rubber horseshoe

[chigato]

Howdy, I am going through my things and I have this weird looking old horseshoe that has a rubber pad that was attached to the hoove by nailing it together with the steel horseshoe. I tore down and old dairy barn in the heart of Chicago. It was 41 feet long and converted to a garage. I didn't know it was an old dairy horse stall/barn until I discovered that the concrete pad had a hollow sound to it in the center. We got out the sledge and low and behold, the floor gave way to a 7 foot by 7 foot milk hold pit 8 feet deep. I imagine these were used to quiet down the clippity-clop in the wee hours of the morning. Does anyone have a sense of value ? I tried looking on ebay and google it but no such luck.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well, I can tell you what it is for. Some horses hooves have more of a cup shape to them than others. Some are more "flat-footed". The ones with a shallow hoof are more prone to painful stone bruises because the more sensitive frog of the hoof is closer to the ground. (Yup, you read that right, the wedge-shaped center of a horses hoof is called a frog) Also if a horse has already experienced a stone bruise, a pad like the one on your horseshoe protects the hoof. Farriers (guys/gals who do horseshoeing) can do a lot of corrective shoeing to help make life easier for the horse.

[chigato]

AHA !  I see. That's very interesting. Thank you very much. And I thought it was for noise. Do you know what the proper terminology was for this pad ?

[waywardangler]

(Gimme) That old soft shoe? 

[hosman321]

I have been searching the patents and can't tell the difference between all of these! But it might be helpful for you to browse through them to see if you recognize one.

http://www.google.com/patents?num=50&q=rubber+horseshoe&btnG=Search+Patents&as_drrb_ap=b&as_minm_ap=0&as_miny_ap=1860&as_maxm_ap=0&as_maxy_ap=1920

[Omega Entity]

Another use for those rubber pads to to keep snowpack from building up around the frog in winter, which is a hazard for the animal and rider for those that participate in equestrian activities during the winter; the snow builds up, reducing traction and causing slippage.

[chigato]

Sham Wow !!!!  What a great site.

[talesofthesevenseas]

No, I don't recall if the rubber pad has a name or not. It's been a long time since I had horses. But if you called any local farrier, I am sure they could tell you if it has a name.