Boot Camp, EasyCare, Inc. Dealer Blog

Who's Your Daddy?

Thanks to hoof care practitioner and EasyCare Dealer, Pat Beebe of Florence, Montana for sending in this fun picture! 

How to Make Better Business Decisions

Here is an interesting video on BNET by Malcolm Gladwell on how to make better business decisions.  Funny how choices sometimes cloud our judgment.  Check it out.

EasyCare Airs on ABC News!

EasyCare's hoof boots were recently aired on ABC News in a featured clip about new developments in hoof protection. EasyCare Dealer and hoof care practitoner, Bonnie Hellevig of San Francisco, California helped us out as she demonstrated and talked briefly about hoof boots and their advantages.  Thanks Bonnie for helping us spread the word about EasyCare's products and natural hoof care!

Lots of Great Prizes! Dave Rabe Raffle Update

Susan Favro, the owner of Healthy as a Horse, has done a fantastic job of putting together some great prizes for the "Dave Rabe" Raffle.  The raffle is May 24, 2008 and can be purchased on line at HealthyasaHorse.net.  Hurry and get your tickets! You will be especially impressed with the prizes if you are an endurance or a trail rider. The tickets are only $5 per, or six tickets for $25. 

  If you ride endurance you probably either know or have heard of Dave Rabe. He is an avid endurance rider and has racked up more than 41,000 AERC miles during his endurance career.  In addition, he has won the EasyCare Hoof Boot Contest three years in a row.

If you search Dave's name on RideCamp you will find lots of references to Dave helping to mark trail and helping riders or horses in need or in distress (plus a few comments about his penchant to always wear cut-offs when riding). He would never ask for help, but we're giving it to him anyway!

Dave was in a trailer accident (every horse person's  nightmare) and lost much of his equipment.  One horse died after the accident and one is recovering.  For more of the story click here to read the associated newspaper article or here to read Karen Chaton's blog.

We hope that you will pitch in to help Dave.  Every bit helps.  You might be the next person he helps on the trail!

The Staff at EasyCare

Happy Earth Day!

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

John Muir
Preservationist
1838-1914

What are the Qualities of a True Leader?

This is a great quote from Karen Scholl, an accomplished horsewoman who teaches women about leadership, trust and confidence through horsemanship.  Karen spent ten years as a corporate trainer for Intel, has taught Parelli Natural Horsemanship for years (she was president for six years), and now travels extensively sharing her knowledge. 

From her website:

"What are the qualities of a true leader? They're NOT controlling, demanding, micro-managing, manipulative, coercive, bribing, wimpy, or even dominant. Horses are naturally attracted humans possessing the true qualities of leadership; those who have an idea and are skilled at communicating that idea to others in a way that invites a willingness to participate rather than being forced to comply."

To see Karen's travel schedule, click here. 

Win Cool Stuff and Help Someone Out

Healthy as a Horse Network is sponsoring a raffle to help out a good friend of EasyCare's, Dave Rabe.  Dave was recently in a trailer accident that left his truck, trailer and camper totalled.  Much of his equipment was also ruined.  One horse died after the accident and the other horse is recovering with enormous vet bills.  Dave escaped with minor injuries and body soreness, and we are certainly grateful for that.

Although Dave doesn't work for EasyCare, we consider him our "lowest paid employee."  As a high-mileage endurance rider he has spent countless hours helping people with hoof boots.  He has been with us the last two years at the American Endurance Ride Conference repairing boots and he is always the first one to lend a hand at the rides.  We hope you will participate in the raffle.  There are lots of ride entries and products available, including EZ Ride Stirrups, Stowaway Packs, Ice Boots, books, a breeding to LS Zane Grey+//, and more!  One hundred percent of the money earned will go to Dave to help him replace equipment and pay vet bills. 

To read more about his accident and review responses from his friends click here. 

EasyCare Dealer, High Performance Hooves Clinic Is Huge Success!

Jay and Q DeHart, EasyCare dealers and operators of High Performance Hooves out of Stevensville, Montana held their first natural hoof care clinic this past month in Corvallis.  Despite the snow and ice, Q reported that the clinic was a huge success, with 75 people attending, some from as far as Southern California!  When Jay spoke on the topic of booting there were lots of questions and interest.  Dawn Merrill (Team Easyboot Member) came along to help and manned the table with the boots and pads.  Dawn addressed many questions on booting in regards to the advancements in booting and hoof boots; the ease of putting them on as well as the many benefits they offer the horse. For those of you interested Jay and Q will be holding additional clinics in the Whitefish/Kalispell, MT area the last weekend in May.  Contact them or the Backcountry Horsemen of Kalispell for more information.  They will also be giving a brief Barefoot Hoof Care chat and demo at the 2008 Horse Expo, at the Sapphire Event Center in Corvallis, MT on Saturday, April 12th.  See their website:  www.sapphireeventcenter.com for more info on the Horse Expo.

EasyCare Product Images

Updating your website?  Printing a new catalog?  If you need any EasyCare images for your website or for print ads you can find them on our website!  Just click here!   

Please feel free to contact us with any questions!

EasyCare To Attend Equine Affaire Columbus, Ohio

EasyCare is back out on the road this week and will be displaying at the Equine Affaire in Columbus Ohio, April 10-13.  This year's event has a great line up of clinicians, shows and vendors.  If you are in the area check it out and stop by our booth #715 and say hello to Cathie Hook and Shari Murray.  They will have a great display of EasyCare's hoof boots along with many of our other products.  Cathie and Shari look forward to meeting you all and will be happy to answer any questions you may have.  We would love to see you in Ohio but if you can't make it, check out where we are headed next!

EasyCare's 30 Day Money Back Guarantee!

EasyCare, Inc. 30-day money back guarantee policy will allow customers to  receive their money back if they are not fully satisfied with any EasyCare, Inc. product.  The new improved guarantee is one of the strongest in the industry, making EasyCare hoof boot products risk-free for new customers to try.

By offering a "no questions asked" 30-day money back guarantee EasyCare gains a competitive advantage within the hoof boot industry. The new EasyCare money back guarantee takes effect January 1, 2008 and applies to all new orders.

"Our goal is to gain consumer confidence by making our products completely risk free," explained Brian Mueller, Director of Sales for EasyCare.  "Our products have been proven on thousands of different horses and over every type of terrain.  We believe we are the best at what we do based on our years of experience, knowledge and customer results.  EasyCare has always been committed to providing the best service in our industry. We are so sure you and your horse will love our products, we decided to upgrade our return policy.  We know that once you try our products you will continue using them."

EasyCare 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
We back all of our products with a money-back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with our product for any reason, EasyCare will gladly refund your purchase price (excluding shipping and handling) within 30 days of purchase.   To qualify all products must be returned to place of purchase and have a dated receipt.  Offer not valid for EasyCare bargain bin, factory seconds or custom boot purchases.

Links to useful information for EasyCare Dealers

The following information was sent with our 2008 authorized dealer packets: 

Continuous website updates help you and your customer’s size, fit, use and repair hoof boots. We hope that you will take advantage of this useful information: 

1. Video clips that give instructions on boot fitting and repair which will help you address customer questions with confidence.

2. Informative articles about keeping a barefoot horse.

3. Testimonials about what our hoof boots have done.

4. Blogs that provide helpful tips and the latest updates. The Boot Camp blog is set up just for dealers, make sure you visit often for useful tips and great specials.

5. EasyCare product images and descriptions for catalogs, ads and websites that can be downloaded from the Dealer’s Corner…and more!

6. Dealer Search is now located on our home page (If you are not listed, please contact us and we will get you added ASAP)

EasyCare Continues "Fill Your Truck" Program!

EasyCare knows the vital role hoof care professionals play in natural hoof care.  We want to make it easy for you the professional, to provide the best for your clients.  As a professional, having the right products, (boots, pads and accessories) is essential when out on a call.  EasyCare is offering an exclusive program designed just for Hoof Care Professionals that immediately puts our top selling boots in you hands. Don't miss out on this fantastic program, contact Debbie Schwiebert at 800-447-8836 X 2224 or dschwiebert@easycareinc.com for more information and "Fill Your Truck" TODAY!

New Office Slang :)

404 - Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, “404 Not Found,” which means the document requested couldn’t be located. “Don’t bother asking John. He’s 404.”

Adminisphere - The rarified organizational layers above the rank and file that makes decisions that are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant.

Alpha Geek - The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. “I dunno, ask Rick. He’s our alpha geek.”

Assmosis - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Blamestorming - A group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

Body Nazis - Hard-core exercise and weight-lifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn’t work out obsessively.

Chainsaw Consultant - An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee head count, leaving the top brass with clean hands.

Chip Jewelry - Old computers destined to be scrapped or turned into decoration. “I paid three grand for that Mac and now it’s nothing but chip jewelry.”

Chips and Salsa - Chips = hardware, salsa = software. “First we gotta figure out if the problem’s in your chips or your salsa.”

CROP DUSTING - Surreptitiously farting while passing thru a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING..... (Prairie Dogging - When something loud happens in a cube farm, causing heads to pop up over the walls trying to see what’s going on).

Cube Farm - An office filled with cubicles.

Dead Tree Edition - The paper version of a publication available in both paper and electronic forms.

Need to read more?  Click here!

The Wild Horse, A Model for Trimming?

Here is a great article by Yvonne Welz of The Horse's Hoof.  Click here to read the entire article.  If you don't already have a subscription it is a great resource for you and your customers.  Make sure you are always up to date with the latest happenings in the barefoot world.

April Newsletter

EasyCare, Inc. Newsletter Dealer Newsletter April 2008 in this issue :: April Special :: Update on Granite Chief :: AERC Convention and Tradeshow :: Easyboot Epics versus Easyboot Bares :: 2008 EasyCare Interactive Catalog! :: Team Easyboot Event Calendar :: Going Barefoot Saves Blue   We are excited to announce the addition of our new "spokes-horse" to the EasyCare website! Click here to get a preview of Granite Chief on our newly redesigned home page. Look for Chief on other pages. He's been very busy learning English so that he can tell you all the great things he knows about EasyCare products! Read more about Chief in the rest of this newsletter. Everyone knows the best way to help cure your Spring fever is to do some shopping! Stock up now on your customer's hoof care needs for Spring. Be sure to check out our new interactive online EasyCare catalog. Our 2008 EasyCare Hoof Boot Contest off to a great start again this year! Click here to see the results so far. It's not too late to sign up! Be sure to check out our individual product pages as we have recently added the ability to handle customer reviews. If you have used one of our products and would like to submit a review we'd sure appreciate it!

April Special 10% off and a free Point of Purchase Dispaly! Purchase any combination of 8 Easyboots, Epics, Bares or Grips and get 10% off of your normal price* and a free Point of Purchase display! Hurry while supplies last! *Discount on 8 boot combination only. Domestic Retail Dealers only. AERC Convention and Tradeshow Live Hoofboot Demonstrations The Reno Convention Center allowed EasyCare to bring Karen Chaton's horse, Chief, inside the booth. For the second year in a row, he did a great job assisting with boot demonstrations! Chief also received recognition from AERC (American Endruance Ride Conference) for reaching 7,000 miles in the 2007 ride season. The majority of his miles have been in EasyCare hoof boots! This photo shows Chief walking around the tradeshow and visiting with the closest thing he could find to another equine. He quite enjoyed getting to shop and visit with the other vendors - especially the ones with feed samples! click here to see the EasyCare event schedule 2008 EasyCare Interactive Catalog!    NEW! Browse through an interactive version of our printed catalog, with direct links to the items in our online store! Team Easyboot Event Calendar      learn more about Team Easyboot...

Update on Granite Chief 7,000+ miles and still going! By Karen Chaton I sure do like keeping all of my endurance horses barefoot. It sure has simplified things - no more shoeing schedule to worry about! It has also been so good for their overall health and well being. I use Easyboot Epics, Bares and regular Easyboots on Chief and my other horses. I boot all four of his feet for his endurance competitions. In the last year or so I started using the dome shaped Comfort Pads and found that to be a great combination especially on the really hard packed and rocky rides. learn more...   Easyboot Epics versus Easyboot Bares Which one is for you? One question we get pretty frequently is whether or not somebody should use Epics, or Bares on their horse. learn more... Going Barefoot Saves Blue from the Customer Help Desk Blog Click below to learn more about this heartwarming story of a horse named Blue who had the most severe case of navicular that the barefoot trimmer had ever seen. Blue's owner had always wanted to try the barefoot method and decided to go for it. learn more...

Be sure to check in on our blogs. We have a new fun blog contest going right now that you can enter for your chance to win one of our new Easyboot bags! If you have any questions about our products feel free to call our friendly staff at 1-800-447-8836, e-mail: questions@easycareinc.com or visit our website at www.easycareinc. com. Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter! Please let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to make it better. Be safe on the trail, Brian Mueller EasyCare, Inc. email: admin@easycareinc.com phone: 800-447-8836 web: http://www.easycareinc.com