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HoofPrints Newsletter
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July 22, 2015
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ABOUT THE COMPANY AND THIS NEWSLETTERFarriers Greeting Cards was started by Gina Keesling in 1986 (in a very small way) to provide helpful promotional materials for farrier husband Rob. Along the way the company became HoofPrints.com, too, adding a selection of fun horse and dog products geared toward women of a certain age. 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.
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MORE NEW PRODUCTS!
 The What Horses Teach Us Horse Day Planner
was new last year and is one you never saw promoted. This sweet little inspirational planner made it's debut in the flyer HoofPrints mailed last fall. It was brand new and I was conservative in my sales projections. That's usually not a bad strategy - UNLESS the supplier RUNS OUT of product. Which is what happened. I never got a chance to rave about how cool they were - because they were all gone! This year, I am planning ahead and have plenty of the 2016 version on hand NOW for immediate shipment. There is much we can learn from horses by watching, riding and caring for them. The horses in this 12-month planner teach us valuable lessons in weekly words and dazzling full-color photographs about what is important in our own lives to cherish, defend and adore. The week-by-week format includes to do lists with extra planning pages in the back to help organize your busy life. 106 pages, 6.5" x 8.5", printed on high quality, sturdy paper. Includes moon phases, U.S. and International holidays. To order, click here.  Also available now is the 2016 Horse Women Wall Calendar
This beautiful, large size glossy calendar features 12 different photos of a woman and her horse, paired with an inspirational quote. Each month shows a different facet of the relationship between women and their various horse breeds. Western riding, English riding, ground work, just hanging out - and more. The photos are a big 12" x 12", and are so striking that you could frame them up after the year is over, or use as background images in a scrapbook. Think you don't need a 2016 calendar NOW? Sure you do! The folks that designed this one thought of everything... the first spread in this 2016 calendar features a collage of lovely images, AND July though December of 2015 - so you can start using it right away!
To order, click here
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Well, this is unusual, for sure
This genuine Italian coin features Vulcan
The Roman god of metalworking and the forge. According to Wikipedia, Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer, as he is here on this coin.
The Italian 50 Lire coin is slightly larger than a US Quarter; features the blacksmith Vulcan hammering at the anvil without the protection of his apron (or anything else for that matter). These are circulated coins, (may have minor imperfections) issued in Italy 1954 - 1980's. Coin is made of Stainless Steel, surrounding bezel is Sterling Silver. Braided Leather Necklace cord is Made in USA; available in brown or black. To order click here
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IT'S BACK!!!
Hollywood Hoofbeats
is one of my all-time favorite reference books. Here at our house, we are not huge movie watchers, but westerns are a favorite - and there are always questions about the horses. This book answers them all - and more!
HoofPrints carried the hard cover version of Hollywood Hoofbeats for years, and it was a perennial best-seller. In fact, I carried it until the publisher sold out. When they didn't reprint, I was ANGRY! What I dumb move, I thought, to have such an iconic title, of such interest and usefulness to horse lovers - and not reprint it when it ran out. Dumb-dumb-dumb (I thought)
Turns out, I was the dumb one.
I never considered the idea that author Petrine Day Mitchum (watch an interview with her here) was back at work with cohort Audrey Pavia - UPDATING THIS BOOK to include all the NEW movies that have come out since Hollywood Hoofbeats was first published in 2005!
 And they left nothing out! Now, you can read the stories behind the equine actors in recent films: Lone Ranger, War Horse, True Grit, and more. There's an updated section about the Mustang Cloud, and even a story about how real horses were used to create the horse-like creatures in Avatar. The original content has been augmented and updated. I haven't had time to compare the two books page by page, but it appears to me that lots of pictures have been ADDED. They tightened up the margins around the type a little to fit it all in, and added several pages to accommodate the new content. The only downside that I can see is that it's now softcover, but that is reflected in the much-lower price ($24.95) - that's $15.00 less than the first edition!
To order, click here
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Finally - some NEW products!
Coming up with new things is HARD.
I get a lot of wonderful feedback from folks, praising the unique variety of items that HoofPrints has available for horse lovers and equine professionals. This is a fairly fun process - wandering around the internet, and in stores and catalogs, looking for ideas for cool stuff you all might like to buy. Or getting ideas for things I could make or have made.
But the reality is, it's also HARD. If I didn't care about the PRICE, I'd have 10x the stuff for sale in my little online store. However, my warehouse would be packed to the gills with product just sitting - because no one could afford to buy it. That is the case a LOT with the really nice garments - the price to me is too high for me to be able to add horsey decoration and not have it cost a fortune to the customer.
A second facet is QUALITY. With digital cameras and editing capabilities being what they are these days, it's pretty easy to make any old thing look really good in a picture on the internet. But I never, ever want anyone to be disappointed with an item once they receive it. And that extends to after they USE it, too. All my garments are wash-tested, jewelry is worn for comfort testing, etc. Products are USED to make sure they perform as expected.
Finally, there's AVAILABILITY. It's really dumb to go through the first two steps to procure a great product, only to discover that the supply has run out and there are no more to be had. These days, with everybody tightening their metaphorical belts, manufacturers are doing the same - they are producing products conservatively. If an item is a huge hit for Christmas gift sales and sells out, they often consider that a success - and do NOT replenish their stock to fill additional orders.
Shown above are a dozen of my latest. greatest finds. Most are in stock now for immediate shipment. The rest are on the way and can ship very soon. I am still in the process of writing the descriptions and adding size charts on the garments, so stay tuned. You can check back to see what new items have been added by clicking here.
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 ***ALL NEW***
Deluxe Assortments of Super High Quality Gift Wrap for Horse Lovers - 3 different styles to choose from!
These awesome gift wrap collections were designed by a lifelong horse owner, whose career happened to be in packaging design - so all the details are just right! Each assortment includes 8 pieces; everything you need to wrap up a hoard of gifts in horsey style.
There's a rich plaid with embossed foil horseshoe - Gold foil harlequin pattern with classic engraved horses- and rich tooled leather that looks and feels so real you can hardly believe it's paper and not genuine leather! Regular price on each of these assortments is over $30 - and they're ON SALE for just $19.95 here |
NEW! Cowgirls of the American West Note Cards
These blank note cards from are a big 5.5" x 7.25" and are printed on heavy, glossy paper. The insides are printed in color with western motifs, and the back of each card tells more about the work on the front and the artist who painted it. You also get 22 parchment textured envelopes that match the cards. These all come gift boxed in a lovely package that you'll probably want to keep once the cards are all used! See these and our other all-occasion cards here
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The Dollar Sale continues, but this time I've added a stash of ONE OF A KIND ITEMS! I know I just sent a newsletter a few days ago. Please bear with me as I have a bit of a clutter conniption. I promise I won't make a habit of it...
This week, at a time when most normal people were gearing up for a fun holiday weekend, for some reason I was spazzing over all the clutter in the warehouse. In a fit of relative craziness, I've marked some pretty good stuff down to $1.00 or less. A lot of it sold already, but I replaced with more! There are now about a dozen ONE OF A KIND things on the Half Price Page that are insanely good deals at half price or below. Some are discontinued so not to be had anywhere else at any price! To see them click 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. I am currently going through a large stash of samples* - so many wonderful things, it's hard to choose just a handful for the catalog. And the rest have got to go! Only one of each available so act fast if you see something you like.
*A note about the samples - Someone made a comment on the HoofPrints Facebook page that the samples are free to me and implied should thus be priced accordingly. Just to set the record straight - I pay for almost every sample I acquire. Occasionally an author or publisher will send me a book unsolicited, but I prefer to buy these anonymously so if I review and don't think it is a good fit for the product line, I don't feel guilty about not including it.
Half Price PRINTS are here - there are a lot of lovely prints languishing in drawers here that really should be hanging on folks' walls making them smile and beautifying their homes. Fall/winter is busy season here and I don't encourage print sales then - I don't have the extra time it takes to wrap these carefully for safe delivery. Now that Christmas is past, I've marked them way down now to sweeten the deal.
Half Price JEWELRY is here
The more I got to digging, the more I found. Jewelry doesn't take up much room - suffice to say there is a LOT of lovely stuff that needs to find a new home. Then there's that whole problem I have with the beads. It's getting worse. Stay tuned for details on that.
Half Price Books & Magazine Back Issues are here
This represents a major turning point for HoofPrints owner Gina Keesling. This treasure trove of magazine back issues has been lovingly collected and hoarded for many, many years. It's getting to be a space problem, keeping them all stored AND due to the sheer volume of them, along with my busy schedule, they rarely get any attention. But even now, as I go through them to write sales descriptions, I am feeling sad at the prospect of letting go of this vast collection of pictures and articles about all the things I love - Horses, Dogs, Farriery and Blacksmithing, The West, Pretty Western Clothes and Jewelry, Awesome Country Homes, Recipes for Hearty Food, Healthy Living, Spirituality and more. I'll do my best to mention the content that stands out to me in the descriptions. Prices on these back issues reflect the fact that I am still very much in love with them, however they are at or below what the publishers are charging. The current sales list is small, but I'll be adding more as I am able; going through these is a slow process, as you can imagine, I get sidetracked frequently by all the fascinating content that lead me to hoard these in the first place.
The Closeouts Page is here
It features items that are being phased out - still lots of good deals to be had there, too.
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Here's what we talked about last time
Last newsletter is here ALL newsletters are here
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GINA'S BLOG
Fun on the Farm
read the latest happenings in the Keesling household, involving construction, destruction, remodeling adventures and general wreckage here
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NEW! Tuff Chix CHORE GLOVES
great for grooming, building fence, baling hay and other farm chores, gardening, and even riding! To order, click here
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HoofPrints
BARN BLADE
Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly
Order here
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MANURE MOVERS
OF AMERICA - sweatshirt and sign available here |
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I Make Horse Calls Books
"I was so grateful for the care the gentle senior student took with Pischka that day. ... I will not forget the thoroughness of that student, and would emulate her when I entered practice. I would never dismiss an owner's complaint, because I remember how I felt when vets dismissed Pischka's illness, never trying to find out what made Pischka so sick." -from Horse Calls, available here
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DON'T do it yourself
FARRIER COASTERS
No farriers were harmed in the making of these coasters. To order click here
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Don't Look Back
That's Not Where You're Going - Inspirational Necklace only $14.95 here
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Horse Lovers Bible
Leather bound Bible is gift boxed - it's the bestselling NIV version with additional 12 pages of horse photos accompanied by inspirational thoughts and scripture verses.
Bible Pocket Partners
31 days of meaningful devotional pages - perfect for cowboys and cowgirls of all ages! HoofPrints Christian products are here
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MADE IN USA:
A CRAPPY MUG!
Same sh*t different day
mug here
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DON'T do it yourself
FARRIER COASTERS
No farriers were harmed in the making of these coasters. To order click here
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The Natural Superiority of Mules
Brand new updated second edition covers everything you ever wanted to know about mules. Order here
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The Doctor is In Horse Thermometer
Measures a big 17" tall and under $15.00! Order here
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This Hug's For You
Equine Sympathy Cards here
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Horsewoman's
HAIR CONTROL IDEAS
Sunny yellow embroidered HORSES LEAVE HOOFPRINTS ON YOUR HEART Cap here
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SUMMER HORSEY Ts
3 Summery Horsey T-shirts less than $15 each here!
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MADE IN USA
Secret Box
Nifty little wood box has a lid that fits so neatly that it's virtually invisible when closed. A real deal at only $19.95 here
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Farriers Traveling Desk
Corral your paperwork on the road! And it's HALF the cost of the previous version here
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Look Professional
On The Job
Sturdy cotton golf shirts look and feel great! See our complete selection here
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Message
I love hearing from customers. You can contact HoofPrints owner Gina Keesling via email at gina@hoofprints.com |
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Share our emails
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Viral marketing... it sounds bad, doesn't it?
You can ask my husband - a frequent topic around here is that of forwarded emails - and the psychology behind them - just WHAT prompts people to decide; "I am going to send this to everyone I know!".
We receive a lot of them. Some are pretty good, and others are dumb. Dumb in a myriad of ways... Alarmist email rumors that have been around forever - that folks keep sending "just in case it's true" Pictures of someone's butt (or worse) - don't even get me started about the firecracker butt - but at least that one was timely when it showed up around July 4. Christian messages that are uplifting - until you get to the end and you're threatened "if you're not ashamed that you love Jesus, forward this - if you are, then delete." Pictures of cute puppies and kittens (awww)
I enjoy writing these newsletters - and sharing all this stuff with you all. But the fact is, it's also a way to help us stay connected with customers and sell products during the time between catalog mailings (which is only once a year) So I really, really like it when someone new stumbles upon the newsletter and is excited to "discover" our company and the products we offer.
In all my efforts to make the newsletter interesting and forward-worthy - it never occurred to me to JUST ASK you all to send it! Duh. Sometimes the obvious is elusive, I guess. So here goes - my request to ask you to forward our email newsletter to your horsey friends. All we ask is that you please be judicious and only send to folks who might be interested. Otherwise we are no better than the "firecracker butt". Click to get started. (please note - using this form does NOT subscribe anyone to our list - it is a one-time only forward)
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"While you're here, would you mind trimming my new BLM Mustang?"
