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Bog Shoes for Horses
Strange how some things so common not so long ago have become antiques of today. Take, for example, the big bog shoes that used to be worn by horses that were employed in gathering marsh-grass hay.
The big, heavy, wooden shoes were nearly a foot across, quite flat on the bottom, and strengthened with iron rods and adjustable fasteners.
They were worn right over the horses’ regular iron shoes. If the horses found any difficulty in wearing them, they made no complaint, but would stand patiently while the shoe for each foot was properly secured and then work their way across the boggy land without any apparent difficulty and without getting their four feet in the way of one another.
Bog shoes were just one more contraption that showed how Yankee ingenuity was ever ready to cope with any condition, usual or unusual.
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Bog shoes or Muck shoes as we call them in Davie Florida made the difference between life and death for the horses and mules. After the drainage of the Everglades the land was MUCK and the farmers lost animals and equipment never to be seen again.
Our muck shoes were made of cast iron and were quite heavy. The first shoes came from Beaver Dam, WI and were then duplicated by residents here in Davie. This time frame begins in 1909.