BRASS working horseshoe?? Ever heard of one??

[parsonwalker]

Brass and cast. Not forged. This is not decorative, I'm sure. It has nail holes but also GRIP CLEATS! Why put cleats on a decoration? Found on a Colonial Virginia horse farm that had a racetrack. Found near (100 yds) from the track. I've been around horses all my life and never heard of one. They make modern shoes out of aluminum for race horses . . . has anybody ever FOUND or heard of a brass working horseshoe??

 

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[Retired Sarge]

A quick Google search comes up with a few decorative brass horseshoes that look like real horseshoes. So this could just be a decorative horseshoe versus a functional one.

 

[Retired Sarge]

Well I'll be damned, brass horse shoes were used in mines to prevent accidental sparks. See link for detailed history of horseshoes, but I copied the pertinent verbiage.

https://animals.mom.me/material-horseshoe-3442.html

".......When horses, ponies and mules were used in underground coal mining operations, brass shoes and nails served to limit accidental sparks that could cause explosions......."

 

[parsonwalker]

Well! That's info I couldn't find! There was a small quarry nearby (actually within FEET of where I found this shoe!) I wouldn't think gas would have been a problem there, but the teamsters probably had a supply of brass shoes to replace lost shoes. REALLY helpful Ffuries! Thank you so much!

Well I'll be damned, brass horse shoes were used in mines to prevent accidental sparks. See link for detailed history of horseshoes, but I copied the pertinent verbiage.

https://animals.mom.me/material-horseshoe-3442.html

".......When horses, ponies and mules were used in underground coal mining operations, brass shoes and nails served to limit accidental sparks that could cause explosions......."

 

[Real of Tayopa]

Bras onBrass rocky surfaces s horseshoes, and silver ones were used for improved traction in Mexico Silver was ideal, not so much for wear as for traction.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Well I'll be damned, brass horse shoes were used in mines to prevent accidental sparks. See link for detailed history of horseshoes, but I copied the pertinent verbiage.

https://animals.mom.me/material-horseshoe-3442.html

".......When horses, ponies and mules were used in underground coal mining operations, brass shoes and nails served to limit accidental sparks that could cause explosions......."

That makes total sense

 

[ohp733]

I don't see any nail holes if there aren't any it may have been used for corrective shoeing and fitted on with a flange that fit around the hoof wall. Or it could decorative. If held on by friction for some type of issue the horse probably would have been confined to a stall or small lot

 

[ohp733]

I've been a farrier and blacksmith off and on since I was 19. I went through bud beaston's Oklahoma farrier college in Sperry okla where we learned all types of corrective as well as regular and racetrack shoeing and blacksmithing so I always perk up when horseshoes are found

 

[Reanm8er]

Nice find parson congrats!
I like the quarry theory. Before the invention of dynamite they used Nitro Glycerin for quarrying and mining. Even worse than black powder for accidental ignition. It can be ignited by sun rays.
Best wishes and good luck!

 

[Retired Sarge]

Nice find parson congrats!
I like the quarry theory. Before the invention of dynamite they used Nitro Glycerin for quarrying and mining. Even worse than black powder for accidental ignition. It can be ignited by sun rays.
Best wishes and good luck!

Remember coal dust is an explosive hazard, along with whatever gases are released from the ground during mining.

 

[Mekong Mike]

One time I found an iron horseshoe in a muddy field when I was a kid and it was huge.... Really big. It measured 10 inches across tip to tip.
Must have been a plow horse.

 

[Iron Buzz]

Well I'll be damned, brass horse shoes were used in mines to prevent accidental sparks. See link for detailed history of horseshoes, but I copied the pertinent verbiage.

https://animals.mom.me/material-horseshoe-3442.html

".......When horses, ponies and mules were used in underground coal mining operations, brass shoes and nails served to limit accidental sparks that could cause explosions......."

I was going to say the same thing. For a couple years when I was a boy, my father worked a job making wooden shovels for use in a black powder plant, for the same reason. They didn't cause sparks.

 

[Gene Mean]

I was going to say the same thing. For a couple years when I was a boy, my father worked a job making wooden shovels for use in a black powder plant, for the same reason. They didn't cause sparks.

Wow! Wooden shovels! That's got to be alot of work!

 

[ARC]

hind draft shoe.

 

[ARC]

https://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2018/01/copper-horseshoes-modern-farriery-industrial-history.html

 

[Reanm8er]

I worked at a facility that had originally been a hard rock test mine. They used dynamite and there were a lot of beryllium copper claw hammers and brass screwdrivers around from the opening of thousands of cases of it.

Nice post AARC!