What kind of horseshoe is this?

Barneymartin3

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Found this horseshoe in the mountains. Never seen one shaped like this and has 3 nail holes on each side and lipped point. Any ideas what kind of shoe it is and its age? Thanks!
 

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Could be a mule shoe.I know they are a bit different from a horse shoe but I don,t remember just how.Maybe give you aplace to start looking.
 
Back in 1973 the Smithsonian Institutions' then National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History), where I spent the summer as a volunteer tour guide, had a bizarre little exhibit of corrective and prosthetic horseshoes loçated not far from George Washington's dentures. Even more bizarre, apparently someone stole the dentures (made of hippopotamus ivory, not wood as some think) from their collection a while back. Those horseshoes were a LOT shinier and bendier than your find--things of gleaming beauty really--but leaving aside the chance of your find having simply been accidentally or serendipitously bent that little bit somehow, perhaps some kindly blacksmith did up this special bespoke shoe for some horse with a slightly malformed or split hoof.
 
I got couple Eauropeans here, have a look but non of them like one you found.
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That is a toe-clipped hind shoe with a lateral trailer, likely from a gaited horse like a Saddlebred or Tennessee Walker.
Those horses are what's called "passing gaited", which means that the hind feet actually reach beyond the front feet. The trailer is to make the hinds go wide to avoid interference with the fronts.
 
That is a toe-clipped hind shoe with a lateral trailer, likely from a gaited horse like a Saddlebred or Tennessee Walker.
Those horses are what's called "passing gaited", which means that the hind feet actually reach beyond the front feet. The trailer is to make the hinds go wide to avoid interference with the fronts.

When I saw this post, and the photo of the unusually shaped shoe, I immediately thought "this is a question for Longhair." You did not disappoint! Good ID!
 
That is a toe-clipped hind shoe with a lateral trailer, likely from a gaited horse like a Saddlebred or Tennessee Walker.
Those horses are what's called "passing gaited", which means that the hind feet actually reach beyond the front feet. The trailer is to make the hinds go wide to avoid interference with the fronts.

Very interesting and impressive explanation. You know your sh.... stuff
 
Very interesting and impressive explanation. You know your sh.... stuff
I've shod more gaited horses than I care to remember.
I could give you even more information on that shoe if you'd like.
These weighted shoes cause enhanced animation that is desired in some breeds for a variety of applications. Notice how the shoe pictured is wider on the sides than anywhere else. It's purely for added weight, and the effect of that. Adding weight causes the horse to pick it's feet up higher, and results in changes to the foot's "arc of travel". The front shoes on that same horse were likely "toe weighted", meaning that they would have the widest (heaviest) part at the point of the toe.
 
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