The Gentle Art & Sport of Horseshoes

(Page 4 of 6)

July/August 1988
By Terry Krautwurst 
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The Pitch

Far be it from me to offer advice on the correct way to pitch horseshoes. Like most beginners and casual pitchers, I throw what is known as a "flip" shoe: I hold the shoe by the curved end, point the open, forked end toward the opposite stake and toss the shoe so that it turns end over end once or twice before landing around the stake (OK, OK, near the stake, maybe). I'm not alone, at least, in my technique. Many of the women and juniors pitching in competition from 30 feet use the flip shoe, and quite a few men do, too, from the full 40-foot distance. Trouble is, the flip shoe has a nasty habit of bounding off the stake rather than grabbing onto it, particularly when thrown from the longer distance. No major tournament has ever been won by a flip-shoe pitcher.

Instead, serious players use a variety of grips and delivery techniques that send the horseshoe whirling on a flat, horizontal plane, like an arcing Frisbee, toward the target. The idea is to make the shoe turn slowly in flight so that the open end comes around just at the right time to catch the stake and grab it. The two most popular "open shoe" grips, and supposedly the easiest to pitch, are the 1 1/4 turn grip and the 1 3/4 turn grip, shown in the photos. Their names, of course, describe the number of turns (clockwise for right-handers, counterclockwise for lefties) the shoe makes—theoretically, anyway—before landing.

Throwing a flip shoe comes easily to most people, but mastering an open-shoe pitch is another matter. It is hard enough to send a shoe sailing flat instead of end over end, and harder still to control the turn. In trying, I've flung shoes into briars and poison ivy, sent friends and relatives leaping higher than I ever would've thought possible, and once nearly put an untimely end to our family cat. All to no avail; when I'm playing for points, I throw the flip shoe.

The best advice I can offer, then, is the same the experts give: Find a horseshoe pitcher in your area who has mastered the open shoe, and ask that person for pointers.

Regardless of grip or throwing style, the rules say that you must start your pitch with your feet even with or behind the stake. Right-handed players usually pitch from the left side of the stake, left-handers from the right. Generally, the motion of throwing a horseshoe is much like that of delivering a bowling ball: shoulders square and feet pointed toward the target, an arcing backswing, a smooth delivery and release, a full follow-through. Unlike bowlers, though, most horseshoe players take only one step forward—usually with the foot opposite the throwing hand—when delivering the pitch.

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