✅ SOLVED Horse shoe

edlynne

Full Member
Nov 9, 2013
189
160
Central MA
Detector(s) used
Garrett ATP, Ace 250, XP deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Trying to find what type of animal would wear this shoe, along with time period. All I know is that it would be hard to get a ringer. It is about a foot tall. Thanks

horse shoe.jpg
 

Hi, I don't know &*? about horseshoes but will try a guess. Could it be a ice horseshoe for a draft horse? :icon_scratch:
 

Upvote 0
It's called a "bar" shoe on account of the bar across the heels. Bar shoes are used usually when there is a need to correct something wrong with the horses' foot, like contracted heels or the hoof wall is broken up and the shoer can only get a few good sound nails on one side. That condition usually has a clip or two drawn up the hoof wall to help hold the shoe in place also.
5.jpg
These are toe clips.
Your shoe has a "toe grab," and what are supposed to be heel caulks, pronounced, "corks." Who ever built this shoe used toe grabs for the heel corks. Those are for traction, and also to extend the life of the shoe. The way the heels of this shoe are so narrow I'd kind of expect the horse had contracted heels, which is very painful to the animal, so the bar is used to provide pressure on the frog, which will help the heels expand. They will also pack the sole of the foot with pine tar and oakum, which is held in place by a leather pad between the shoe and the foot. This would help keep the foot soft so the heels can expand. The expansion of the heels is part of the shock absorbing system built into the foot, and when a horse is running, at times all his weight is on one foot, and if there is no shock absorption, you can image how painful it is to the animal.
 

Last edited:
Upvote 0
Upvote 0
Thanks for the education in horse shoes.
 

Upvote 0
That shoe shows very little wear...

Could be a drop, or not used because it was a hard fit. (open healed shoes are usually shaped to fit a horses hoof either by spreading to narrowing the shoe).

A bar shoe with the staggered bar permits it to be opened or closed to a minor degree.

Maybe a front shoe and it's heal (shoe extended beyond hoof) that was clipped by a rear hoof, or simply sucked off by mud...

My opinion, really looks like an off-the-shelf shoe as opposed to being ferrier forged. The reason is that a ferrier would have shape-fitted the shoe first then add a straight bar.

I'd say that the shoe is early 20th century and Plus the barred shoes weren't manufactured until the mid 20's.
 

Last edited:
Upvote 0

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top