MetroVac Vac N Blo Equine Review: Worth $370 for a Horse Vacuum?

The grooming tool that earns its keep on a clipped, itchy or Cushing's senior, and does very little for anyone else.

The verdict: A dual vacuum and blower built for large animals, which is the tool that finally deals with a senior shedding a Cushing's coat, a horse with dander and scurf, or a wet horse that has to be dry before it goes in a rug. Buy it if you manage a heavy-coated or clipped senior in a barn with power. Skip it if your horse lives out and is easy to groom, where a curry comb and a stiff brush do the same job for twenty dollars.

Specifications

Specifications above come from MetroVac's published product description. Treat pricing as approximate, since Amazon pricing moves.

What it does well

• It removes what a brush pushes around. On a horse with dander, scurf or a heavy undercoat, a vacuum takes the debris away rather than redistributing it.
• The blower is the half people underrate. Drying legs and a saddle patch before rugging up in winter prevents a lot of skin trouble.
• It shortens grooming on a shedding senior from a long, dusty job to a short one, which matters when the person doing it has their own aches.
• Less airborne dust in the barn, which is worth something if you or the horse has any respiratory sensitivity.
• Built for large animals rather than a repurposed shop vac, so the hose length and airflow suit a horse's body.

Where it falls short

• It is loud, and a horse who has never met one will tell you so. Introducing a vacuum to a nervous or arthritic senior takes patience and several short sessions, and it is not a tool to try for the first time before a show.
• It needs mains power and a safe cable run in a wash bay or aisle. In a field shelter or a yard with no outlet, it is an ornament.
• It costs roughly ten times a good grooming kit and it does not replace one. You still need a curry comb to lift the dirt the vacuum then removes.
• It cannot be used on wounds, over a rain scald scab, on broken skin or on a horse with a bad reaction to noise, so the days you most want it may be days you cannot use it.
• Grooming a senior is also a health check. A machine that speeds the job up can speed you past the lump, the heat or the sore spot you would have felt with your hands, and on an older horse that is a real trade.

What owners report

Published owner reports on equine vacuums are consistent on two points. The first is that people who bought one for a heavy-coated, clipped or Cushing's horse describe it as the tool they should have bought years earlier. The second is that horses either accept it within a few sessions or never do, and there is not much middle ground.

The recurring practical note is about the blower rather than the vacuum: owners repeatedly single out drying legs in winter as the thing they use it for most, which is not what the marketing leads with.

Who it suits

• Owners of PPID and Cushing's horses with long, dense coats that do not shed properly.
• Anyone body-clipping a senior, since a clean coat is what makes clipper blades last.
• Barns with a wash bay, power and horses used to machinery.

Who should skip it

• Field-kept horses with easy coats, where hand grooming is faster than fetching the machine.
• Nervous or noise-sensitive horses, unless you have weeks to introduce it properly.
• Anyone whose actual problem is a skin condition. Rain scald, mud fever, lice and sweet itch need a vet's diagnosis, not a vacuum.

Alternatives worth considering

Keep reading

• Clipping vs blanketing a Cushing's horse
• Best grooming vacuums for horses
• Best grooming kits
• TAKEKIT horse clippers review
• Horse age calculator

This review draws on published specifications, manufacturer figures and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves, and we say so rather than implying otherwise. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.