Horseshoe Pitching

Horseshoe Pitching, a game, the essential feature of which is the tossing or throwing of a horseshoe at a pin, peg, or stake. The object of the game is to ring the pin or throw the horseshoe as close to the pin as possible.

Horseshoe pitching is played on a court 50 ft (15.24 m) long and 10 ft (3.05 m) wide. Iron stakes extending 14 in. (35.56 cm) above the ground are planted 40 ft (12.19 m) apart. The horseshoe, a U-shaped plate, usually of iron or steel, must not weigh more than 40 oz (1134 g). The game is played by two or four contestants. Each player stands at one stake and throws two horseshoes at the other stake. A ringer is made when the thrown horseshoe encloses the stake; it counts three points in scoring. If no player throws a ringer, one point is scored for the shoe closest to the stake. A total of fifty points wins the game. The National Horseshoe Pitchers Association of America, incorporated in 1921, holds world championship games for both men and women annually.

In a similar game known as quoits, ring-shaped pieces of iron are tossed from a line or mark at a pin or peg that is 1 in. (2.54 cm) high. In the 20th century the use of a rubber quoit has increasingly replaced the metal type. In the version of the game known as deck quoits, which is played on shipboard, the quoit is made of rope.

The games of horseshoe pitching and quoits may have originated when Roman soldiers first started to shoe their horses. Both games were brought to colonial America by the English.