horseshoe pitching

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horseshoes

Horseshoe pitching contest at the annual field day of the FSA farmworkers community, Yuma, Arizona

Horseshoes is an outdoor game played between two people (or two teams of two people) using four horseshoes and two stakes. The game is played by the players alternating turns tossing horseshoes at stakes in the ground, which are traditionally placed 40 feet (12.19 m) apart. Modern games use a more stylized U-shaped bar, about twice the size of an actual horseshoe.

Game play

A horseshoes court

Official Rules of the Game of Horseshoes from the NHPA

The NHPA, the recognized governing body of the sport of horseshoe pitching, maintain an up-to-date set of rules, guidelines and specifications for the game on-line at their website: horseshoepitching.com. Widely accepted as being the official way to play the game, they outline the style of play, the two most common scoring methods (cancellation and count-all), acceptable equipment, and exact court specifications as well as additional methods of organizing tournament and league competitions.

There are other entities that have their own versions of the game and sanction their own events, but the largest recognized volume of sanctioned tournaments and leagues (by far) are those of the NHPA.

BOH Cup style of play

The game begins with a coin toss to decide who goes first. The winner of the toss throws both horseshoes—one at a time—at the opposite stake, and then the second player throws both of their horseshoes—again, one at a time—at their end. After scoring, the next round is done in reverse order, or by throwing back at the original stake. Play continues until one player has at least 15 points at the end of a round. NHPA sanctioned games are generally played to 40 points, or a shoe limit of 40 or 50 shoes.

Scoring

A player prepares to toss a horseshoe.

In horseshoes, there are two ways to score: by throwing "ringers," or by throwing the horseshoe nearest to the opposite stake. This scoring system gives rise to the popular expression "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." A ringer is a thrown horseshoe such that the horseshoe completely encircles the stake. Disputes are settled by using a straightedge to touch the two points at the ends of the horseshoe, called "heel calks." If the straightedge doesn't touch the stake, then the horseshoe is a ringer.

The nearest horseshoe to the stake within 6 inches counts for one point. If both of one player's horseshoes are closer than the opponent's, that player scores two points. A ringer scores three points. A leaner, the case in which a horseshoe literally leans on the stake, in pro horseshoes counts for 1 point. In amateur games, a leaner usually counts for two points. In the case of one ringer and a closer horseshoe, both horseshoes are scored for a total of four points. If a player throws two ringers, that player scores six points. If each player throws a ringer, the ringers cancel and no points are scored. Such occurrences are called "dead" but are still used toward the pitcher/ringer average. Most games are played to 21, and the winner must win by two.

Single points in amateur games must measure 6 inches or less from any part of the shoe to the nearest part of the stake. Also, a game cannot be won when an opposing player, tossing a shoe, bumps an opponent's shoe to cause the opponent to reach the winning score be it eleven or twenty-one. The game winning point must be attained by the person tossing the horseshoe pertaining to his own score. Examples: If a player has 10 points and an opponent has 8 points, and the player with 10 points tosses a horseshoe and bumps his opponent's horseshoe for a ringer, the opponent scores 3 points for a total of 11 points, but does not win the game because of the 2 point rule. If a player has 9 points and an opponent 8 points and the player with 9 points tosses a horseshoe and bumps his opponent's horseshoe for a ringer, the opponent cannot score 3 points, because the winning point must be attained by his own toss. However, the opponent can take two points, bringing his total point score to 10.

References

External links

• Info on Sport of Horseshoe Pitching
• Rules, National Horseshoe Pitching Association.
• How to Pitch Horseshoes, NHPA.
• A Fictional Short Story About Horseshoes: Huggy and the Eggtones, clydepark.com.
• A History of Horseshoes
• TossingGames.com - A resource forum for all lawn tossing games, including horseshoes.
• http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/biographical/bio-jacksonfrank.html - A biography of Frank Jackson, first national champion.