History of the Horseshoe Part 2

By Laci Jones

With the saying, “Don’t reinvent the wheel,” Lee Liles, owner of the National Museum of Horse Shoeing Tools and Hall of Honor said the same could be said about the horseshoe.

“Nothing is really new in a horseshoe,” he explained. “It just seems to be a revolving circle.”

While the horseshoe has not changed, Liles said the title of the horseshoe specialist has. At some point over time, the horseshoer took on the name “farrier,” he added.

Certification

Horseshoers in the late 19^th century needed to have a certificate issued by the Master Horseshoers National Protective Association. Liles said the association was like a union. If someone was caught without being a licensed member, they could be fined $400.

The color of the certificates wa­­­­­s different each year, making the certificates easy to identify when entering the blacksmith’s shop.

Other countries like Canada and Germany also required certification. Horseshoers in London in 1909 needed to carry a certificate with them at all times. The certificate was signed by the queen, Liles explained.

Mid-Century Trends

In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, all horses had heel caulks on their horseshoes.

“I can remember back in the 1960s we had a shoe we called ‘The Cowboy Shoe,’” he added. The Cowboy Shoe was beveled out on the inside to help shed dirt. Liles said a good cow pony on rough terrain requires a tougher shoe.

“If it weren’t for a horseshoer moving up [in rough country] there would never have been good cattle country,” he said. “He kept the horses sound from being on the rocks.”

He remembered when owners could get away with just trimming their ranch horses in the 1960s. “Getting into the 1970s, you had to put shoes on ranch horses,” Liles added. “Their feet weren’t as strong because the breeding changed their feet a lot.”

The Horse

“The life of a horseshoer is very short,” Liles explained, “especially this day and time more so than the old days.”

To give a time-life-history of the horse, 24 million horses were in the United States in 1915. By 1950, they were down to two million. Farmers began working with tractors and the workhorse phased out, he added. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, horses became luxury items, Liles explained. Owners used horses more on ranches and started horse shows and events.

“In 1965, there was a shortage of horseshoers because most were cavalry horseshoers or taught by somebody who was in the cavalry,” he added. Those horseshoers retired by the 1960s, and there was a need for horseshoeing schools.

Z-Bar Shoe

“Our shoe industry has changed dramatically since 1979,” Liles explained. “We’ve got so may good horseshoes on the market today that you hardly need a forge to heat them up to shape them.”

Liles said the industry now has front and rears in the patterns, which has changed horseshoeing. The Z-Bar shoe may have been patented in 1900 in New Orleans, but the shoe has become more popular in recent years. “It’s popular in our horseshoeing contests,” Liles explained.

The Z-Bar shoe is used on horses that have a bad quarter crack, he added. The shoe relieves the pressure and lets the swelling go down, and the bar distributes the weight in the foot. This is the only patent I ever seen south of the Mason-Dixon Line,” he added.

Current Trends

“Just in the last few years, we’re seeing horseshoes with multiple nail holes,” Liles added. “That is more than we’ve ever had.”

For 200 years in the United States, horseshoes have always had eight nail holes in the shoe. Now, 10 to 16 nail holes are in a shoe. “That’s a dramatic change,” Liles explained. “It gives [farriers] more of an option to where they can rotate the nails around if the foot gets bad, so it’s not a bad deal.”

Shoeing horses on the front end and not the back end is trending in the show horse industry, he explained. When asked why this is trending, Liles said one person started winning, and everybody started thinking it would help them win.

“It’s not always necessary to shoe the back end of a horse,” he said. “Most of the weight on a horse is carried from the front end with the weight of the horse’s neck and the cowboy.”

Marvin Beeman, DVM and educator for the American Colt Horse Association, told Liles how a horse farrier shoes a ranch horse depends on the biographical areas in which they live in.

“If you change your horse from one environment to another environment, it will actually change the growth pattern of the horse’s foot and start a groove around his foot,” Liles explained. “When you change that horse’s environment, the horseshoer can actually read it in his foot.

“That’s hard for a lot of people to imagine, but when you bring a horse from the east coast to the west coast, that’s a dramatic change for that horse.”

Different Materials

Liles said using different materials is a current trend among horse farriers. In the early days of horseshoeing, farriers used wrought iron. Today, most horseshoes are made using plain steel. However, the show horse industry uses a lot of aluminum and titanium.

“A pair of heavy walking horse shoes can cost $5,000,” Liles explained, “but it’s made out of tungsten.”

Plastic and rubber shoes have also become popular in recent years. Amish horses used on roads have horseshoes made of Borium. Borium is a texture that keeps the shoe from wearing out, but it can also have a negative impact on the road.

“If you drive around in Amish or Mennonite country and see a dip in the road, it’s from a horse going down the road,” Liles explained. “A lot of states like Pennsylvania and Ohio have funded projects trying to come up with a traction device horseshoe that will not hurt their asphalt and highways as bad.”

Glue-on shoes have come along after he was an active horse farrier. The dairy industry uses the glue-on shoes more than anybody, he added. Cattle are on water and concrete, and they can have a tremendous problem with foot rot. Liles said proper nutrition can help combat this disease.

“I’ve never seen many horse’s feet that I couldn’t nail a shoe on,” Liles said, “but, I see where they help a lot of horses today.”

To learn more about the history of the horseshoe, visit www.horseshoeingmuseum.com.

This article was originally posted in the August 2016 issue of Oklahoma Farm & Ranch.