Miniature Horse Shoes

These tiny horse shoes about an inch across where made for myself and my sister by a blacksmith somewhere in the region of Blackpool Sands Bay, near Dartmouth, Dorset.  My father came from a renown family in Dorset called the Burts and he knew and loved Dorset. I recall on that trip we took a

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Lord Rosebery’s racing plates

These are a collection racing plates belonging to Lord Rosebery. They were recently found at The Durdans, (The house not the stables.)  The care and attention to which each one has been mounted on pink is very touching. Lord Rosebery’s colours were pink and primrose.   His family name include Primrose.  It was common for racing

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Circular horse shoe

Circular horse shoe providing support all round, from the forge of Peter Ibbitson, Walton on the Hill. Round shoes were used by the famouse dick Turpin, beacuse then his hoof prints were dfficult to folow as you coud not work out which way he was going.  

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Plate of French horse shoes 19th century

These plates were found in books on practical farriery. This one plate was found by Norman Comben and this is a copy. It shows the wide range of different shoes for a variety of lameness and other problems. Nothing much has changed, they show hock support shoes, and pedal bone rotation shoes, with a variety

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Lawn Boot

The Lawn boots were made of leather and used when the horses pulled the lawn mowers. Of course indents caused by the iron shoes would have ruined the lawn and so these boots were available to put on the ponies feet and protect the lawn. There is an example of a horse drawn own mower

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Horse Shoes

The larger horse shoes come from Mali. The right hand one is old. It would be difficult to date but may well be 100 or more years old. The one of the left is made from iron bars used in construction. The twisted iron has not been beaten out and its crenelated edge can be clearly

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