While sorting my latest finds I came across a shoe that was in it s day the greatest thing since sliced bread,or so it was advertised,some may remember the Nature Plate,some may have heard of it,others who may read about it here on FF can now not say that they have been introduced. A few of the folk who have more than 50 yrs to their age can and hopefully will tell of them and some of the horror stories associated,being the juvenile that I be, can t remember a thing ray
Ray how many do you have is one for sale ..I like to collect old farrier related stuff thats no longer made or stuff that may be a bit diff..I hoard alot of stuff and go to alot of auctions and flea markets..farrier stuff is hard to find and even harder to find is the tiny salesman anvils...also I hsvev tried to find some info on kegs..I cant find any pics of any..does anyone have any pics or info on the kegs
Travis, I ll look some more, there is alot of stuff in this find, i ll let you know if I come up with a few . I ll start a thread about some of the other finds but would like to hear folk talk bout the Nature Plate phenom and theory, I m sure Jack Evers probably saw a few in his travels as I m sure others have ,hopefu;\lly we can glean some knowledge from a discussion. Ray
Didn't Breakenridge make them they came in 00, 0, 1, 1.5, 2 sizes used a few, but they are like an outer rim racingplate and diamond barrel raceplate.
No they didn't. But, with your photographic memory, you should have known that...... apparently, that part of your photographic memory is either undeveloped or over exposed....... WHAT?????? A diamonds barrel race plate has a higher/taller INNER rim, and in any case, is NOTHING like the Nature plate except that both have nail holes in them.
I think I might have some nature plates in their original boxes. We used them on the fronts of some of the sprint horses at Hazel Park in '73 to about '75 and after they fell out of favor they went on the hinds of some long strided pacers. Never worked on any AQHAs that I did. I know it's hard to believe, with what we think we know now, but more than a few horses won a bunch of money wearing those ugly things. I had one of early Mankel's gassers so I was able to half ass shape them, so I became the go to guy for them. Unfortunately I got suckered into buying too many at the time. I gave most of them away as curiousities
wrong I have some left over- I think; might have to put pic up on this-they are diamonds and they are barrel racers; the interrims were polos by diamond and I have some of them. I am pretty sure breakinridge did have them......in the early 1990's
Linda, I must of picked up the race/european version, the plate I pictured is marke 5F and oddly enough it is bout the size of a 5 race plate,front! I never dealt with any of them, only remember Bud Beaston talking about how they would wear to a very sharp edge and that some horses cut themselves bad enough that they were euthanized, that was enough for me, I may have been a city slicker from back east wannabe farrier, but I figured if Bud wouldn t use them ,I had no reason to try to prove him wrong, this was 1974, and I had touched a horse for the 1st time at farrier school, back here in the pansie east where men were still barrel racing i m told they only knew bout them in Western Horseman mag. Brian, did they wear sharp as Beaston said? ray
not that I ever saw but they weren't running on crushed stone at that bull ring. They went on easy on low angle TBs but were marketed to those stumpy footed AQHA dinks. Go figure...
I have a few Travis, Give me an address. Could include things like the Adams Natural lite. Possibly the Mustad Nail shoe. I'd love to have a Seattle shoe, but doubt I'll find one
They were IIRC $7.50 a pair about 40 years ago when shoeing was less than that. I knew when I saw Centaur Forge pricing them at $7.50 a pair but $2.50 a pair in 100 pair lots that they had failed to market.
As an interesting side note, they had an ad with a picture of the shoe imprint in a track surface. The caption read "no foot no horse" Doug Butler pointed out to me that the clear imprint showed no nail heads - there truly was no foot and no horse.
Linda, you are correct. I was , for some unfathomable reason, writing about polo plates while thinking about barrel racing plates. Perhaps because I only used polo plates never barrel racing plates on the drum runners I shod. I saw way too many treading/overreach injuries caused by the barrel racing plates to ever consider using them. In a pinch, I'd use a training plate or just go with a regular rim shoe. Mea Culpa
Same here Rick, regular rims or polo rims on the front (at least) of can chasers, that barrel racing special along with the nature plate scared me to death.
