with the barn cat who followed me out to catch Teddy. On the way back to the gate, the kitty jumped around and was playing with us the whole time. Cute little guy. 

I'm not going to lie, Haflingers often have great butts, and Teddy is no exception. Here he is in all of his apple bottom glory.

Read more →