Now Your Hands Can be as Smooth as a Horse's Hoof

(ARA) - OK, you may be asking yourself, is that a good thing? Actually, it is. Horses hooves are extremely strong, but can easily become brittle. And if a horse's hoof starts to crack and split, it's a serious problem. The same is true of your hands and nails. Think of what they're exposed to on a daily basis -- doing dishes, making household repairs and using your nails as staple pullers.

That's where Hoofmaker - Hand & Nail Therapy comes in. Hoofmaker started out as a therapeutic lotion that was originally formulated for horses' hooves. Owners and groomers noticed how great their own hands and nails looked after applying the cream to their horses.

"Once people try it, they go out of their way to find it," says Devon Katzev, president of Straight Arrow Products, the company that manufactures Hoofmaker. "Before long, we were selling the product to people to condition their own skin and strengthen their own nails."

Thomas Richardson, of British Columbia, Canada, is one of these devoted customers who discovered the product by accident a few years ago. "I saw it on the shelf, and the name caught my imagination," he says. But it was the results from using Hoofmaker that impressed him. "A lot of stuff, you don't know what's in it." Having worked as a clinician for 40 years, Richardson is keenly aware of what goes into the products he uses.

Richardson said, "I've used other lotions, none of them work nearly as well." He now strongly recommends Hoofmaker to his friends and family, and even uses it on his dogs and cats to keep the pads on their feet supple and healthy.

"Our water-based formula is non-greasy, and absorbs quickly into the skin, restoring vital nutrients," says Katzev. It moisturizes dry and cracked skin and protects against nail damage for strong, flexible nails. And at about $3.49 a tube, you don't have to pay a fortune for smooth skin and strong nails.

Theresa Presswood and her colleagues at the University of Houston - Clear Lake proved that in an admittedly "very unscientific study." After one of her co-workers told Presswood that she had just spent over $20 on a tube of fancy hand cream, Presswood says her reaction was "You did what? I'm more the pragmatic type," she says. "I just can't see spending that much money on hand cream."

Presswood and her co-worker decided to have a "hand cream challenge." Over the course of a week, they invited colleagues to be blindfolded and have three different creams applied to their hands -- the expensive French brand, Hoofmaker, and another brand easily available at drug stores. Out of a group of 15 participants, Presswood reports that Hoofmaker won the majority of votes, with eight people choosing it as their favorite. The drugstore brand got five votes. The expensive hand cream garnered only two votes.

While many Hoofmaker customers buy the 32-ounce barn size tub, the company has just introduced a new, soft, easy-to-use 6-ounce flip top tube, perfect for use at home, in the office, or to stash in your purse or glove compartment.

"Straight Arrow Products is a family-owned company that's been around since 1970," notes Katzev. "All Straight Arrow products are designed to stand the test of our family tradition of quality and 100 percent customer satisfaction."

You can find Hoofmaker at most food, drug and mass retailers, as well as beauty supply, ag and tack stores. Visit www.straightarrowinc.com or call (800) 827-9815 for more information.

Courtesy of ARA Content