‘BellyBrush’: Every Horse’s Wildest Dream Come True

Tummy scratches for all!

You know the look of pure bliss in your horse’s eyes when you’re currying the underside of his belly.

“Oh yes, that’s the spot!” Photo: Flickr/Matt Taylor/Creative Commons

Tummy rubs are the best, but when an itch comes up and there’s no human around to scratch it, sad times.

“Can’t! Reach! Grrrrrr!!!!” Photo: Flickr/Racineur/Creative Commons

Sometimes a horse has got to do what a horse has got to do, from getting resourceful in the pasture…

Photo: Flickr/Kenny_lex/Creative Commons

Photo: Flickr/Sue Nichols/Creative Commons

…to good old-fashioned manual labor.

The struggle is real. But Rahmar and Leslie Oberholtzer, two equine industry professionals from California, have a dream.

For the past several years, the couple has been working on an invention called “BellyBrush.”

What it is, from the website:

This tool is made available to the animal permanently as a fixture in his living environment. It stands ready for use at the will of the animal to walk over and scratch or swipe its body to relieve the annoyance of insects and/or itching. As an adjustable tool it is buried in the ground at an appropriate depth so that the brush is at the correct height for the animals living in the pasture, lot, or other enclosure, so they can just walk over the top of it and have the brush drag across the underside of their body.

Demonstration, please:

Don’t worry, safety patrol, BellyBrush is flexible so none of your accident-prone horses are going to get impaled on it:

Here’s a video with lots more info:

Yeah, I’m pretty sure my horse would be A-OK with having one of those in his pasture. Did I ever told you about that time he was trying to scratch his belly on a fallen tree and somehow got his blanket hooked to the tree? When he didn’t come in for breakfast, the barn help went out into the field looking for him and found him in a corner, stuck to a tree and looking really, really sad about it.

But here’s the catch: BellyBrush isn’t available… yet. Rahmar and Leslie have started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds they need ($38,000) to bring their patented product to fruition by offsetting manufacturing costs. There are several tiers of rewards for donating to the campaign, including discounts on BellyBrushes once they go on the market. The campaign runs through March 2 — here’s the link:

Go neat ideas. And Go Riding!