Whatever happened to …

… horseshoes?

Not to be confused with horse shoes which horses still wear.

I was driving by a campground the other day and saw people playing this game where they were tossing brightly coloured pieces of plastic from one side to the other. How the mighty have fallen, I thought.

There was a time …

My fondest memories come from my aunt and uncle’s park where they had a couple of horseshoe pits. A pit was a boxed in area of sand with a metal post stuck in the middle. From a distance, you’d throw a horseshoe (and over sized replica of the real thing) at the post. You’d play against another or you could play in pairs. It wasn’t a game for little kids – the horseshoes were entirely made of metal and were fairly heavy. I seem to remember that you had to be 14 to play.

During family reunions, it was a chance for a competition among the adults. I remember a cousin-in-law from the other side of the family who would smoke a big cigar while tossing these things very accurately.

Eventually, there came a time when they went away. I’m guessing the insurance or number of accidents had an effect. It’s been so long since I saw real horseshoes that I thought maybe they’d been banned. But, there still is a Horseshoe Ontario organization and there are places where great players play competitively.

For a Sunday…

• have you ever played horseshoes?
• do you know what these terms mean?
  • ringer
  • leaner
  • out of court
• do you know of a kid friendly games based on the original horseshoes?
• if you’re not playing horseshoes at a family reunion these days, what game has replaced it?

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

This is a regular Sunday morning blog post around here. If you have an idea for a future post, reach out to me (@dougpete on Twitter) or add your idea to the Padlet I created for this purpose.