"Horseshoe"

Texas Johnson

Tenderfoot
Feb 25, 2023
8
34
I found this "horseshoe" almost a year ago in Central Tennessee between Sparta and McMinnville. It was a surface find and got very lucky as I just saw the curve in the U. It doesn't look like a typical horseshoe in that its very U shaped and not rounded. Likewise, it appears very, very old. As you can see it has square nails left in it and what I call "tags" (little ends on the arms of the U) are bent over and one is more worn than the other. I tried to take and include as many pictures as necessary to give a good idea of what I see in person.

Any info on this (i.e. age, or animal (like I said it doesn't appear to to a typical horseshoe) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking.
Horseshoe 1.jpg
 

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Upvote 8
I found this "horseshoe" almost a year ago in Central Tennessee between Sparta and McMinnville. It was a surface find and got very lucky as I just saw the curve in the U. It doesn't look like a typical horseshoe in that its very U shaped and not rounded. Likewise, it appears very, very old. As you can see it has square nails left in it and what I call "tags" (little ends on the arms of the U) are bent over and one is more worn than the other. I tried to take and include as many pictures as necessary to give a good idea of what I see in person.

Any info on this (i.e. age, or animal (like I said it doesn't appear to to a typical horseshoe) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking. View attachment 2090964
Probably early 20th century if I had to guess. The nails dont mean much, farriors all still use the same basic type of nail theyve always used.
 

I found this "horseshoe" almost a year ago in Central Tennessee between Sparta and McMinnville. It was a surface find and got very lucky as I just saw the curve in the U. It doesn't look like a typical horseshoe in that its very U shaped and not rounded. Likewise, it appears very, very old. As you can see it has square nails left in it and what I call "tags" (little ends on the arms of the U) are bent over and one is more worn than the other. I tried to take and include as many pictures as necessary to give a good idea of what I see in person.

Any info on this (i.e. age, or animal (like I said it doesn't appear to to a typical horseshoe) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking. View attachment 2090964
Nice!!! Congrats!!!
 

It's a mule shoe. The bent over tips of the nails are the clinches where the tip of the nail exited the hoof wall. The nails are shaped so that as they are driven in the hoof, they exit the exterior of the hoof and the tips are bent down to keep the shoe on.
Awesome! Thank you all for your feedback.
 

Some of the horse shoe nails look older then some of the others Maybe if you could carefully work some out and re take a picture of them ? usually the clip on the heel is for work type horses





 

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