Period Horse Shoes....

[Ken Knopp]

I noticed a discussion about period horse shoes "off forum" in the Critter Boys Social group and thought it might warrent an "on-line" visit to the topic. It appears several of you have some experience in "tacking shoes" so maybe you can chime in for some detail on this subject. Although I tacked one or two myself I was never much of a farrier as noted by the horses I remember to have crippled. GOD Bless them! Anyway, I attach some photos of period horse shoes. All of these have been dug from CW or period sites. For the benefit of all, can any one explain here the ....

1. Purpose of the heel clips or other common period designs?
2. Process of hand forging?
3. Availability of iron, nails etc.
4. The use of "ready made" shoes or British imports?
5. The methods (organized or otherwise) for seeing that horses were regularly shod (Federal And Confederate approaches)?


This was a VERY IMPORTANT part of the cavalry/artillery usefulness and the soldier's life and therefore elements for a very worthy discussion.

I know the 7th Tennessee has at least two professional farrier's in their ranks. I don't know if they frequest this forum but maybe they can help.
Also, the following is an old thread regarding an approach to a Farrier's impression that might be a good place for review too. That is one impression not often seen.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19390&highlight=horse+shoes

All "good stuff"!!

Ken R Knopp

https://www.confederatesaddles.com

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

This is Virginia's spouse responding.

Some of you who are more horse people than myself please correct me because my opinions on this topic are based on limited observations.

In looking at the images of the dug horseshoes, some seem to bear a striking resemblance to modern horseshoes, including the little blade at the front and the heels in the back. I can't say I've looked at the footwear of many horses but I did give the box of thrown horseshoes for sale in a hardware store in Lancaster County quite a going over (I was looking for real horseshoes to use in playing quoits) and, from my memory, many looked like some of these, muleshoes excepted because there weren't any of those in the box.

So now for a supposition. If the technology of horseshoes worked for the 1860's, is it possible that the philosophy of "if it ain't broke" entered in and we are still using essentially the same stuff they used then?

Now regarding the idea of hand forging. I'd expect that the shoes were cast iron because iron casting was quite common and could produce very intricate shapes. I had always heard the purpose of the forge was to shape the ready-made shoe to the shape of the horse's hoof instead of trying to go the other way around.

I can't say for certain but it seems the blade at the front would help to keep the shoe from sliding to the rear and pulling off.

Just some ideas from an infantryman who has always found that there is a big fight brewing when you see the cavalry headed to the rear.

Michael Mescher

[J.H.Berger]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

Micahel ,
I am not a farrier but artist blacksmith and I doubt the horse shoes were cast iron. Cast iron can't be forged unless it is wrought iron( difficult technical terms in English the Germn technical terms are much clearer) or also called annealed iron, which is a cast iron where the high carbon content is reduced in a heating process. This was used on buckles of the time.
I think if horse shoes were commercially made they were forged from bars but machines like drop hammers with certain dies were used to make the fullers and holes. The lip is not a new invention on horse shoes either. But in the countryside forging them by hand was certainly more common. Keep in mind labour cost was not the expensive thing but material. It was easy to recycle iron by forge welding two pieces together to make a new thing of it. I have found dozens of old horse shoes from the 19th and early 20th century on the fields of my cousin in Mecklenburg. They were certainly handforged or altered by the blacksmith. Of course this is Germany. Some of the horse shoes Ken has pictured look pretty much like mule shoes or hind shoes of a horse. Interesting that the bars they are made of are rather wide.
Lets see what the collegues from abroad can tell us about their opinions!

[Hank Trent]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

Henry Herbert has a chapter on shoeing horses here. The discussion of the shoe starts around page 231.

I can't say for certain but it seems the blade at the front would help to keep the shoe from sliding to the rear and pulling off.

Herbert agrees: "A small clip at the point of the toe is very desirable as preventing displacement of the shoe backwards..." I always thought it was to protect the front of the toe from chipping; maybe it does that too.

Caulks (the downward-facing protusions) are for traction especially on icy roads, and as a training device to emphasize the lesson that riders and drivers shouldn't get their feet near horses' hooves. ;)

On page 234, Herbert mentions something interesting: "It is desirable to have the shoe made with steel in front, this being sloped backward to a line running at right angles with the upper slope of the hoof. Old shoes are always worn to about this form, and new ones should be so made. The steel will prevent their being unduly worn."

I take it he's talking about a combination of metals, like in axes, where the edge was steel welded to an iron base. The front of the shoe would be steel where most of the wear occurs, while the rest would be iron. It's my understanding that that way of making axes was fading, due to the cheaper cost of higher quality metal in the 1860s, and if so, I wonder if it was fading for horseshoes as well.

Disclaimer: I've never shod any horses myself, just watched it being done.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Outrider]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

Hank beat me too it!

Interesting subject.
Thanks for posting the pics Ken as always.
I am not a professional farrier if we define a professional farrier as someone who earns a living by farriery. However I have been shoeing my own horses for years now and occasionally take on someone elses. Having said that , I am no expert on period farriery but since the subject first came up on the social group it inspired me to do a little more looking into period shoeing practices and low and behold I discovered I may have jumped the gun a bit with my opinion that toeclips were not very common during the period. I based this on the fact that none of the original shoes I have examined had them, only one period book on horsemanship I have mentions them at all and ( I admit this is not a good reason) that in modern times toeclips serve a specific purpose and your 'typical" riding horse's hooves are not usaully under the sort of stress that
toeclips are used to counter. I assumed, again bad idea, that in the period they were probably more liable to be seen on hunters,jumpers,racers , in other words -recreational horses- as opposed to your average working animals or on riding horses used by the " yeoman" class as they are even today more common among horses in those types pf specialized disciplines than say ranch horses, or those used for roping. Very rarely have I, at least, ever seen toeclips used in the"western"school of riding, in rodeo, or on working ranch horses or any other "working" class horses with the exception being some draft animals I have known.

This is from -Horses, Mules, and Ponies and how to keep them wrote by Henry William Herbert originally published in 1859 : ( BTW I highly recommend anyone interested in period horsemanship obtain a copy of ths book)

"A small clip at the toe is very desireable as preventing displacement of the shoe backwards; it need not be driven up hard; it is merely required as a check or stay."

Interesting, in that he seems to be suggesting that unlike modern applications of toeclips that the clips not be set IN the horn as is typically done by carving a "notch" out of the hoof so the clip sits flush with the hoof wall. Reading over the section in the book on shoeing (its been a while since I read it) it is very clear that in nearly all other respects, a fine shoeing job then is still a fine shoeing job now. Most of what he writes could also have come straight out of a modern shoeing manual. So clearly, it is indeed an "if it aint broke why fix it" sort of thing.

Hank also noticed the rather odd suggestion Herbert makes for combining materials as his ideal for shoes. I have no idea if a standard for materials was able to be maintained during the war years or not.
I am no metallergist (?) ... or something?..ha but I do believe most if not all originals I have seen and held were iron.But then I could be sadly mistaken about that.

So toeclips are most definitely correct for the period . Which was the subject of the original discussion though I, personally, still can find no evidence that they were widely used on your typical horse in the period and I certainly have my doubts they were widely used/common among cavalry mounts.

While I know this is nothing but conjecture and opinion, when the subject of toeclips vs flatshoes came up I asked a professional farrier friend of mine what he thought of it and he was also of the opinion that they would have been used for specific reasons and probably , like now, only at the request of the owner. He and other farriers he knows, according to him, do not like shoeing horses with toeclips saying that not only are generally unecessary for your average horse, but can have an adverse affect upon normal hoof growth. Side clips even more so than toeclips- and I still have never read a period reference to or have seen an original shoe with side clips though I have seen a good many reenactors horses shod using them for whatever reason.

On a personal note - I have always wanted to see someone ( more talented and ambitious than I) do a period farrier impression complete with all the correct tools and actually using them in camp or, if in a civilian enviroment, then working along side a smithy or better yet doing both. That would be a very cool and waaay underrepresented impression for somebody to put together fo sho.

[English Doc]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

When I first started this thread (off forum), it was because I had noticed a distinct inner shape/profile of period shoes (see below) from images, as compared to modern shoes. The images look different to the pics of dug items that Ken K has posted.

However, I have just become the owner of an original (1860 publishing date) manual/book which pictures shoes that look so modern. (also see below)

Perhaps the expediency of campaign conditions meant that horses were shod in a basic fashion. Any horse that required what we now know as 'remedial' shoeing would perhaps have been discarded as being too much trouble.

If that sounds wasteful, bear in mind - We do know that horses which contracted minor injuries, ailments or were just plain exhausted were euthanised on the march to stop them falling into enemy hands, even in the face of equine shortages.

[Longrope]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

One thing missing in this conversation is hot shoeing. The shoes with toe clips and heel caulks are blacksmith/farrier made therefor they would be put on hot, without need to rasp the toe. Look at Doc's pictures, two blacksmiths are handling the shoes with tongs, also the anvil in the first photo is too small to bend cold iron around.
At least I couldn't do it, but then I'm no farrier. It's more than enough for me to keep my own cavvy shod up.

[Masich]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

In the Far West, Col James H. Carleton (formerly First Dragoons) commanding the California Volunteers' expedition to Arizona and New Mexico specified that hand wrought iron shoes be fitted to each mount and that each soldier should carry spares with nails on the long march. The machine-made steel shoes then (late 1861) in vogue, he said, required too much hand fitting to be used in the field.

[Longrope]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

In 1835, Henry Burden patented his machine for producing horse shoes. It could put out sixty a minute.

[114th NY]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

Some very useful info on this matter can be found on pages 161-162 of the Ordnance Manual (third edition). From what I have read here, heel-clipped hinds were most commonly called for as a horse pushes more with the rear-end. They do state that shoes were not to be hot fitted whereas today, that is the trend to fitting clipped shoes. I work in a farm-supply store and sell quite a few horseshoes. I find it very interesting how there are some suttle differences in styles of shoes and shoeing practices between now and then.

[SouthernPatriot]

Re: Period Horse Shoes....

I haven't run across any information on keg shoes being made in the early to mid 19th century. I do know that most if not all of the horse shoes used in the 19th century would have been hand forged from iron. The blacksmith would have forged them from square bar stock into shape then holes would be added with a pritchel. No horse shoes that would have been put on a horse would have been cast. Casting does not provide a strong or ductile enough product. Forging would have been the only process used to make shoes, I do think at the time there would have been some steam or other powered forging hammers in use, however they probably were not used in the manufacture of horseshoes. The process of hand forging shoes produced a shoe made to fit an individual horses hoofs. There might have been some pre-forged shoes carried by troops, but they would have been forged to fit that particular horse.

-Daniel Pullen