HoofPrints Newsletter
February 14, 2012 Valentine's Day Issue
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We are still cleaning (ware) house - MORE STUFF ON SALE!
| All the stuff that I was too busy to notice this fall is getting on my nerves...
|  ...and it's gotta go. If you looked at this before, please take a minute to look again - we've added dozens more products to the sale lists. Our big warehouse that we've lovingly furnished with used grocery store shelves seems to become a repository for oddball items. Samples, returns, slightly damaged items, experimental items, vendor mistakes... they collect here and there until we are nearly out of room (again) Our second purchase of used shelves (Craigs List) enabled us to line one wall and stack stuff, quite literally, to the ceiling.
My ingenious hubby fashioned a storage sling for those huge bags of packing peanuts - out of a VOLLEYBALL NET (how clever was that?) and it's suspended from the ceiling so they don't take up any floor space. Click here to see a picture of that nifty arrangement on our facebook page.
The point being, sometimes the space becomes more valuable than the items that are occupying it.
So this is where most places say... "our loss is your gain!" Well, check out this super-cheap stuff and BUY IT. And your gain will be our gain, too. Because we need that space on the shelf.
The Half Price Page is here - check this often as they're one-of-a-kind things that will sell quickly and be replaced with whatever else starts to get on my nerves.
Our Closeouts Page features items that are being phased out - still lots of good deals to be had there, too. Click here.
*Note: We will keep the sales pages updated the best that we can. Orders will be processed in order of receipt, so if you see something you're interested in, don't wait to order. Many items we have just one of. |
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Unwanted thoroughbred goes from feedlot to cushy Bermuda retirement
| All because of ONE PHOTOGRAPH that touched someone's heart...
|  "When I first looked through the photos of available horses at the Camelot Feed Lot, I didn't see him," says Esther Douglas. But when she looked a second time, a new picture had been added to the album. This time, she saw the dainty face and kind expression that compelled her to buy the feedlot horse. So on April 28, 2011, Whippany's path in life changed in an instant, veering away from the bloodstained floors of a kill chute and toward pink-sand beaches and the island country of Bermuda.
The rest of the story is here. The influential picture mentioned was taken by Sarah K. Andrew (you can see that here). And it likely saved this horse's life.
Over 100 of Sarah's lifesaving photos are featured in the Horses and Hope Calendar here. The calendar, and the effort behind it continues to be a topic of many news stories. Here's a nice article interviewing Penny Austin (of OHAAT - recipient of 100% of the calendar profits) and Lisa Post (Helping Hearts) about the Camelot Horse Weekly rescue effort; mentions Sarah K. Andrew's photos and the Horses & Hope Calendar. It's nice that they pointed out that this group has placed enough horses to account for 1% of the total that go to slaughter each year. That's just a group of volunteers in NJ doing legwork, and an army of others sharing online. Just think if there were a group like this in every state?!
If you've not ordered your Horses and Hope calendar for 2012, you can do so here.
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| HORSE WOMAN Sweatshirt | |
This chocolatey brown sweatshirt was YEARS in the making...
|  A few years ago, while shopping for nothing in particular, I happened upon some fabric that looked like tooled leather. It was expensive, but I bought a whole bolt of it - intending to use it on a shirt design that I had on the drawing board at the time. When the sample was made of that design, it looked terrible. No amount of tweaking improved it, either; much to the chagrin of my embroiderer, who endured my multiple requests to change thread colors and make new prototype sew-outs, etc.
So, sadly, I put my treasure aside. And the fabric "haunted" me - it was the upholstery in a gorgeous Sundowner horse trailer that I toured at a trade show. It's the cover of our Tooled Leather Scrapbook here. Everywhere I looked, I saw this elegant brown floral leather pattern. Still - nothing worked out design wise for the shirt and it was driving my crazy. Here I had this perfectly western, beautiful fabric - and I could NOT seem to make it into an attractive design no matter how hard I tried.
This dragged on for two YEARS! Then, we got a sample sweatshirt in - in this nice dark brown - intending to market it to men. Candy dashed to the warehouse, grabbed the forgotten fabric, and we knew we had a winner! After that, the designing was easy. It's funny how things fall into place easily when the time is right... We were able to find a company in southern Indiana that specializes in precision cutting fabric using high-pressure jets of water. As luck would have it, the customer service rep who handles my orders is also a horse woman - and she took special care to make sure our H-O-R-S-E letters were cut just right. Then the fabric letters come back here to Alexandria to be carefully stitched onto this lovely brown sweatshirt, complete with the silhouette of a woman and her cantering horse. Whew! We think it was worth the wait.
Click here to see a larger image - be sure to check out the embroidery closeup link. |
Glass Heart Keepsake Locket...
| This lovely glass heart locket is clear on both sides...
|  so you can insert two photos, a lock of hair, or any other memorabilia that you desire.
The glass is thick, and domed so it magnifies whatever is inside the locket, and it's got a slight blue-green cast that gives a wonderful antique feel. I've been wanting to get a small hoof shaving and stick in there - just to see if it would magnify the horn tubules for an interesting effect - but I haven't done it yet. Maybe that's just a little too weird anyway... As it is, I couldn't resist using a picture of my Billy (full story here)
Include your personalization info and we will include a customized paper heart that fits inside. For the horse locket (hoofprints) click here and for the dog locket (pawprints) click here.
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Recap - From the last newsletter...
| Here's what we talked about last time:
|  My stupidest dog training mistake ever - story here
Martin Kihn's Bad Dog - a short excerpt here
I'm Listening With A Broken Ear book here
Chapter from Don't Dump the Dog here
Handle Stress Like A Dog wood sign here
Doggy Memories scrapbook supplies here
All our dog stuff is here
ALL THE PAST NEWSLETTERS - see what you missed - for years! Click HERE to catch up (or reminisce). |
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More about HoofPrints - and miscellaneous ramblings from Gina
| | Check out our NEW "GOOD STUFF" links at the bottom of this section! |  ABOUT THE COMPANY AND THIS NEWSLETTER
Farriers Greeting Cards was started by Gina Keesling in 1986 (in a very small way) to provide helpful promotional materials for farrier husband Rob. This newsletter is emailed to subscribers a few times a month, depending on how often I have something to share. Watch for special sales, interesting stories, uplifting quotes and more.
"when you focus upon the problems of others, you diminish your ability to help them. People believe that you've got to focus upon the problem in order to find a solution. And we say, no solution ever comes forth - it's never inspired; you never recognize it, and you are never able to facilitate or achieve it - from your place of focusing on the problem. They are two entirely different vibrations. If you have someone who has many things going wrong and one thing going right, beat the drum of what's going right, and let that be your point of attraction. If you focus upon their problems, you achieve vibrational harmony with something other than the source that gives you solution."
-from Abraham-Hicks publications here
Thanks everyone, for reading!
Gina Keesling, owner
Contact Information
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GOOD STUFF!
| A Tribute to my Valentine... by HoofPrints owner Gina Keesling
|  My husband Rob is the catalyst that sparked the beginning of this business. He was a farrier - and as a graphic designer/artist - I was thrilled to finally have a "horsey" outlet for my creative endeavors; he was pleased to have a wife who could get a horse to stand still for farrier work (usually).
Rob is pictured here with our now "famous" Puppy-Girl; this picture was taken a few minutes after she showed up on our doorstep and he had issued yet another "no more dogs!" decree.
What seemed to have been the perfect match of interests and skills would be destined to encounter a few pitfalls along the way. Into every marriage the partners bring with them different ways of dealing with the world - usually based on on what they've observed in their parents' homes. Rob is the BIG thinker in our house. No project is too large or complicated. He plunges ahead and works out the details later. I, on the other hand, creep along at a safe snails pace, accomplishing each task gradually, testing the waters as I go. Had he not come along, I feel sure that my life would not have been long enough for me to get to where I am today - had I been allowed to proceed at my normal "speed".
It would be a lie if I claimed that this process of integrating marriage, family and business is not occasionally quite painful for both of us. But, the Bible says "As iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
And that's what we're still doing today - after over 20 years of marriage - supporting each other, challenging each other, and loving each other. Thank you, Rob, for being here for me.
This excerpt from Morrie & Arleah Schechtman's "Love in the Present Tense" says it well:
"You care most for your partner when you demand that he become the best that he can be. In relationships where mutual challenge is a value, it is not acceptable for either partner to fall into a protracted slump. Each partner holds the other accountable for living up to his best vision of himself and for continuing to grow. Challenge is a vote of confidence, a sign of respect."
Here are Five Surprising Valentine's Day Resolutions from Morrie & Arleah
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