I try to get my hands on every hoof boot that has ever been
made. Many of these boots you are
probably aware of, as they are available to
the public. I also have a large
collection that is not available to the public, never made it to market or the
manufacturers have gone out of business. I
enjoy putting heavy miles on these boots made by competitors because it helps
EasyCare improve on current and future designs. What are the positive and negative features of each boot and how can we
learn from them?
I took a new hoof boot out for a test ride last night. It was interesting trying to figure out why
certain features of the boot were made the way they are. I made the following observations. “Are horses really that wide in that area?” “Traction was neutral but adequate,” “Nice break-over,” “They rubbed my horse in less than 20
minutes, how can they prevent rubbing on a long ride?” “Wow, that feature will
cause horses that travel close to interfere.” “Closure system is unique and easy.” “I doubt they will stay on in wet and muddy conditions.”
The knowledge learned from riding long and hard miles in the
other boots helps us improve our own product lines and think outside the
box. We are able to look at how other
people approach the concept. This
knowledge is never used by anyone in the EasyCare organization to put down or
criticize a competitor. For many years
EasyCare was the only hoof boot manufacturing company in the world and we were
trying to teach the horse industry about the benefits and uses of hoof boots
alone. The other hoof boot competitors
are now helping spread the word and the hoof boot concept. With the tools of the internet, chat rooms
and word of mouth the consumer is quickly able to see what works.
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