Hi all.  I was much educated by an old guy farmer in northwest 
Arkansas who started with mules and ended with four wheel drive 
tractors.  Yes, mule shoes are different from horse shoes are 
different from ox shoes, etc., but an old time farmer can tell you 
forensics on a shoe that would beat Quincy  (I'm old) or CSI 
wherever.  Plus fashions, plus rocky soils versus alluvial clay 
versus gravel roads versus paved roads.  A Boy Scout with our boys 
(now all in their 20s) has a father who's a blacksmith and who claims 
there are more horses in Arkansas today then 150  years ago (not as 
many mules but they are back in fashion) and most shoes have to be 
customized.  Wait, I'm starting to sound like Ron May.  Yipes!  Bye 
for now.   P.S. Measure in all directions and record calkins and toes 
and wear patterns et al.  Then ask a blacksmith.  He won't know the 
four-legged's name but he'll tell you everything else.

At 02:08 PM 8/3/2007, you wrote:
>Here is a book I reviewed for Historical Archaeology
>
>Pfeiffer, Michael A.
>   1996  Review of: The Complete Horseshoeing Guide (second 
> edition), by Robert
>         F. Wiseman.  University of Oklahoma Press.  Historical Archaeology
>         30(3):97-98.
>
>I remembered that I really enjoyed the book but don't have it here at
>the ofice or HA.  They only have reviews on the SHA website from 2000
>onward.
>
>Back to the Salt Mines!
>
>:-)
>
...
Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy, Ph.D.
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Winthrop Rockefeller Institute
Petit Jean Mountain
1 Rockefeller Drive
Morrilton, AR 72110