Shoe artist makes custom trainers and Crocs – for horses!
By Samuel Wightwick
A shoe artist who makes custom trainers for celebrities and sports people is now making trainers and crocs - for horses.
Marcus Floyd, 41, originally started doing custom jobs on trainers for people as a hobby alongside his full time job.
He soon got better and as his work improved, the interest from people soon grew.
He started his business "Infinite Kustomz" and began making custom trainers for professional singers, actors and even NFL players.
Marcus wanted to take his skills to the next level and flew to California in 2021 to attend the shoe surgeon academy, where he learned how to make shoes from scratch.
The following year, he was contacted by an advertising agency who wanted him to make a pair of trainers but this time for a horse!
Marcus, from Lexington, Kentucky, USA, said: "This ad agency was hired by a tourist agency called Visit Lex.
"They wanted to bring attention to The Breeders Cup, which is a race series for thoroughbred horses that was being held in Lexington that year.
"The ad campaign went great and Horse Kicks was born!"
The business has gone from strength to strength since and has even won an industry advertising award.
Originally, Marcus charged $1,200 per shoe due to the upcycling costs of turning old horse boots into top designer shoes.
However, he has now managed to get the cost down to around $1,000 a pair.
Marcus, who works in the Maintenance department at Toyota, said: "They're very popular and everyone who has bought them from me has said their horses love them
"I may be the only person in the world doing this so I am really focusing on this side of my business for 2024."
Some people on social media have questioned whether letting horses wear these trainers is safe.
But Marcus explains that horse boots have always existed, he is just changing the aesthetic.
He said: "Horse boots have existed long before me that is what people don't understand.
"What I do is take the boot and upscale that and create something that looks like a premium designer sneaker.
"I've done about 10 designs so far, if you include the four that I did for the campaign when I started.
"I want to bring a real sneakerhead feel to the equine world."
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Woman teaches pup Harry Potter spells – including ‘Avada Kedavra’ to play dead
By Jake Meeus-Jones
A dog mom has trained her pup to react to over 15 Harry Potter spells - including Accio to recall him and Avada Kedavra for playing dead.
Harry Potter superfan Audriana Li, 33, has spent the last three years putting her Labradoodle cross, Dobby, through his OWL exams to become the ultimate wizarding companion.
Audriana quickly figured a lot of the spells could be linked with commands and tricks and decided to incorporate them into Dobby's training.
The excitable pup now knows 16 spells - from Stupefy (down), Immobulus (stay), Accio (come) to go to Azkaban (crate), Ascendio (jump up), and Expelliarmus (drop it).
The unique commands are often the topic of conversation when Audriana takes Dobby for walks - with fellow dog walkers in disbelief Audriana can "Accio her dog."
Audriana, a strategy director from Toronto, Canada, said: "Harry Potter has always been a big part of my life.
"Being just such a big Harry Potter fan I wanted to incorporate it into dog training.
"The spells just occurred to me that they match the commands and I thought I could be creative and match some other spells to other commands.
"It's no different to training a dog with regular commands really.
"Dobby is very food motivated and we treat him with kibble.
"So for example Stupefy is the word for down so we teach him the action and then the command on top of that.
"It was really fun to see when he was picking them up.
"When I yell 'Accio Dobby' at the park I get some strange looks but we always get people coming up to us and speaking about Harry Potter.
"It's really fun and I think it's nice that we have unique words for it."
As well as the commands, Audriana has taught Dobby some tricks using spells too.
From Avada Kedavra (play dead) and Confundus (spin) to Wingardium Leviosa (stand up on back legs) and Aguamenti (drink water).
She said: "At work, my colleagues love watching when I Avada Kedavra my dog - not a sentence I ever thought would be coming out of my mouth!
"I guess we're like this witch and wizard duo.
"He's the wizard dog as he responds to spells but I guess if I'm casting the spell doesn't that make me the witch?
"I guess we have a little bit of magic blood in both of us!"
Her favorite trick she's taught him is the Avada Kedavra spell because of how excited Dobby gets at playing dead.
She added: "Just because people laugh at the fact I'm using the killing curse on my dog.
"Somewhere along the line he got used to sticking his legs out and looking at you and questioning if he's doing it right but then his tail continuing wagging as if he's excited to be 'dead', so it's a very funny visual.
"My other one is 'go to Azkaban' which is his cage and not technically a spell but it's so funny we can send him to 'prison' and he's so happy to do it!"
But Dobby hasn't quite passed all his OWL exams yet, as Audriana hopes to teach him a few more spells.
She said: "I want to try Lumos and Nox for the lights where he could maybe press the button on the floor for lamps.
"I'm trying to teach Flipendo for 'roll over' but that's not a trick we do very often and I feel like it might hurt his spine to roll over quite a bit so I'm thinking of trying that one again in the basement where we have a carpet.
"The last one we want to do is Obliviate which is where he goes shy and puts a paw over his eye."
Audriana's full list of spells/commands:
Stupefy (down)
Immobulus (stay)
Accio (come)
Go to Azkaban (crate)
Ascendio (jump up)
Descendo (jump down)
Expelliarmus (drop it)
Avada Kedavra (play dead)
Confundus (spin)
Wingardium Leviosa (stand up on back legs)
Aguamenti (drink water)
Relashio (walk backwards)
Protego (tuck)
Duro (head down on ground)
Glisseo (jump over)
Petrificus Totalus (sit pretty)
Catch the snitch (catching a ball)
www.instagram.com/dobbyisafreedoodle
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