EasyCare Graphics Department

If you're committed to keeping your horse barefoot and using Easyboots, and you're serious about completing the most prestigious endurance race in the world, then you should really check this out: EasyCare will pay your entry fee for The Tevis Cup! All you have to do is finish the race using four Easyboots on a barefoot horse.  There are some important details and rules for this program, so please stay tuned over the coming weeks for more information.

This week's duties included creating graphics for the Ride Tevis for Free program.

I was coming up with ideas and thought, why not use the coveted Tevis Buckle itself? It symbolizes the strength, determination and grit that all horse and rider teams that finish the race posses. I attended Tevis last year as a photographer and crew member for the EasyCare team, and saw first hand how hard the race is and what an incredible accomplishment it is to finish.

Garrett Ford, EasyCare's President and CEO, finished Tevis last year, so I was able to take a high resolution photo of one of his buckles. I knew I didn't want to just use a straight photograph, though. I wanted to stylize it and make it more of an artistic image that would fit with other graphics.

Original photo:



So, after some touching up of the original photo, some processing in Adobe Illustrator and a few other tricks I had up my sleeve, I came up with the two images below: a color version and a black & white version. We'll be using it in our full page ad in an upcoming issue of Endurance News magazine, so be sure to get a copy!

This week I'm featuring a photo that's actually a combination of two photos. Sometimes we need a specific type of image of our natural hoof care products that we just don't have on file. This week we needed a great image that showed the Original Easyboot in action, but we really wanted to have the stunning scenery from the Red Mountain photos that we've taken in the past.

The problem was that we had never featured the Original Easyboot in any of our Red Mountain photo shoots. So, I had my work cut out for me. Luckily we did have an excellent photo of the Easyboot on file, and plenty of photos of the stunning Red Mountain scenery high above Silverton, CO. So I took these two photos:

 























Using a Photoshop technique called masking, I created the composition below that has the best of both worlds: a crisp closeup of the Original Easyboot in action with the awesome Red Mountain wilderness in the background.

In this week's photo our very own Debbie Schwiebert enjoys a perfect summer afternoon after a morning of riding in the high country of Colorado. Her horse is comfortably secured to the trailer using the HiTie™ Trailer Tie System, and its hooves are in excellent condition thanks to the barefoot lifestyle and Easyboots. Debbie is putting her feet up on the Stowaway Deluxe Full Bale Bag, which conveniently stows a bale for travel.

All in all, it was good day!

For this week I chose a photo of the hoof boot that started it all: the Original Easyboot. While the new Easyboot Glove and Glue-On boots represent the cutting edge in hoof boot development, the original Easyboot remains a popular choice for riders of all disciplines.

The incredible success we're seeing with natural hoof care and hoof boots today owes a lot to this product. Our success also owes a lot to the people behind it: its inventor, Dr. Neel Glass, and EasyCare President and CEO Garrett Ford for taking up where Dr. Glass left off and continually pushing hoof boot technology to new levels.

This week's photo was taken last summer in the amazing aspens of Durango, CO. We were doing another photo shoot with Patitucci Photo, the photography team responsible for most of the amazing photos EasyCare has featured in our catalog (PDF), website and product brochures over the years.

The rider in the photo is Debbie Schwiebert, our Vet and Hoof Care Practitioner Dealer Accounts Manager here at EasyCare. Debbie has been around horses all her life, and her extensive knowledge of hoof care and the Easyboot product line keeps veterinarians and hoof care practitioners up to date with the latest knowledge about our products. That way they can help our customers have the best experience possible with our hoof boots.

This week's photo shows the very popular Easyboot Glove moving on down the trail. Introduced in 2009 the Glove has quickly become our most popular horse boot. Its simplicity, light weight and ease of application make it a no brainer for new hoof boot users and seasoned pros alike. It is a truly unique product that is revolutionizing the natural hoofcare movement.

This photo was taken on a desert trail not far from the EasyCare office in Tucson, AZ. The trails here are very rocky and provide a great testing ground for our hoof boots. Shown here is the Easyboot Glove, performing flawlessly on some very challenging terrain.

This week's photo is all about the scenery. One of the greatest joys of riding is getting out in the wide open spaces, enjoying the fresh air and simply getting away from the constant buzz of activity in our daily lives for a little while.



Knowing the horse you're riding is happy, healthy, and enjoying the ride along with you makes the ride that much more satisfying. Natural hoof care, going barefoot, and using hoof boots for protection when needed are great steps toward a healthier, happier horse.

EasyCare is here to help you with an impressive line of horse boots, hoof pads, and natural hoof care products, plus a great website where you can learn all about it all.

This week's photo shows the Easyboot Glue-On doing what it does best: provide durable, dependable hoof protection that is extremely lightweight and free of any hardware.

It was taken at the Moab Canyons Pioneer ride in October 2009, where horses in Easyboots dominated the field on all three days. The horses pictured below went on to finish 1st and 2nd that day, and Garrett's horse GE Cyclone won best condition wearing Easyboot Gloves.



Even in this close up photo, it's hard to tell these horses have hoof boots on at all! The Easyboot Glue-On horse boot has quickly become the top choice of endurance riders interested in natural hoof care. It is sleek, lightweight, and provides excellent protection for the barefoot hoof. You just can't argue with these real word horse boot results!

This week's photo is a little taste of summer for anyone who's feeling a little stir crazy from too much cold weather. It was taken in the high alpine meadows of Durango, CO, and shows two happy horses munching on some sweet grass while their humans take a break to admire the amazing view.

Though it's hard to make out in the tall grass, both horses are sporting Easyboot Epic horse boots, which is one of EasyCare's most popular hoof boots. The Epic has been around for several years, and continues to be a favorite among riders of all disciplines. Check out The Easyboot Epic video section to learn more.

You've been hearing a lot lately about the HiTie™ Trailer Tie System coming back to EasyCare, and with good reason. It is simply the best trailer tie system on the market today, providing a simple, safe, and effective method for tying your horse to your trailer.

We've created a brand new HiTie area on the EasyCare website, where you can check out how it works with photos, videos and find answers to frequently asked questions.

Along with our proven line of Easyboots, EasyCare offers you great choices in horse care products like Comfort Pads, the HiTie, the Hoof Jack, and our Stowaway Packs.

This week's photo shows the versatile and durable Easyboot Edge hoof boot from EasyCare making easy work of a water crossing. The Easyboot Edge is an excellent all-purpose boot that was introduced in 2009. It can handle anything you throw at it on the trail, from rocks to mud to water.

This week's photo is a nice shot of a horse looking off into the distance from an interesting camera angle. It was taken at the Moab Canyons endurance ride in October, 2009. This horse was waiting patiently to have some Easyboot Glue-On horse boots fitted to its hooves for the next day's race. Not pictured is the HiTie Trailer Tie System that the horse is secured to. Having two HiTies on the trailer where we were fitting boots made it easy keep the horses secure and calm.

With the new year came the 2010 catalog, but it was also time to update our boot lineup brochure. We introduced four new horse hoof boots last year: the Easyboot Glove, Easyboot Glue-On, Easyboot Edge, and Easyboot Rx.

At the time we wanted to emphasize our new boots, so we created a separate brochure just for them. But the time came to incorporate the new boots in with the rest of our impressive line of hoof protecting boots, so we printed an all new 2010 EasyCare Boot Lineup Brochure that has it all.




Note: While we try our best to ensure all information on our brochures, catalog, packaging and website is accurate, occasionally something slips by. On the printed version of 2010 EasyCare Boot Lineup brochure there is an error on the Easyboot Edge size chart. It lists sizes #00 - #7, but we currently offer the Easyboot Edge in sizes #0 - #3 only. The error has been corrected on the web version that is available for download. We hope you will accept our apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

This week's photo comes from a trail in Durango, Colorado. It's the Easyboot Glove showing what it does best: protecting the barefoot hoof while providing great traction and ease of application and removal. There's never been a better time to check out barefoot trimming, natural hoof care, and EasyCare Hoof Boots!

This week's photo was taken at the Moab Canyons endurance ride in late October 2009.

We traveled to Moab so that Garrett could ride and compete for another best condition award for his horse Cyclone, who wears Easyboot Glove hoof boots. Cyclone got the Best Condition award on Day 1, recording a very impressive total of 9 BC's in 2009 alone! This was another great example of the success of horse hoof boots in endurance rides in 2009.

It was very cold and cloudy when we arrived, with gusty winds and a dusting of snow. The temperature was in the twenties and dropping as the sun went down, but that didn't stop Garrett from helping other riders fit and apply EasyCare Boots to their horses' barefoot hooves in preparation for the race the next day. In this photo he is applying one last set of Easyboot Gloves before turning in for the night.

This week's photo pays tribute to all of you who tough it out and ride your horse in the winter time. The cold presents some challenges, especially for a horse and rider, but it is also a beautiful time to ride.

With the proper preparation and gear, including warm clothes and Easyboot Grips for pretecting the barefoot hoof and providing traction in snow, mud and ice, winter riding can be a lot of fun!

If you've seen our catalog (PDF) and website, you know we've gotten some really nice photos of horses and hoof boots in beautiful locations over the years. We've had the pleasure of working with Patitucci Photo in the past, and they take fantastic photos. Over the last year, I've gotten the opportunity to take some of our photos as well.

This week's photo was taken in Durango in October, 2009. I went up to get some shots of our HiTie system for the catalog, and also to get some new action photos of the Easyboot Glove with the new Power Strap.

This one doesn't show either of those things, though. It's just a nice lifestyle shot showing the companionship between horse and rider, along with some beautiful fall colors.

This is always a busy time if year for all of us at EasyCare. We're working hard to get everything done before our holiday break, and thinking ahead to the new year. For me it's always a fun and especially busy time because I am finishing up the catalog design for next year.

This year was no exception, and I'm glad to say that the 2010 EasyCare catalog design is finished and is now off to the printer. While we didn't make as many big products changes to it as we did for 2009, we do have some excting new things for you. We're reintroducing the HiTie trailer tie system, there's a brand new gaiter for the Easyboot Glove, and we did a spread dedicated to the great success EasyCare hoof boots saw in 2009 endurance race events.

We know a lot of you enjoy the great photos we use in our catalog, and we made sure to change almost every one so you'll have some good photos to look forward to. What will the cover of the 2010 Catalog look like? Guess you'll have to wait and see...

Happy Holidays from EasyCare!

Hello, my name is Gabe, and I'm the graphic designer here at EasyCare. I handle all of our visual marketing materials, including our website, catalog, brochures and packaging for our products. I'm also a photographer, so I take a lot of the photos we use as well.

Before starting at EasyCare in March of 2008, I had never heard of hoof boots and had not spent much time around horses. I was looking to continue growing my career as a graphic artist, and EasyCare seemed like a great place to work. After almost 2 years, I can say that EasyCare is the best job I've had. Thanks to Garrett Ford and EasyCare, I've had some amazing opportunities to really evolve as a designer and photographer, and have been lucky enough to travel to some beautiful places to take photos for our catalog and website. The work environment has always been positive and upbeat, and we have some great people on our team.

One of the most interesting parts of the job has been learning about horses, their hooves and natural hoof care. I've gotten to know our products inside and out, I've been to endurance races, heard people's stories and learned a lot about the anatomy of the horse's hoof. After seeing all of this I can honestly say that I am 100% convinced that horses are much happier and healthier with barefoot hooves, that hoof boots are the way of the future. It feels great to work for a company whose products I believe in.

Stay tuned, because the natural hoof care movement is growing fast, and EasyCare is at the forefront!