I found this in a farm field last Sunday.
Personally, I think it's a therapeutic horseshoe, some think it's an ox shoe or a plow horse shoe...
Please help, thanks!
Dave
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Thank you very much for your response and for the information garren!I believe its called a bar shoe...more precisely, a straight bar shoe.
I found the following on the internet for the reason they were used: "A straight-bar shoe is used in horses who need more support in the heel area due to mild lameness associated with sheared heals, low heels, quarter cracks or to protect the seat of corn."
Oxen split the hoof in pairs, so not an oxen shoe...so maybe a therapeutic horse shoe....different... nice find .
Gary
That is a little different, never thought I would say neat shoe
I answered you when you posted this same shoe before. I used to shoe horses, it's a horse shoe, called a bar shoe, it's not called therapeutic, it's called a "corrective shoe." It's used for any number of reasons, from the already mentioned heel problems, to an animal with a broken up hoof wall that can't hold enough nails to keep the shoe on. It looks to me like your find is probably for a hind foot, and from it's shape, the straight sides, makes me think it could possibly be a mule shoe.
There are lots of different styles of corrective shoes because of the many things that can go wrong with a horses foot, plus there are shoes to provide more traction, and different ways to keep shoes on the horses foot besides just nails, such as shoes fitted with toe and side clips that take the strain off the nails and help keep the shoe on the foot. A single shoe can have one correction, or it also could have a combination of corrections such as side weight, swelled heels, rocker toes, bar shoes or trailers. A horse's feet are different shapes front and back, and mule shoes are completely different shapes, while ox shoes are two halves, because cattle have cloven hoofs. There is a lot more to shoeing a horse than just nailing on a shoe. Shoes also come in sizes just like people. A foundered horse tends to have a long toe and be low in the heels, so many times and rocker toe and swelled heels helps the foot break over and the horse is able to travel easier. I you really want find out about corrective shoes and the things that can go wrong with equine foot, check out this site, and just scroll on down the page, there are tons of pictures worth thousands of words.
Farrier Services by Gary Werner
The horseshoe competition was amazing to watch! I actually went on to watch 4 more videos on making Eagle Eye Shoes, making tongs and other blacksmith tools.If you are interested in getting into this a little further, here's a video on the Champion Blacksmith Horseshoer. Each one makes a handmade shoe, draws toe and side clips, uses a fuller to make the crease, punches the nail holes, and nails the shoe on. The last one to shoe a horse comes on at about 5 minutes, 35 seconds. He's doing a hind foot, and one heel and quarter has a problem, so he builds a corrective shoe, you will note the one heel is much larger than the other to protect that part of the foot, so the hoof can grow out for the next shoeing.