Horseshoes

[ZsDad]

I took my daughters to a 4H presentation tonight at the U PENN New Bolton Center where their head ferrier presented the history of horseshoes. In their vast collection was a pair of NOS "Goodenough" shoes from the 1860s. Since yall are period specific historians per se... Is the "Goodenough" shoe what I should be looking for in a presentation prop for living histories? BTW I'm primarally Federal.

Thanks,

John Coldiron
2nd US Cavalry Co. A / 9th VA Cavalry Co. D

[malachi]

Re: Horseshoes

I had to look them up. They were a Rhoad Island horsehoe maker. One of a thousand likely sources for the union I would think. I do know that I have seen images of tens of thousands of keg shoes in barrels in union camps or at the docks. I don't expect they had to forge many from scratch. I would think that there are no shortage of period shoes dug by treasure hunters. You might look at some such images. As long as no modern makers marks exist, todays iron shoes differ very little from their 19th century predecessors.
Greg Tucker

[Mark Choate]

Re: Horseshoes

John,

I apologize for not posting earlier on this as I saw it and was in a rush and planned to come back to it. I think Greg sums it up quite well, the "Goodenough" brand that you saw is just a drop in the proverbial bucket to the examples one would find in that time and especially in that military environment. I have seen examples of lots of shoes and they cover the gambit. While the vast majority would have been (like everything else at that time and especially as the war progressed) hastily produced with what materials existed and mostly generic in nature, we also have to remember that with their dependance and experience with horses, they were very well versed to those shoeing aides that may have been needed based on correcting a horses movement (ie. clipping, splay-footed, overstep, etc.) and did use caulks or trailers or any number of other aides. But, back to the basic statement, most were just standard flat-shod shoes.

We have Paul Muller coming to the Camp of Instruction next month to discuss period shoeing and I am looking forward to his presentation on this topic.

thanks,
Mark