How Horseshoes Work

had a gustus state. Yeah, a real college course. And he said, Baci right, Uh, horse shoes and badminton? Was it badminton? I thought we couldn't determine? And then possibly um long darts? Okay, so hey, college credit, which I don't know. I guess you'd have to apply to the FTC maybe to get lawn darts as a college kind of like how you'd have to apply to the d A to get some m d m A to carry out some sort of on campus studies, some sort of um study. You'd have to Lawn darts are illegal, man, yeah,

big time. Do you remember those things that were like there's a task force, there's a schedule one backyard game. I think, I bet you can buy him on eBay and stuff. Well, you can probably buy him on still Cross. I was just about to say, you got to go in the deep web to get I played that when I was a kid, though I was smart enough to not kill myself for anybody else with them. It's funny

looking and how dangerous that was. Yeah, And that was kind of like the end of that wave because you know, at the time, and like for the a decade or two before that, probably longer, it was like you could get electrocuted by your toaster pretty easily. Like your humidifiers, there was an any percent chances going to catch fire while you were asleep. Remember the hydrochloric acid slipping slides. Yeah, right,

we're awful. Yeah, And they designed them like that so that they would be obsolete very quickly, so they acid would burn them much more quickly, and you too, unfortunately. Uh so, do you have a great setup for this thrilling podcast to come? I'm hungry, so this will explain this this set up. Have you ever heard of a horseshoe sandwich? No, I haven't. It is a local dallastic delicacy out of Springfield, Illinois, and it dates back to the early twentieth century. It's for a full size portion.

It's two pieces of Texas toast, Texas toast nice hamburger, patty or ham. Love both ham and hamburger. Well, then you probably like them together on each Texas toast slice, cover the whole and put them next to each other. It's open face, cover the whole thing with fries, and then top it all with cheese aus just like not

your cheese sauce. I'm sure there's people out there who use cheese was but from what from what I understand from my research, Uh, it's more like a Welsh rare bit sauce, so like cheese with like um other stuff that makes it. Wellshare, But that's a horseshoe sandwich and sip. In doing research for horseshoes, that was one of the most interesting things I could come up. Again, I'm hungry, so it really jumped out at me. Yeah, why do they call it that? I didn't see because it doesn't

because it's the size of a horseshoe. I don't know. It looked to be the size of a horse. Maybe the shoes underneath. Well, maybe calling it the horse sandwich was untoward, so they just horseshoe. Yeah, I'll bet that's exactly what it was. Well, anyway, shout out to Springfield, Illinois, right home of the horseshoe sandwich, um and cardiovascular disease. Okay, So I know how you feel about horseshoes. I actually love to play horseshoes. Okay, I know how you feel

about talking about playing horseshoes. Not super exciting. I find it. I find it's it's an interesting thing, all right, It's fun. It's you actually do get a bit of exercises, especially if you play competitively. My friend, you can burn as much if you're an average show as a hundred and fifty calories an hour playing horseshoes. You can work off a hardboiled egg an hour, yeah, or one hundredth of

a horseshoe sandwich. Hey, and if you're playing in the backyard, maybe you've eaten some deviled eggs at a picnic, because horseshoes and picnics go together, like ants and picnics. That's exactly right. I actually love horseshoes. I gotta set um. A few years ago when my buddy Justin who you know, had a Fourth of July party and we set it up in this backyard and played and now he kept them and I haven't played since. What's the deal. Well, I mean he just left him at his house, you know,

because you need to go again, and those are yours. Yeah, but I don't have a Actually I do have an area, but like no one comes and hangs out in my backyard. Basically everybody hangs out of Justine's. Yeah, and then I would play horseshoes together, but it's more fun with a group, sir. And that's one where you can play individually with two people or with pears. Yeah. And it says in the article you can play solo. But if you're playing horses spikers, yeah,

that is a sad day for you. It is, um So, chuck, let's talk about the h and the origin of the horseshoe itself. Of the shoe, I got a little info on it, not the game, the shoe, the shoe. So if you see a horse in the wild running, it's probably running for its life. Horses naturally don't like to run very much, and of course not their feet gets sore.

That's why they don't run very much. So right when humans said, hey, I'm gonna ride that thing, they figured out we need to put something on its feet because little feket store and I don't want to hurt this horse. I'm trying to get it to run. So probably in the Asian steps about a thousand years well about two thousand years ago, they started putting like booties on their horses. That's cute, like herbs and and something to soften the

blow of the ground. By the turn of that millennium, the first or second century a d. People were putting booties, leather booties, which the ancient Romans I believe called hippo sandals. They basically put sandals on their horses. Finally everybody realized all this was idiotic, and you need to put metal on a horse. And by a thousand a d uh, Like nailing metal horseshoes to the bottom of a horse's hoof was very common practice. Well does that not hurt? No, because, um,

it's kind of like if you have your fingernailst you're quick. Yeah, if you nail the nail through that past the quick, not below the quick, but anything that grows out past the quick, that doesn't have any nerve endings in it, right, so you know, it's very similar to that. It's like a huge thick finger nail for the horse. That's what a hoof is. So it hurts them to walk on these, but it doesn't hurt to have people drive nails into them. Yes,

depending on how long the nail is. Now, you could easily use a nail that's too long and drive it right into the horses foot, which would be very painful, But as long as the nail is short enough, you're just driving it into something that has no nerve endings, and it prevents that foot that's on the other end,

the inside of the hoof, from becoming sore from walking. Okay, so you want to use nails that aren't too long, which is why there's a very specific um trade called a farrier who knows what they're doing with trimming horses, hoofs, shoeing horses, that kind of thing. And there's actually a

patron saint of farriers. St. Elegius. He said, yeah, he said, to have come across a horse that was ailing, remove the horse's leg, shoot it, and then put the horse's leg back on, and the horses like falling after that, it sounds like hocus pocus magic to me. Somewhere along the way, somebody figured out that a horse shoe makes for a pretty great stand in for a discus if you bend it to close it. Yeah, like the ancient Greeks maybe they were into it. Thanks thanks for sitting

through that intro. I saw a little blood come out of your ear. Oh no, uh yeah. The Greeks and Romans apparently played horse shoes and uh it like became a popular thing in the United States, like after the Revolutionary War, and I guess it just caught on. Well, hey, let's throw these things. So the ancient Greeks were in the discus throwing, but you had to be wealthy or

part of the military to have a discus. If you were poor, you had access to horse shoes, and if you bent the horseshoes to close them up and through like a discuss, you had something called quiats. And then one of them landed accidentally on a metal steak, and they went, I bet you can't do that again, right. I think they just got lazy and grew tired of bending the horse shoes. They're like, well, it's through the horseshoes as they are. And the horseshoes is an ancient game.

It's an ancient game, and it's played all over the world. It's not just for suburban American backyards. Uh, South Africa, Israel, Italy today, a few Yeah, I bet it's played the world wide. Uh. And just here in North America, apparently fifteen million people play. Not necessarily competitive, but you know,

like justin yeah, and steal your horseshoes and play with them. Uh. And that is according to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association or in h p A. And like every sport, there is an official governing body and they set the rules, they host tournaments. Um, I imagine they sell t shirts and hats. They There's also a rock star who his name is Alan Francis what I thought you meant, a real rock star. He's like, They're like, what's his deal?

He's just super great. Yeah. There's apparently no sports figure in any in all of sports who's who dominates more than he does. I'm not kidding this guy, this kid, Listen, he's the most dominant sportsman in the world. Yes, he has won fourteen of the last seventeen men's World Championships at the nhp A Championship. So what's his name, Alan

Francis from Defiance, Ohio. So when people say like he's the Michael Jordan's horseshoes, what they should say is Michael Jordan is the Alan Francis of basketball, right, they really should. This guy has you know, which we'll get into. But you throw a horse shoe and what you want to do is throw a ringer. Yeah, he's got an average nine times out of ten when he throws these things. It's a ringer, not cleaner, not in count it's a ringer. No one walking the earth has a ringer percentage like that.

That is amaze. If you want to learn more about Alan friends, by the way, read Perfection in the Horseshoe Pit from near by. Josh Clark, you wrote a book about him. That's sweet. It's a it's cool. I think it's cool. If there's a guy out there it's like unbeatable. Yeah, I'm pretty good at horseshoes. This guy would wipe the floor with you. Well, of course he would. He's the best athlete in the history of humanity sport. But all I'm saying is I'm pretty good at horseshoes, and I

assume it's because I was pitched softball. Oh yeah, yeah, I think it's probably got something you know, similar motion. Yeah, there they are. They are similar, And I'm athletic. I'm not one of those people that gets a horseshoe and like throws it behind them or over, like on the picnic table or anything like that. Yeah, that's good. So that means it's your spectator friendly horseshoe thrower. Alright, so

let's get into this. Um. Pitching is what you call throwing the shoes about twice the size of a regular horseshoe. First of all, it's not like a little horseshoe you pitched to see he goes first, closest to the stake goes first. And we need to say right off the bat that there are real rules and there are house rules. I'm always a house rules guy. Yeah, so you're played by by Justin's rules. Well, we we co determined the

rules since I bought the kid. Okay, but if you went to say, um, Jake Jillen Hall's house and he was playing horse shoes and you would played by his rules, you wouldn't be like, according to my rules. No, I'd say, Jake, first of all, what kind of name is Jillen Hall? And then I'd say, secondly, what are your house rules? Because I will abide, I respect the house room. But since we bought the kid together, then we made up our own rules. Basically, I just want to make sure

that's what you're saying. That's what I figured. And that's one of the points of a game like horse Shoes is you can play and make up your own rules. It's no big deal. But we're gonna tell you how to play a real game if you're into that as well. Yes, according to the NHP A right, So you pitch, you see who goes first. Um, the object if you don't know this by now, is to throw your horse shoe uh and have it ring the metal steak that is driven into the ground. That will tell you about in

a second. If you already raise your hand so we can send someone to come lay on top of you until you pass out from unconsciousness. Exactly. Games are made up of innings. Um, you play in pairs and you throw two horse shoes, you throw both your horse shoes, and then the next dude or do debt throws their horse shoes. You don't alternate one and one unlets. You

want to per house rules. House rules. And now there are like some details to these rules that like I wasn't aware of, Like you have to pitch both shoes in thirty seconds. It's like chess in the park. Yeah, but if you're taking longer than that, like what are you doing? Are you measuring that the air? Like you're just like drinking beer and like talking to people who are watching, Like, get your head in the game, That's

what That's what i'd say. Al Right, so I guess we should go over the court and all that stuff of like regulation. So if you get your horse shoes, you at least know how to set it up. Well, hold on, what's the end of the game. And and oh so if we're playing one another, yeah, yeah, we're both pitching towards the same steak. Yes, you pitch your two and thirty seconds. I pitched my two in thirty seconds and that's an inning. Yes, And there's no set

number of innings. But normally people will play until you get to forty points. Yeah, I've seen that the common backyard horseshoes you played one, but um, I think a regulation tournament you're gonna play the forty And it depends also saw like Philly rules and stuff like this, like, yeah, people get local, you get a punch and stomach. Yeah, exactly. Um,

it's called a court where you where you play. And if you want to play horse shoes in your backyard, you need to have like a level, wide open area. You can't like you don't want to play it on a hill. And there's actually a lot of schematics online if you want to build your own horseshoe court. All right, so let's go with the basics of the court though.

It's forty six ft long by six ft wide. Yes, you've got two pitching platforms, which is where you throw it from each six ft square, and you've uh, you're

supposed to have protective backboards. I've never seen that. Yeah, I mean, I'm just like, I guess this is so it doesn't like, you know, tumble on and hit the guy at the beer kag, but I usually just dig a pit, you know, and like the Chuck House rules once again, so what is it then, Like how do you lay out like where the end of the boxes there's really not an end of the box for the

Chuck House rules. You're either ringing it, you're leaning it, or you're closest to the pin or closest to the steak. I guess all the schematics I've seen are like, man, it is a defined yeah, like bochy, like it's a real deal. Um, So you've got two steaks. Uh. They are iron rods about thirty six inches long one inch wide, and they are steaked toward each other at roughly a twelve degree angle about halfway in. It says about halfway. I would think that would be like really specific, like

how many inches above ground? Uh? Yeah, I would think so too, but I didn't find that. Apparently, you're also supposed to stake it four ft from the back of the box, but two ft from the front of the box. All right, that makes sense. Um, chop up the soil or sand if you really want to go the extra mile, Yeah, do you should. If you're gonna build yourself a horseshoe pit, get some stand. You've got foul lines at twenty seven ft and thirty seven ft from each steak, and that

determines where you're gonna throw from. Um they say adult men pitched from thirty seven and ladies and old people and kids pitch from twenty seven or shorter. The sexist and agists agreed. Um, I say, pitch from wherever you feel comfortable. House rules and they they say the backyard games are similar, but like it's usually not like it's either like sand or asphalt pits or something whatever you

can whatever you can accommodate. It's what I say. If it's if you don't have that many feet, like make it shorter, right, you know, but then you have to handicap your score. Really yeah, okay, my house rules are very unforgiving. That's why I shoes with you anymore. Yeah, all right, let's talk about pitching then, Okay, you want me to how do you pitch a shoe? What's what's what are the two methods? Let's first, let's talk about

the anatomy of a shoe. Let's not forget that horse shoes are derived from actual horse shoes which were put on horses hoofs. So if you're holding a horseshoe, so the two prongs are at the bottom, what's at the top then is called the toe. The open space the opposite the toe, that's the heel, and then the two um I guess parts at the end that kick in inward towards the heel. Those are called cocks, right, yeah,

And I would have it's backwards in my head. But then when you think about how it sits on a rss foot, it makes sense exactly. But I would think that hell would be hell would be the part you hold, but it's not. It's the reverse, because how it sits on a horse's foot, yeah, exactly. Now, if you want to throw a we're gonna teach you right now how to pitch a horse shoe two ways. Yeah, and you got shanks too. I don't think we mentioned that those

are the arms. Yeah, that's right. So you've got the toe shanks coming down each side, the heel, the heel, and then the things that kick in are called the cocks, the hill cocks, heel cocks right, all right. So, if you want to carry out what's called a single flip pitch, this is probably the easiest that this is the easiest, but Alan Francis does this too, And from what I'm finding, a lot of pro or really good horse shoe pitchers

use the single flip pitch. So what you do is you grab the thing using your thumb and your index finger, or your thumb and your index and middle finger. You squeeze the toe between that, so you've got them the horseshoe level with the ground, horizontally level with the ground above it, and uh, you bring your arm back like a pendulum. You raise it up again. You swing it back and forth until you can feel it. And you got to do it within fifteen seconds because you got

another one to pitch. But right when that thing feels right, you let it go when it hits eye level with you, roughly whatever feels comfortable, but eye level is recommended. You want to send it in an arc about six to eight feet into the air, and you can. In this method the thing might turn three and sixty degrees once. It's why it's called a single flip method. But more often than not, if you're a pro, your shoe does not turn at all. It follows the arc, but it

stays flat the whole way. And then right before it gets to the steak, the heel caulks drop and hit that steak and ring around it, and everybody goes like takes a sip of corn waste, and they carry you off on your shoulders, on your shoulders. That is the flip pitch single flip pitch, uh, more advanced players, and they say that this is an easier way to get ringers if you're if you can master this, you know,

if you spent enough years mastering the quarter turn. I'm sorry, the one in one quarter turn, not the quarter turn. And there's others just like three quarter turns one and three quarter turns. This is the standard other one. Yeah, for one. In a quarter turn, you hold the horse shoe by the shank, so the opening is to the left of your grip if you're right handed, opposite if your left the obviously you swing your arm back and forth like a pendulum, just like you were going to

do with the flip pitch. And then, uh, I get that. You let it go lower, is that right? Yeah, usually when it hits like your thigh area, Okay, which I think would give it a higher arc. Is the difference, right, sharper arc? Yeah, but you want to keep that shoe level to the ground instead of flipping it. Uh, it's turning, I guess, turning in a quarter until it meets you know, the steak. Obviously, your your goal there with the turn is to meet the steak with the I was about

to call him prongs. After we just went over all that the cocks facing the steak, and then you've got yourself a ringer. Everyone drinks corn whiskey and raises their glass for more corn whiskey to be poured into it. So if you get close, you get no points, right because close doesn't count in horse shoes. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Oh is that where that comes from? It does? I was being koy. Yes, obviously you get points by being close. That's where the axion

comes from. Yeah, it's it's called an in count. So let's let's say you and I are just both thrown. Yep, that's one inning. We're gonna go score our inning. Um, let's say I threw one wild because I've had a lot of corn whiskey from all the ringers I threw previous to this round, this ending before I got there to witness it. And huh, well, I'm just saying like you're lying about how many ringers you through. I get there. You look earlier through twelve ringers. Okay, that's why I'm drunking.

So I throw one and it's out of the out of the court. That's dead. That's a dead shoe. It doesn't count. Not a dead ringer. No, but there are such things. We'll explain that in a second. Um, but I did throw one and it hit the ring and it's spun around, and we're doing the all count or count all scoring, which means that I get three points. Three points. It's the highest you can score. Okay, you threw a ringer two and um, you three years on top of mine. You've got three points for that one.

And then your second ringer it stayed in and I only did a stay in. It fell and is leaning now vertically up against the steak. It's not around it, but it's just up against it. It's called leaner. That's worth one point. I think that should be two points. It depends. Some people do score two points. I've seen videos that that's one. Yeah, I think this is just my opinion. I think it should be three two and

one not three one and one. It makes sense. And the one that I think you're under your house rules counts is one point. No matter what, everybody counts as. One point is one that lands within six inches of the steak. Yeah, well, how we play is um, you just measure with another horseshoe, and if it is within the length of the two cocks, you know, that's what we measure. I don't know if that's six inches or not,

but that's what we use. That makes sense. Um So three two and one or three one and one, depending on how you're scoring. That's the count all method. Yeah. I don't get this other method. Okay, I'll explain it to you. It doesn't make sense to me, it does. It took me many times and I actually had to watch a video to get it. It's complex, but it's not really. It's just sometimes the rules of games are

hard to right down to get across and writing. Um So, the other method of scoring is called cancelation, right, and so in cancelation rules, that one that I threw out, that's out. It doesn't count either way. Remember I threw that ringer. You threw that ringer on top of mine. That canceled out my ringer, which made my ringer and your ringer they cancel one another out. See that's what I don't get. What's the point. That's the same thing

as both of us getting three both of us getting zero. Okay, it's true, but does that just keep the score down? Or something. It does. I think also if you're really good, you know how to cancel other people's points out in addition to scoring yourself. But yes, it does. I think it extends the game to really because cancelation, I mean, like that keeps the points down and if you're trying to get to forty points, that's a long game. Um,

but that one that you threw, that's leaning. I didn't throw one like that, so there's not one for you to cancel out mine, which means you get your points, whether two points if you're playing at your house, or one point if you're playing in a tournament. So cancelation is just if you do something that's the same as somebody else, they cancel one another out, and then if there's something that's like yours as closer than mine, that

you get that one point. I mean it makes sense, I guess in a way, and then I like to score points, so I would just give everyone points, right, Yeah, that's the thing in cancelation points. I'm not gonna win any points like because yours is if yours is closer, even if mine is within six inches of the steak and yours just within six inches, if yours just closer, you're the one who gets the point. I don't, so it's all like I'm getting all the points in this ending.

But yeah, that makes for a long game, I would guess, although if you have people who are just throwing a ring or ring or ringer, a game would probably go by like in a in a blink of an eye. So cancelation rules are probably for people who are really good at horseshoes. Yeah, and I've also seen where a lot of times you played a win by two. I don't know is that the official rule or is that house I didn't see that anywhere. That's the first first person to get to forty. Okay, that may be a

house rule or a local thing. Yeah, but I'm always a win by two. Like it sounds a lot like what you're describing as volleyball play one win by two. That's pink punk two. Right maybe? So WHOA, I think we happened upon a magical rule that permeates almost all games backyard or otherwise have fun stuff. That's it, man, Do you got anything else? No, I, as much as I tried be careful. Yeah, And if you have lawn darts, turn them into your local government because you're you're not

supposed to have this. Yeah, they're hoarding those for the the apocalypse. Those are gonna be valuable one day. Message break not yet, all right. If you want to learn more about horseshoes, or if you just need a handy print out of these rules for your own home horseshoe court, just type horse shoes in the search part how stuff works dot com and it's all right there for you. Uh. And since I said horse shoes, now it's time for

message break. Uh. And now it's time for listener mail. Huh. Yeah, I'm gonna call this burning Man correction because uh, you know, we've never been We didn't get it, all right. That was a tough one. We've never been to Cerne either, but we still talked about a large Hadron collider. Yeah, but we learned with listener mail that uh, burners take their burning seriously. Let's hear about it. And I feel terrible because I don't have her name, and I apologize

about that anonymous burner, but here it is, miss Burner. Hey, Chuck and Josh and Jerry. I was so excited when I saw you did a podcast on burning Man. I couldn't wait to listen. I went to Burning Man five times from two thousand and two thousand five, so she knows what she's talking about. I don't know if y'all would. Um, I didn't know if y'all would get it since you've never been, But you nailed it. You made me laugh

out loud a number of times. Some people get all serious about it and pretend that it's not all about sex and drugs, but just let me tell you, sex and drugs are a huge part of it. That place wouldn't exist without hallucinogenics. I have seen police there and that's the one thing he got wrong. I have a friend who was actually arrested for drugs there, so there's

definitely a police presence. The man is everywhere, so I just wanted to add Also, even though it's not a music festival per se, you can really catch some great acts there on the downlow. We saw Paul Oakenfold there in two thousand when he was one of the world's top DJs. There was no advertising, just word of mouth that he was there. We rocked up to see him spend an amazing set to about three people. Uh it's pretty cool, man, Yeah, very intimate. That's a big name.

Another cool brush was with music legend Perry Farrell. We saw him dancing at Sunrise and asked him to come over to our place to eat cheese and crackers with us, and he did. He's really really nice guy and really really high and in the burning Man spirit. That no sense of them being famous people or being anything other than just part of the city like the rest of us. All are equal on the player. That's cool. And uh, maybe it's good I don't have our name. Yeah, she

just disappeared into the play exactly like a mirage. So we appreciate that correction, and thank you for the kudos. Yeah, thank you very much. Um, we appreciate that. If you want to correct us on something we got wrong, we always love those. Thank you for everyone who who has ever written in to correct us. You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know.

You can send us a correction via emails. Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and you can go check out our website our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com This episode of Stuff You Should Know is brought to you by State Farm