Practical Horsemen
October 2000, Pages 122-123.

Latest and Greatest 
ManeMaster®

To give your horse the look of a traditionally pulled mane with less discomfort for him and less work for you is the purpose of the "redesigned and improved" ManeMaster® recently introduced by Grooma®.

The first step in using the ManeMaster (a thick plastic comb with two stainless steel cutting blades in the teeth- one stationary and one that moves when a lever is depressed) is the same as for regular mane-pulling: Holding the ends of a small section of mane in one hand, with the ManeMaster in your other hand you backcomb or "tease" the hair away from your holding fingers until you're grasping only a small number of the section's longest hairs. Then, to "pull" the mane, instead of wrapping the remaining hairs around fingers (or comb) and jerking them out by the roots, you hold the tool near your grasping fingers and depress the lever to trim the ends of the longest hairs; continue backcombing and trimming a section at a time. To thin the mane, you slide the tool up the remaining long hairs, as close as possible to the crest, then depress the lever and cut them off. In each case, the horse feels no irritation, and the job is less tiring for your fingers.

Our tester, who runs a small training barn, tried the ManeMaster on two young Thoroughbreds with long, thick manes. Both horses, she says, "stood quietly on the crossties while I worked: no fussing, no puling back, and no need for twitching." The comb fit comfortably in her hand, and she found it easy and non-tiring to use. Though the ManeMaster didn't decrease the time she spent on each mane–with the cutting blade just an inch wide, she cut only a few strands at a time, and the manes' thickness required her to work layer by layer – it certainly increased her horses' comfort. Backcombing the hair was not difficult, and the tool cut close enough to the base of the mane that it left no short ends sticking up. Shortening manes with the ManeMaster was more of a challenge, she reported; the blade's narrow width " made it difficult to get a straight, even look."

Although our tester came nowhere near using the ManeMaster enough to dull the blades (Grooma predicts a 3-5 year life), she tried changing them and found the process simple and straightforward.

Even though the ManeMaster finishes just about neck-and-neck with traditional pulling in terms of time spent and appearance achieved, our tester gives it high marks on comfort for the horse and peace of mind for his owner.

John Lyons' Perfect Horse
May 1999, page 15-16.

High-tech Hairdo Tools 
Pulling manes can be worse than pulling teeth – unless you try one of the new high-tech gadgets.

Now and then, nearly every horse needs his mane tidies up. Some thin-maned horses or horses who keep their manes long just need a little shaping, while other horses need major work, and frequently. There are a variety of methods of dealing with long manes – from the (forbidden) scissors approach to the old-fashioned pulling the hairs out. The difficulty with the first is that the result looks like the mane just got chopped off – which it did. The difficulties of the second approach are many – irritating to the horse and hard on your fingers, just to mention two.

So we experimented to see if spending money for newfangled tools would be warranted. We took two tools, the Grooma ManeMaster and The Mane Puller, to a busy barn with professionals, adult amateurs, children taking lessons and moms who don't ride. Just for fun we asked the experienced mane pullers not just if they would spend the money for these tools, but to mentally compare them to traditional tools – mane pulling combs, thinning shears and so forth. To our amazement, everyone voted for the gadgets. While some nearly choked at the price at first, in the end even they felt the money would be well spent if they had a number of horses or a horse with a sensitive mane. Which tool to use depends on the horse's mane. The Grooma ManeMaster is great for keeping a mane trimmed up, but if the mane needs serious thinning, we'll pick the Mane Puller.

ManeMaster
The Grooma ManeMaster ($44.95) is an ABS plastic comb with two stainless steel cutting blades hidden in it teeth. It comes with a cordura pouch that clips to your belt, so keeping it with you is easy, which is important because at that price, you don't want it misplaced or sprouting legs (if you know what we mean). The housing that covers the blades is locked into place but can be removed so you can clean the blades, which you should do periodically.

The ManeMaster doesn't pull the hairs out, but cuts them off. You hold the longer hairs while backcombing the rest. When you have only the hair you want to cut left in your comb, push the lever on the top of the comb and the hairs will be cut. The comb is a good fit for the hand and even little kids could manage it, though we'll warn you, it takes a bit of practice.

Some testers found it more convenient to depress the lever with their thumb, while others found it worked easier with their thumb below the comb and the first finger depressing the lever. The trick for gaining speed is to have only a few hairs in the comb at a time. Ironically, the fewer hairs in the comb, the quicker you can move through the mane.

If you want a professional-looking shortening job, be mindful of how close to the neck you are cutting or you'll end up with hairs of greatly varying lengths, which can stick up or be difficult to braid. This product is also helpful for tails, either shaping the top of the tail or trimming the bottom.

Horse & Rider
February 1998, page 70.

Horsehold Products 
We passed the Grooma ManeMaster to English riding coach and competitor Susan Gustafson of Bridlewood Stables in Woodland Park, Colorado. She tested the mane-shortening tool on two horses: one with a long, thin mane; and one with a medium-thick, kinky mane.

Susan was amazed at how this comblike tool with stainless-steel blades cut her mane-trimming time in half. She was able to complete an entire mane in 30 to 45 minutes. She also reported that the tool-which cuts hairs to thin the mane instead of pulling them out-made the task virtually painless for her horses. As a result, they were more cooperative than when she pulled their manes by hand.

Susan realized she had to be selective about which hairs to cut, or she'd end up trimming the mane too short. With practice, she found if she used a comb to tease the shorter mane hairs out of the way, she was able to snip off only the remaining long ones, creating an even appearance. Overall, she reports the ManeMaster contributed to the best mane-shortening jobs she's ever done-especially on the medium-thick mane.

–Jennifer J. Denison

Horse Illustrated
May 1998, page 94.

Great Grooming Goodies 
We put dozens of products to the test and came up with 26 that make our grooming job much easier.

Staff Report
We must admit that mane pulling is one of our least favorite grooming chores. It makes our fingers ache and the mane never seems to come out even or tidy. Plus, the horse hates it because it's uncomfortable and it means he has to stand still even longer after a workout, further postponing his snack time. That's why the Grooma ManeMaster is a hit with us. Instead of pulling, all we had to do is backcomb and depress the trigger, which released the blades that trim the hair. The horse's mane turned out neat and orderly, neither of us were sore afterward, and it took less time than traditional mane pulling.

Brushes

Horse Illustrated
May 1998, page 94.

Great Grooming Goodies 
We put dozens of products to the test and came up with 26 that make our grooming job much easier.

Staff Report
The first tool we go for at grooming time is a curry comb–but not just any curry comb. After trying out the Grooma Groomer, we'll never go back to generic again. Instead of those ribby black ovals, the Groomer has 31 soft, flexible fingers to massage the horse's muscles and get deep down into his coat to bring dirt and loose hair to the surface. Our test horse loved his massage.

Michael Plumb's Horse Journal
June 1994
Grooming Box Goodies
Countless varieties of grooming equipment are available. We selected a few of each type to evaluate and came up with some definite recommendations.

Your fingers will cover many miles walking through the pages of the tack catalogs in the grooming equipment sections. The variety of brushes, conditioners, and other gadgets is overwhelming. We like the basic equipment used in the proper manner, as our accompanying story describes. Here, we comb through some of the items available to fill our grooming tote with what we consider to be good, useful tools.

Groomas
We begin our evaluation with the item we use first when we groom our horse; a rubber curry. Certainly the regular rubber curry does a great job on the coat, but we're crazy about the new Grooma. These handy little items are round in shape, with flexible rubber teeth that cover the entire grooming surface. The teeth increase the area actually touching the horse. A regular rubber curry just touches the horse with the outside rim and two inner circles. In addition, the teeth enable it to penetrate the hair much more effectively. It removes hair and dirt as well as the rubber curry, with the added plus being the horse's increased enjoyment.
The Grooma company has developed a Lil' Grooma for the smaller hands of women and children. Another variation, the Sof-Touch Grooma, which has smaller, softer teeth set close together in greater number, is excellent for a horse's bony areas. The Sof-Touch Groomas are similar to the rubber grooming glove, made with very small nubs covering its entire surface.

But the glove will not penetrate as deeply as the Groomas. A regular rubber curry runs from $1.95 to $3.95. The Groomas are in the $5.00 range, but we think it's worth it.

Trail Blazer
November/December 2000

Tried & True

The Grooma® Easy Wormer Drench Bit did live up to its name, according to our three testers! The Easy Wormer is a V-shaped plastic, bit-like device with a nylon headpiece. It is fitted to your horse like a bridle, with two wrinkles showing at the corners of the mouth. There is an opening in the side of the hollow "bit" that allows you to push in the wormer. It is then deposited in the horses' mouth through another opening in the center of the bit. A plunger (attached) is used to clear residual dewormer from the inside of the bit.

We used the Easy Wormer on horses and mules. Some of these animals had a history of being very difficult to worm. A test horse bit down on the plastic and made a bite mark, probably due to improper fitting. It did not break the bit. One mule had a history of tossing her head and pulling away. it was a relief for her owner to put the Easy Wormer on like a bridle and squeeze in the wormer without a fight. Everyone found that the horses stayed calmer with less head tossing. An additional benefit is that the paste wormers are not spit out. The instructions on the box were clear. The Easy Wormer cleaned up well with warm soapy water after use.

John Lyons' Perfect Horse
November 1999

Best Bets for Horse and Barn
PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

Your horse spies you coming with a paste wormer, and suddenly he morphs into a star-gazing giraffe. Of course, we advise you teach him to stand quietly for deworming, but unitl then, for an easy way to get pastes or liquid preparations into your horse, try the Easy Wormer. This gadget is made like a grooming halter with a hollow, plastic bit into which you squirt the dewormer or medication. the bit stays in his mouth, so it's harder for him to spit his medicine out. Easier on you both.

Practical Horseman
March 1999

We've all met equine jokesters who hold a mouthful of wormer paste or medicine for long minutes, convincing us they've swallowed what we've administered, only to squirt it out as soon as we walk away. Most of us have also met horses so resistant to being wormed that they start to fight the moment they spot the tube coming toward their heads. For these extreme cases, now there' s the Easy Wormer; a safe, humane, surgical plastic "bit" held in place with an adjustable nylon crownpiece–and perforated to allow medicine to trickle into the horse's mouth.

Our tester, a professional who does all her own worming and (under the advice of her veterinarian) routine medicating, tried the Easy Wormer on a two-year-old filly who typically begins racing around her stall, swishing her tail, at the sight of a paste-wormer tube. Concealing the tube in an inside pocket, our tester went to the tack room, brought out the Easy Wormer, slipped the bit into the filly's mouth, and adjusted it as she would a bit on a bridle. Then she swiftly inserted the nozzle of the tube in the hollow mouthpiece, pressed the plunger, and bingo! Before the filly even knew the tube was nearby, the sticky wormer was in her mouth, slowly oozing out of the mouthpiece's perforations, and sticking to her tongue where every chomp or swallow action would carry more of it back to her throat and "down the hatch."

"I'm tempted to call this the greatest invention I've ever used in my barn," our tester said. "There was no fighting, no fear on her part, no frustration on mine." When our tester removed the bit, some fifteen minutes later, it still held a little medication–but not nearly the amount she'd been resigned to wasting while scraping up messy handfuls of spit-out wormer to try to stuff back into a resistant mouth.

John Lyons' Perfect Horse
June 1999

If all else fails, or if you just want a slick, easy way to get paste/liquid preparations into your horse's mouth, you can try the Easy Wormer ($14.95), from White Horse Trading Co. This gadget is like a grooming halter with a hollow, plastic bit in it. The "bit" extends beyond the left edge of the horse's mouth and is actually a tube into which you squirt the medication or dewormer. Then you insert a plunger, to force the paste out a hole in the "bit" and into the horse's mouth. One nice feature of this tool is that the bit remains in the horse's mouth, so it's harder for him to spit the medication out. We tried this unit when deworming several horses and found it made the process easier.

However, we'll warn you: Washing the bit after use requires running warm/hot water down through the bit tube. Swishing it around in a bucket won't do it.

We found the Easy Wormer to be an easy way to administer paste medications.