While this is an interesting thread on all the possible uses for
round/closed horse shoes I have yet to read that anyone has gone and asked
folks who do this for a living. Perhaps a discussion with a few farriers,
be sure to include some older ones ( both East and West), might prove
fruitful. Incidentally horse shoes closed at the rear have a number of
practical uses on horses. So please check with the farrier community before
this gets to the invasion of the aliens stage. The last in intended as
humor.

Jim Chase





                    "William E.
                    Allen"               To:     [log in to unmask]
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                    EDU>                 Subject:     Re: Round Horseshoes
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                    ARCHAEOLOGY
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                    07/11/01
                    09:49 AM
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                    HISTORICAL
                    ARCHAEOLOGY





John,
I recently visited a working blacksmith shop at waterloo village in NJ with
my family. I was surprised to see many examples of horse shoe types and
shapes that he had on display there. He explained that these were for
various functions much like changing tries on a car for  racing or snow,
etc. Round horse shoes may have given more  traction than the traditional
shape that most of us are familiar with.
Bill Allen


John R Hyett wrote:
     From a late 19th cent to early 20th cent old blacksmiths site several
     round, as distinct from "horseshoe" shaped horseshoes have been found.
     Can anybody help with what these would have been used for? It has been
     suggested that they were used to confuse trackers when chasing outlaws
     but I think they would slow any half decent tracker by about quarter
     of a second. So why would they have been used?Thanks!John