Olde Tyme Horseshoes

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy!

I'm looking to find a couple of old style horseshoes.  I'd actually prefer to find some that are new-made, but by a blacksmith or farrier who makes them the old way.  I'd need the old-style nails as well.

These items are to be used as part of the items that an old-time Cavalry trooper would carry with him in the field.  I read somewhere that each trooper was required to carry a brush for his mount, 2 horseshoes and a handful of horseshoe nails.  Nothing was mentioned about him carrying a file, hammer, or farrier tools, so I suppose those items would be carried in the supply wagon.

Any other details will be greatfully appreciated.  This is just window dressing, since I'm a Cavalry Trooper without a horse!  Some will wonder why I choose to carry horshoes, a brush, and h.s. nails, and why I wear spurs when I don't have a horse!

[Delmonico]

Pard a Calvary trooper would have carried a factory made horse shoe.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

OK, then:  when did factories start manufacturing horseshoes?  And was Diamond one of those factories?

Also, did the factory shoes have the indented slot where the nails go like the ones made today?

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[Steel Horse Bailey]

I did a web search for "horshoes" as well as "antique horseshoes" and got a lot of hits about the game of horseshoes, but very few real horseshoes.

I'm gonna try something about Diamond Corp. next.  Wish me luck.

[Delmonico]

I meant to write more, but I got busy and just posted that.  

One of the things that many folks have about this time period is that most of the consumer goods were handmade.  There were blacksmiths then and now that could make one if needed, but it can consume quit a bit of time to make a set of shoes.  I know the army bought their shoes, because there were some problems with inferior shoes from at least one company.  A certian Lt. Col. owned stock in the company, but was only an investor in it, like several other companies he owned stock in, none which did well.

If I remember right a Lakota or Cheyenne got him up on the Greasy Grass before the investigation was finished, but it was determined there was no wrong doing on his part other than investing in a poor company.

I'll do some checking but since they tended to buy throughbreds or part thoughbreds I would guess a plain #1 or #2 shoe from any farm supply and a box of the right size nails would be mighty close to what a tropper would have carried.  The company farrier would have most likely have fit the shoes to the horse before hand, thats why each trooper carried his shoes in his saddle bag.

I'll do some more checking I think Pitspitzer up to Fort Hartstuff could shed a little more light on this if we could just get him to run out to the blacksmith shop and compare their relics with a modern shoe.  I got a dollar that says he's put the irons on a horse or two and knows a bit more about shoes than I do, I just sell them, I don't put them on.

No wonder it wouldn't post, you were busy.  I'll dig some more, but my guess on time would be 1830's to 40's when thing started gearing up in the early part of the industrial revaloution since they are easy to stamp and were in great demand.  The ones I've seen but not really studied look very much like a modern shoe.

[Angus McKechnie]

I'm at work right now so I don't have access to my library but as a general thing, by the 1870s & 80s, the majority of horseshoes were manufactured (stamped out) in a variety of sizes and types and shipped in kegs (hence the name keg shoes). The farrier would then select a suitable size and either hammer it to fit it to the horse's hoof (cold hammering- a good farrier will shape to fit the hoof, a bad farrier will trim the hoof to fit the shoe) or heat it up and then shape it while its hot (hot shoeing). Hot shoing makes for a better fit but unless you have a field forge, not possible to do in the field.

While a competent farrier could make a new shoe completely from bar stock, it was time consuming and only used when corrective shoing was needed and nothing else would work. With a cavalry company easily having 70 to 100 horses, a farrier would be hard pressed to keep up a shoing schedule even using keg shoes.

Troopers were often issued two spare shoes, one for the front and one for the rear and the farrier will have already hammered them to fit the particular horse in question. If a shoe worked itself loose or was lost, a soldier could replace it but it can be a real trial (and downright harmful to the horse) if they don't know what they're doing. As far as I know, hammers were not individually issued to the soldier and I suspect that they would use another horseshoe as a hammer- both later cavalry manuals and even WWII training films illustrate this method. Also, in later times (and possibly during the 1870s & 80s), either the sergeant or the corporal would have a pair of pliers to pull and cinch nails with.

Owning my own horse, I've had to deal with loose and thrown horseshoes before I could get the farrier out and it was a real pain, especially if the horse has a stone bruise and he doesn't want to stay still for you and is in a cranky mood.

These are just some general comments- I may have missed something or gotten it wrong so feel free to jump in...

[Delmonico]

I know the farrier often rode an fought with the troops.  One farrier for the 7th was killed on Reno Hill and one of the guys killed in 1873 on the NP survey was the farrier.  This lead to the arrest of Rain-In-The-Face by Tom Custer and what became the legand of RITF eating Tom's heart.

[Delmonico]

Ok, a bit more, I talked to Pitzspiter tonight, and he was sure a Diamond shoe would be so close no one could tell, a mill file would remove the name quite easily.  I forgot he's a Walks a Heap, not a pony soldier, but he will ask some of the Cav guys and let us know.  I would guess the Diamond Classic Plain would be what you would want.

As a side note, the name of the company Custer invested in was "The Good E-Nuf Horse Shoe Company."

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Great Info!  Thanks!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I'll do the file thing to remove what's left of the Diamond brand on the shoe I have.  We had a nice rainy weekend (not that we needed it) and so I set the shoe and nails out on my porch.  It has a nice partial rusty appearance that gives it a "carried in the saddlebag for a while" look.

There is a fellow near my house who boards horses.  I introduced myself to him and he mentioned that when he was replacing fence, he found a very large, draft horse shoe that was about a foot underground.  It's obviously very old and he suspects at LEAST 110-120 years old.  (His barn was erected in 1883.)  This isn't very horse related, but when he renovated part of the house, he found a practically brand-new Sears & Roebuck catalog and a worn and fragile copy of the Indianapolis Star newspaper from 1905 between the walls!