How to Throw Horseshoes-Equipment

Jim Harris: My name is Jim Harris Secretary-Treasurer of the Alabama Horseshoe Pitchers Association. I have been teaching you how to pitch horseshoes and now I want to teach you or show you the basic equipment that is used by a horseshoe pitcher. This is the equipment that I use, I have a box, it's called a carrying case, that I keep my horseshoes in. I have two sets of horseshoes, a spare pair of shoes in case something breaks, I have a measuring tool, I have a file and I have a rubber band I use to keep my britches from being hit by my horseshoes. I have a towel and I have a head band. Now I would like to go back and mention that there is nothing, no rules or anything that tells you what you have to how, but I'd like to talk about the horseshoes because this is the most important item that you only you will have to hail. You want to look at those horseshoes and before you buy a pair you might want to talk to the people that have been pitching horseshoes for a long time and see what kind of horseshoes they use. There are many brands out there, most of the world champion horseshoe pitchers have a horseshoe named after them. This particular shoe here is called the Ohio "Pro.

" It's the horseshoe that I started pitching back in the late 70's and I have been pitching it for about 31 years, I got used to it, it fits my hand like it is comfortable, I like the caulks, the way the caulks are built front and back and I just like the way that it fits in my hand and so I have stuck with that particular shoe for all of these years. Now different people as I said, buy different shoes, some people will buy a shoe, a flipper is the example, might not have a caulk on the back. They have horseshoes that are designed for a turn - a person that pitches a turn shoe and they have a horseshoes designed for people that flip a horseshoe. So like I said before there's all kinds of horseshoes out there that you can buy and we usually order ours from a horseshoe dealer which is part of the association of the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association. The next setting that I want to talk about is the measuring tool. This measuring tool is used to determine if a horseshoe is on the stake because sometimes you can look at the shoe and it might not be on the stake so you will be able to measure across it to see if it measures and so that it will count. You might want to use this, the callipers on this, judge in to, to determine the distance from the stake. If you and your competitor have a shoe that are in close, you can't decide which one is the closest, you would use this to measure it and of course, the towel it's pretty obvious what that's used for, it is used to wipe the perspiration out of your eyes and next we are going to talk about how to handle this equipment.