Horseshoes

Have you seen that game where you have a metal spike in the ground and throw horsehoes at it ? The trick is to get them to stay on the spike, rather than just spin round it and shoot off.

Here at Hepworth Mansions we tend to play damn fool games like this, and last week I had a sudden irresistible urge to play. Maybe what got me thinking was watching my neighbour take the Shetland pony idly up the lane for a walk. 

Anyway. I had the spike. No problem with spikes, and plenty in store in the shed.

But horses hoes ?

(Love that. Aren't words weird sometimes ?)

A friend of mine used to be in my class a long time ago when she was 10. Now 46 and with kids of her own, she is a vet. She owns a horse. Now who better to ask about horseshoes ?

I told her I needed about two horses' worth, and yesterday she came across with her kids and a box of horsehoes that had fallen off a variety of horses.

In the rain we quickly got the spike in the ground, carefully sited to avoid dinging cars, breaking windows, braining neighbours, wrecking flower beds and generally creating mayhem with equine footwear.

Her kids loved it, once they got over the feeling that it was slightly nuts, and her daughter (aged 8) was by far the most successful. I think she much have been using maginetic shoes.

The horseshoes were a bit damaged, being straight from the horse, as it were, so when they had gone, I removed all nails, heated the shoes to red-hot, quenched then, then took off surface rust and waxed them. And here they are, ready to play.

If only it would stop raining. Just 20 minutes would do.

It's a great game.