2010 was a banner year for EasyCare hoof boots in endurance racing. Endurance rides are races over wilderness trails of 50 to 255 miles. The horse and rider team compete on varied and often challenging terrain in distances of up to 100 miles per day. The sport is arguably one of the toughest trials of an equine athlete. To win, the rider must not only strategically manage their equine, but must also maintain a fast average pace of more than ten miles per hour.
Lisa Ford and Cyclone go over Cougar Rock in the 2010 Tevis Cup. Cyclone and Lisa finished 9th in Easyboots.
Just a few of the endurance highlights in EasyCare hoof boots during 2010.
1. Over 41,191 endurance miles were completed in Easyboots in 2010 alone. This does not include conditioning miles.
2. Tevis Cup. 35 Horses started the 100 Mile Tevis Cup with Easyboots. Two horses wearing Easyboots finished the event in the top ten, six horses wearing Easyboots finished in the top twenty. The Tevis Cup is one of the toughest 100 mile endurance event in the world.
3. The Best Condition (Haggin Cup) horse at the 2010 Tevis Cup used Easyboots for the entire event.
4. Christoph Schork (the winningest endurance rider in the history of the sport) has won over 100 races in the 2009 and 2010 seasons combined.
5. Dave Rabe won the 2010 AERC National Mileage Championship in Easyboots. He and his horse completed 2,175 miles in Easyboots.
6. 6 of the 10 horse and rider teams listed in the AERC National Mileage Championship competed in Easyboots.
Yeah, so what? Endurance success has been important for EasyCare but how do these highlights translate to horse owners that have no need or desire to cover 50 or 100 miles in a day? We believe that if a horse can complete a 50 or 100 mile event in hoof boots, that hoof boots will excel in for trail and pleasure riders. These distance events have helped fine tune our protective horse boots and that we build a better boot because of that experience.
Although EasyCare will continue to test boots in endurance events, we are working on several products that are geared specifically to the pleasure and trail rider. These products will focus on ease of use, ease of application and removal, aggressive price points and a rugged design. They won’t be intended for 100 miles of use in one day but we know most of our users are happy doing weekend trail rides at a leisurely pace.
What are you looking for? How do you ride? Would you be interested in a very easy to fit and remove hoof boot with an aggressive price point?
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Garrett Ford
President & CEO
I have been President and CEO of EasyCare since 1993. My first area of focus for the company is in product development, and my goal is to design the perfect hoof boot for the barefoot horse.