✅ SOLVED Can't identify this small tool

[bobclouser]

Hi everyone. I found this detecting at a house in MA that was build in about 1740. I haven't found much else very old there. The pictures show the scale in inches. It's non-metallic and not very dense, so brass or bronze. It has a sharp hook on the end. I found things with similar shape online that were tools used to clean horse's hooves, but this is really small. You can barely get a finger into it.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bob

 

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[nhbenz]

That's a gag runner, as shown in this old catalog: https://archive.org/details/catalogueno200jmei

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

For anybody here who doesn't know what a "gag runner" is... it's a part of a wagon-horse's harness. It is a brass loop (therefore also called a gag loop, or gag swivel -- see a 1909 horse-harness catalog page, below) which connected the "bearing rein" to the horse's bridle. Follow the "bearing rein" (which is different from the main reins) in the diagram and photo, below.

 

[bobclouser]

Wow, awesom, thanks for the help iding! And what it is makes sense: the owner said I found it along what was an old cart path.