Ever played the age-old game of horseshoe pitching? Chances are you've played the game before without knowing it. It is great fun, but also serious, if you follow the rules. There is an official National Horseshoe Pitchers Association in the USA, a governing body of the sport that oversees an up-to-date set of rules, guidelines and specifications for playing the game.

Let us walk you through some of the basics - good luck!

The Horseshoe Pitch

The Horseshoe Pitch

The ground where the game is played is a long, narrow field with two distinct ends, each with its own pitching box of six square feet, clearly marked on the ground with chalk or paint. Within this box, in the center, a smaller rectangle is marked off which forms the “pit” and this is filled with sand. An inch-thick, fifteen-inch-long metal stake is placed in the center of each pit, tilted a few inches toward the players. The stakes should be forty feet apart. The players stand inside the pitching box - but outside the pit itself - when they throw their horseshoes.

Horseshoes for pitching (picture from Amazon)

The Horseshoes

Playing the horseshoe game strictly according to the rules, each horseshoe would weigh two pounds and eight ounces, and be between seven and five eighths of an inch long and seven inches wide. If one really follows the NHPA rules, the distance between the teeth of the horseshoe should be three and a half inches wide. The game is played by two opponents who are each given two horseshoes to play with. It is best to paint the players' horseshoes different colors to easily distinguish them from each other during the game.

The horseshoe throwing

The Horseshoe Game

Flip a coin to decide who begins play. The first to toss throws his two horseshoes one at a time to the stake on the opposite side of the field from where he is standing, aiming to place his horseshoe over or as close to the stake as possible. Once both horseshoes have been thrown, the players switch sides and play again until one opponent wins - see scoring below. A horseshoe that falls around the stake is known in the game as a “ringer” and earns the player three points unless it lands on another player's next ringer. In that case, the first ringer is invalid and the player's three points are deducted.

Horseshoe pitch scorecard

The point system

If no ringers are thrown in a round, the horseshoe closest to the ring gets one point. If both players throw one ringer each, both ringers and their points are invalidated. The scorers must look at the nearest horseshoe, and award the thrower one point.
If both players each score two ringers, they cancel each other out and no points are awarded to the thrower of two ringers.

If one ringer is reached in a round, that player wins three points plus an extra point if his other horseshoe is closest to the stakes of the other three thrown horseshoes
If one player has reached two ringers and the other player throws none, six points are awarded. The first to reach twenty-one points wins the game.

Good luck!