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How Horseshoes Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:13
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's step Chucker's Bryant. Did I say that
0:17
Speaker 1: last time? My name like that? Yeah? I don't know,
0:20
Speaker 1: and you might have just said I don't know. I
0:23
Speaker 1: wonder we'll find out. How's it going. It's going great.
0:27
Speaker 1: We just learned something neat what guest producer Noel to
0:30
Speaker 1: our right your Left um Bar podcast todays on horse shoes.
0:37
Speaker 1: He took that as a college course called backyard games
0:41
Speaker 1: had a gustus state. Yeah, a real college course. And
0:44
Speaker 1: he said, Baci right, Uh, horse shoes and badminton? Was
0:50
Speaker 1: it badminton? I thought we couldn't determine? And then possibly
0:53
Speaker 1: um long darts? Okay, so hey, college credit, which I
0:58
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess you'd have to apply to the
1:01
Speaker 1: FTC maybe to get lawn darts as a college kind
1:06
Speaker 1: of like how you'd have to apply to the d
1:07
Speaker 1: A to get some m d m A to carry
1:10
Speaker 1: out some sort of on campus studies, some sort of
1:13
Speaker 1: um study. You'd have to Lawn darts are illegal, man, yeah,
1:17
Speaker 1: big time. Do you remember those things that were like
1:22
Speaker 1: there's a task force, there's a schedule one backyard game.
1:26
Speaker 1: I think, I bet you can buy him on eBay
1:29
Speaker 1: and stuff. Well, you can probably buy him on still Cross.
1:32
Speaker 1: I was just about to say, you got to go
1:34
Speaker 1: in the deep web to get I played that when
1:38
Speaker 1: I was a kid, though I was smart enough to
1:41
Speaker 1: not kill myself for anybody else with them. It's funny
1:44
Speaker 1: looking and how dangerous that was. Yeah, And that was
1:47
Speaker 1: kind of like the end of that wave because you know,
1:49
Speaker 1: at the time, and like for the a decade or
1:52
Speaker 1: two before that, probably longer, it was like you could
1:55
Speaker 1: get electrocuted by your toaster pretty easily. Like your humidifiers,
1:59
Speaker 1: there was an any percent chances going to catch fire
2:01
Speaker 1: while you were asleep. Remember the hydrochloric acid slipping slides. Yeah, right,
2:05
Speaker 1: we're awful. Yeah, And they designed them like that so
2:07
Speaker 1: that they would be obsolete very quickly, so they acid
2:11
Speaker 1: would burn them much more quickly, and you too, unfortunately.
2:16
Speaker 1: Uh so, do you have a great setup for this
2:20
Speaker 1: thrilling podcast to come? I'm hungry, so this will explain
2:25
Speaker 1: this this set up. Have you ever heard of a
2:27
Speaker 1: horseshoe sandwich? No, I haven't. It is a local dallastic
2:31
Speaker 1: delicacy out of Springfield, Illinois, and it dates back to
2:35
Speaker 1: the early twentieth century. It's for a full size portion.
2:40
Speaker 1: It's two pieces of Texas toast, Texas toast nice hamburger,
2:44
Speaker 1: patty or ham. Love both ham and hamburger. Well, then
2:47
Speaker 1: you probably like them together on each Texas toast slice,
2:52
Speaker 1: cover the whole and put them next to each other.
2:54
Speaker 1: It's open face, cover the whole thing with fries, and
2:58
Speaker 1: then top it all with cheese aus just like not
3:01
Speaker 1: your cheese sauce. I'm sure there's people out there who
3:04
Speaker 1: use cheese was but from what from what I understand
3:06
Speaker 1: from my research, Uh, it's more like a Welsh rare
3:09
Speaker 1: bit sauce, so like cheese with like um other stuff
3:14
Speaker 1: that makes it. Wellshare, But that's a horseshoe sandwich and sip.
3:20
Speaker 1: In doing research for horseshoes, that was one of the
3:26
Speaker 1: most interesting things I could come up. Again, I'm hungry,
3:31
Speaker 1: so it really jumped out at me. Yeah, why do
3:33
Speaker 1: they call it that? I didn't see because it doesn't
3:38
Speaker 1: because it's the size of a horseshoe. I don't know.
3:41
Speaker 1: It looked to be the size of a horse. Maybe
3:44
Speaker 1: the shoes underneath. Well, maybe calling it the horse sandwich
3:47
Speaker 1: was untoward, so they just horseshoe. Yeah, I'll bet that's
3:51
Speaker 1: exactly what it was. Well, anyway, shout out to Springfield, Illinois,
3:54
Speaker 1: right home of the horseshoe sandwich, um and cardiovascular disease. Okay,
4:00
Speaker 1: So I know how you feel about horseshoes. I actually
4:04
Speaker 1: love to play horseshoes. Okay, I know how you feel
4:06
Speaker 1: about talking about playing horseshoes. Not super exciting. I find it.
4:11
Speaker 1: I find it's it's an interesting thing, all right, It's fun.
4:15
Speaker 1: It's you actually do get a bit of exercises, especially
4:18
Speaker 1: if you play competitively. My friend, you can burn as
4:22
Speaker 1: much if you're an average show as a hundred and
4:25
Speaker 1: fifty calories an hour playing horseshoes. You can work off
4:28
Speaker 1: a hardboiled egg an hour, yeah, or one hundredth of
4:34
Speaker 1: a horseshoe sandwich. Hey, and if you're playing in the backyard,
4:38
Speaker 1: maybe you've eaten some deviled eggs at a picnic, because
4:41
Speaker 1: horseshoes and picnics go together, like ants and picnics. That's
4:44
Speaker 1: exactly right. I actually love horseshoes. I gotta set um.
4:48
Speaker 1: A few years ago when my buddy Justin who you know,
4:51
Speaker 1: had a Fourth of July party and we set it
4:53
Speaker 1: up in this backyard and played and now he kept
4:55
Speaker 1: them and I haven't played since. What's the deal. Well,
5:00
Speaker 1: I mean he just left him at his house, you know,
5:02
Speaker 1: because you need to go again, and those are yours. Yeah,
5:04
Speaker 1: but I don't have a Actually I do have an area,
5:08
Speaker 1: but like no one comes and hangs out in my backyard.
5:11
Speaker 1: Basically everybody hangs out of Justine's. Yeah, and then I
5:14
Speaker 1: would play horseshoes together, but it's more fun with a group, sir.
5:17
Speaker 1: And that's one where you can play individually with two
5:20
Speaker 1: people or with pears. Yeah. And it says in the
5:24
Speaker 1: article you can play solo. But if you're playing horses spikers, yeah,
5:29
Speaker 1: that is a sad day for you. It is, um So, chuck,
5:32
Speaker 1: let's talk about the h and the origin of the
5:35
Speaker 1: horseshoe itself. Of the shoe, I got a little info
5:39
Speaker 1: on it, not the game, the shoe, the shoe. So
5:44
Speaker 1: if you see a horse in the wild running, it's
5:48
Speaker 1: probably running for its life. Horses naturally don't like to
5:51
Speaker 1: run very much, and of course not their feet gets sore.
5:54
Speaker 1: That's why they don't run very much. So right when
5:56
Speaker 1: humans said, hey, I'm gonna ride that thing, they figured
6:01
Speaker 1: out we need to put something on its feet because
6:03
Speaker 1: little feket store and I don't want to hurt this horse.
6:06
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get it to run. So probably in
6:09
Speaker 1: the Asian steps about a thousand years well about two
6:14
Speaker 1: thousand years ago, they started putting like booties on their horses.
6:19
Speaker 1: That's cute, like herbs and and something to soften the
6:22
Speaker 1: blow of the ground. By the turn of that millennium,
6:28
Speaker 1: the first or second century a d. People were putting booties,
6:32
Speaker 1: leather booties, which the ancient Romans I believe called hippo sandals.
6:37
Speaker 1: They basically put sandals on their horses. Finally everybody realized
6:41
Speaker 1: all this was idiotic, and you need to put metal
6:43
Speaker 1: on a horse. And by a thousand a d uh,
6:46
Speaker 1: Like nailing metal horseshoes to the bottom of a horse's
6:49
Speaker 1: hoof was very common practice. Well does that not hurt? No, because, um,
6:56
Speaker 1: it's kind of like if you have your fingernailst you're quick. Yeah,
7:02
Speaker 1: if you nail the nail through that past the quick,
7:06
Speaker 1: not below the quick, but anything that grows out past
7:09
Speaker 1: the quick, that doesn't have any nerve endings in it, right,
7:13
Speaker 1: so you know, it's very similar to that. It's like
7:15
Speaker 1: a huge thick finger nail for the horse. That's what
7:18
Speaker 1: a hoof is. So it hurts them to walk on these,
7:21
Speaker 1: but it doesn't hurt to have people drive nails into them. Yes,
7:24
Speaker 1: depending on how long the nail is. Now, you could
7:26
Speaker 1: easily use a nail that's too long and drive it
7:30
Speaker 1: right into the horses foot, which would be very painful,
7:34
Speaker 1: But as long as the nail is short enough, you're
7:36
Speaker 1: just driving it into something that has no nerve endings,
7:38
Speaker 1: and it prevents that foot that's on the other end,
7:41
Speaker 1: the inside of the hoof, from becoming sore from walking. Okay,
7:46
Speaker 1: so you want to use nails that aren't too long,
7:50
Speaker 1: which is why there's a very specific um trade called
7:54
Speaker 1: a farrier who knows what they're doing with trimming horses, hoofs,
7:58
Speaker 1: shoeing horses, that kind of thing. And there's actually a
8:01
Speaker 1: patron saint of farriers. St. Elegius. He said, yeah, he said,
8:06
Speaker 1: to have come across a horse that was ailing, remove
8:09
Speaker 1: the horse's leg, shoot it, and then put the horse's
8:13
Speaker 1: leg back on, and the horses like falling after that,
8:16
Speaker 1: it sounds like hocus pocus magic to me. Somewhere along
8:20
Speaker 1: the way, somebody figured out that a horse shoe makes
8:24
Speaker 1: for a pretty great stand in for a discus if
8:27
Speaker 1: you bend it to close it. Yeah, like the ancient
8:30
Speaker 1: Greeks maybe they were into it. Thanks thanks for sitting
8:33
Speaker 1: through that intro. I saw a little blood come out
8:35
Speaker 1: of your ear. Oh no, uh yeah. The Greeks and
8:39
Speaker 1: Romans apparently played horse shoes and uh it like became
8:45
Speaker 1: a popular thing in the United States, like after the
8:47
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, and I guess it just caught on. Well, hey,
8:51
Speaker 1: let's throw these things. So the ancient Greeks were in
8:53
Speaker 1: the discus throwing, but you had to be wealthy or
8:56
Speaker 1: part of the military to have a discus. If you
8:59
Speaker 1: were poor, you had access to horse shoes, and if
9:03
Speaker 1: you bent the horseshoes to close them up and through
9:06
Speaker 1: like a discuss, you had something called quiats. And then
9:09
Speaker 1: one of them landed accidentally on a metal steak, and
9:11
Speaker 1: they went, I bet you can't do that again, right.
9:14
Speaker 1: I think they just got lazy and grew tired of
9:17
Speaker 1: bending the horse shoes. They're like, well, it's through the
9:19
Speaker 1: horseshoes as they are. And the horseshoes is an ancient game.
9:23
Speaker 1: It's an ancient game, and it's played all over the world.
9:25
Speaker 1: It's not just for suburban American backyards. Uh, South Africa, Israel,
9:30
Speaker 1: Italy today, a few Yeah, I bet it's played the
9:32
Speaker 1: world wide. Uh. And just here in North America, apparently
9:35
Speaker 1: fifteen million people play. Not necessarily competitive, but you know,
9:39
Speaker 1: like justin yeah, and steal your horseshoes and play with them. Uh.
9:44
Speaker 1: And that is according to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association
9:47
Speaker 1: or in h p A. And like every sport, there
9:51
Speaker 1: is an official governing body and they set the rules,
9:54
Speaker 1: they host tournaments. Um, I imagine they sell t shirts
9:58
Speaker 1: and hats. They There's also a rock star who his
10:03
Speaker 1: name is Alan Francis what I thought you meant, a
10:05
Speaker 1: real rock star. He's like, They're like, what's his deal?
10:10
Speaker 1: He's just super great. Yeah. There's apparently no sports figure
10:16
Speaker 1: in any in all of sports who's who dominates more
10:19
Speaker 1: than he does. I'm not kidding this guy, this kid, Listen,
10:24
Speaker 1: he's the most dominant sportsman in the world. Yes, he
10:29
Speaker 1: has won fourteen of the last seventeen men's World Championships
10:35
Speaker 1: at the nhp A Championship. So what's his name, Alan
10:38
Speaker 1: Francis from Defiance, Ohio. So when people say like he's
10:41
Speaker 1: the Michael Jordan's horseshoes, what they should say is Michael
10:44
Speaker 1: Jordan is the Alan Francis of basketball, right, they really should.
10:48
Speaker 1: This guy has you know, which we'll get into. But
10:51
Speaker 1: you throw a horse shoe and what you want to
10:52
Speaker 1: do is throw a ringer. Yeah, he's got an average
10:58
Speaker 1: nine times out of ten when he throws these things.
11:01
Speaker 1: It's a ringer, not cleaner, not in count it's a ringer.
11:06
Speaker 1: No one walking the earth has a ringer percentage like that.
11:11
Speaker 1: That is amaze. If you want to learn more about
11:14
Speaker 1: Alan friends, by the way, read Perfection in the Horseshoe
11:16
Speaker 1: Pit from near by. Josh Clark, you wrote a book
11:21
Speaker 1: about him. That's sweet. It's a it's cool. I think
11:24
Speaker 1: it's cool. If there's a guy out there it's like unbeatable. Yeah,
11:26
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at horseshoes. This guy would wipe the
11:29
Speaker 1: floor with you. Well, of course he would. He's the
11:30
Speaker 1: best athlete in the history of humanity sport. But all
11:35
Speaker 1: I'm saying is I'm pretty good at horseshoes, and I
11:37
Speaker 1: assume it's because I was pitched softball. Oh yeah, yeah,
11:41
Speaker 1: I think it's probably got something you know, similar motion. Yeah,
11:44
Speaker 1: there they are. They are similar, And I'm athletic. I'm
11:46
Speaker 1: not one of those people that gets a horseshoe and
11:48
Speaker 1: like throws it behind them or over, like on the
11:51
Speaker 1: picnic table or anything like that. Yeah, that's good. So
11:55
Speaker 1: that means it's your spectator friendly horseshoe thrower. Alright, so
11:59
Speaker 1: let's get into this. Um. Pitching is what you call
12:03
Speaker 1: throwing the shoes about twice the size of a regular horseshoe.
12:07
Speaker 1: First of all, it's not like a little horseshoe you
12:09
Speaker 1: pitched to see he goes first, closest to the stake
12:12
Speaker 1: goes first. And we need to say right off the
12:16
Speaker 1: bat that there are real rules and there are house rules.
12:21
Speaker 1: I'm always a house rules guy. Yeah, so you're played
12:24
Speaker 1: by by Justin's rules. Well, we we co determined the
12:29
Speaker 1: rules since I bought the kid. Okay, but if you
12:32
Speaker 1: went to say, um, Jake Jillen Hall's house and he
12:37
Speaker 1: was playing horse shoes and you would played by his rules,
12:40
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be like, according to my rules. No, I'd say, Jake,
12:44
Speaker 1: first of all, what kind of name is Jillen Hall?
12:46
Speaker 1: And then I'd say, secondly, what are your house rules?
12:48
Speaker 1: Because I will abide, I respect the house room. But
12:51
Speaker 1: since we bought the kid together, then we made up
12:54
Speaker 1: our own rules. Basically, I just want to make sure
12:56
Speaker 1: that's what you're saying. That's what I figured. And that's
12:58
Speaker 1: one of the points of a game like horse Shoes
12:59
Speaker 1: is you can play and make up your own rules.
13:01
Speaker 1: It's no big deal. But we're gonna tell you how
13:03
Speaker 1: to play a real game if you're into that as well. Yes,
13:07
Speaker 1: according to the NHP A right, So you pitch, you
13:09
Speaker 1: see who goes first. Um, the object if you don't
13:14
Speaker 1: know this by now, is to throw your horse shoe
13:17
Speaker 1: uh and have it ring the metal steak that is
13:21
Speaker 1: driven into the ground. That will tell you about in
13:22
Speaker 1: a second. If you already raise your hand so we
13:25
Speaker 1: can send someone to come lay on top of you
13:27
Speaker 1: until you pass out from unconsciousness. Exactly. Games are made
13:31
Speaker 1: up of innings. Um, you play in pairs and you
13:35
Speaker 1: throw two horse shoes, you throw both your horse shoes,
13:39
Speaker 1: and then the next dude or do debt throws their
13:41
Speaker 1: horse shoes. You don't alternate one and one unlets. You
13:44
Speaker 1: want to per house rules. House rules. And now there
13:46
Speaker 1: are like some details to these rules that like I
13:49
Speaker 1: wasn't aware of, Like you have to pitch both shoes
13:51
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds. It's like chess in the park. Yeah,
13:57
Speaker 1: but if you're taking longer than that, like what are
13:58
Speaker 1: you doing? Are you measuring that the air? Like you're
14:01
Speaker 1: just like drinking beer and like talking to people who
14:03
Speaker 1: are watching, Like, get your head in the game, That's
14:06
Speaker 1: what That's what i'd say. Al Right, so I guess
14:10
Speaker 1: we should go over the court and all that stuff
14:12
Speaker 1: of like regulation. So if you get your horse shoes,
14:14
Speaker 1: you at least know how to set it up. Well,
14:16
Speaker 1: hold on, what's the end of the game. And and
14:19
Speaker 1: oh so if we're playing one another, yeah, yeah, we're
14:23
Speaker 1: both pitching towards the same steak. Yes, you pitch your
14:26
Speaker 1: two and thirty seconds. I pitched my two in thirty
14:28
Speaker 1: seconds and that's an inning. Yes, And there's no set
14:31
Speaker 1: number of innings. But normally people will play until you
14:34
Speaker 1: get to forty points. Yeah, I've seen that the common
14:37
Speaker 1: backyard horseshoes you played one, but um, I think a
14:41
Speaker 1: regulation tournament you're gonna play the forty And it depends
14:44
Speaker 1: also saw like Philly rules and stuff like this, like, yeah,
14:47
Speaker 1: people get local, you get a punch and stomach. Yeah, exactly. Um,
14:52
Speaker 1: it's called a court where you where you play. And
14:55
Speaker 1: if you want to play horse shoes in your backyard,
14:57
Speaker 1: you need to have like a level, wide open area.
15:00
Speaker 1: You can't like you don't want to play it on
15:01
Speaker 1: a hill. And there's actually a lot of schematics online
15:05
Speaker 1: if you want to build your own horseshoe court. All right,
15:08
Speaker 1: so let's go with the basics of the court though.
15:10
Speaker 1: It's forty six ft long by six ft wide. Yes,
15:14
Speaker 1: you've got two pitching platforms, which is where you throw
15:17
Speaker 1: it from each six ft square, and you've uh, you're
15:20
Speaker 1: supposed to have protective backboards. I've never seen that. Yeah,
15:23
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just like, I guess this is so
15:25
Speaker 1: it doesn't like, you know, tumble on and hit the
15:27
Speaker 1: guy at the beer kag, but I usually just dig
15:30
Speaker 1: a pit, you know, and like the Chuck House rules
15:33
Speaker 1: once again, so what is it then, Like how do
15:35
Speaker 1: you lay out like where the end of the boxes
15:38
Speaker 1: there's really not an end of the box for the
15:41
Speaker 1: Chuck House rules. You're either ringing it, you're leaning it,
15:43
Speaker 1: or you're closest to the pin or closest to the steak.
15:46
Speaker 1: I guess all the schematics I've seen are like, man,
15:49
Speaker 1: it is a defined yeah, like bochy, like it's a
15:52
Speaker 1: real deal. Um, So you've got two steaks. Uh. They
15:56
Speaker 1: are iron rods about thirty six inches long one inch wide,
16:00
Speaker 1: and they are steaked toward each other at roughly a
16:02
Speaker 1: twelve degree angle about halfway in. It says about halfway.
16:07
Speaker 1: I would think that would be like really specific, like
16:09
Speaker 1: how many inches above ground? Uh? Yeah, I would think
16:12
Speaker 1: so too, but I didn't find that. Apparently, you're also
16:14
Speaker 1: supposed to stake it four ft from the back of
16:17
Speaker 1: the box, but two ft from the front of the box.
16:20
Speaker 1: All right, that makes sense. Um, chop up the soil
16:24
Speaker 1: or sand if you really want to go the extra mile, Yeah,
16:26
Speaker 1: do you should. If you're gonna build yourself a horseshoe pit,
16:29
Speaker 1: get some stand. You've got foul lines at twenty seven
16:33
Speaker 1: ft and thirty seven ft from each steak, and that
16:36
Speaker 1: determines where you're gonna throw from. Um they say adult
16:40
Speaker 1: men pitched from thirty seven and ladies and old people
16:43
Speaker 1: and kids pitch from twenty seven or shorter. The sexist
16:46
Speaker 1: and agists agreed. Um, I say, pitch from wherever you
16:50
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. House rules and they they say the backyard
16:54
Speaker 1: games are similar, but like it's usually not like it's
16:57
Speaker 1: either like sand or asphalt pits or something whatever you
17:00
Speaker 1: can whatever you can accommodate. It's what I say. If
17:03
Speaker 1: it's if you don't have that many feet, like make
17:05
Speaker 1: it shorter, right, you know, but then you have to
17:08
Speaker 1: handicap your score. Really yeah, okay, my house rules are
17:13
Speaker 1: very unforgiving. That's why I shoes with you anymore. Yeah,
17:21
Speaker 1: all right, let's talk about pitching then, Okay, you want
17:23
Speaker 1: me to how do you pitch a shoe? What's what's
17:25
Speaker 1: what are the two methods? Let's first, let's talk about
17:27
Speaker 1: the anatomy of a shoe. Let's not forget that horse
17:29
Speaker 1: shoes are derived from actual horse shoes which were put
17:34
Speaker 1: on horses hoofs. So if you're holding a horseshoe, so
17:37
Speaker 1: the two prongs are at the bottom, what's at the
17:40
Speaker 1: top then is called the toe. The open space the
17:44
Speaker 1: opposite the toe, that's the heel, and then the two
17:48
Speaker 1: um I guess parts at the end that kick in
17:51
Speaker 1: inward towards the heel. Those are called cocks, right, yeah,
17:55
Speaker 1: And I would have it's backwards in my head. But
17:58
Speaker 1: then when you think about how it sits on a
18:00
Speaker 1: rss foot, it makes sense exactly. But I would think
18:02
Speaker 1: that hell would be hell would be the part you hold,
18:04
Speaker 1: but it's not. It's the reverse, because how it sits
18:06
Speaker 1: on a horse's foot, yeah, exactly. Now, if you want
18:09
Speaker 1: to throw a we're gonna teach you right now how
18:12
Speaker 1: to pitch a horse shoe two ways. Yeah, and you
18:14
Speaker 1: got shanks too. I don't think we mentioned that those
18:16
Speaker 1: are the arms. Yeah, that's right. So you've got the
18:19
Speaker 1: toe shanks coming down each side, the heel, the heel,
18:23
Speaker 1: and then the things that kick in are called the cocks,
18:25
Speaker 1: the hill cocks, heel cocks right, all right. So, if
18:29
Speaker 1: you want to carry out what's called a single flip pitch,
18:32
Speaker 1: this is probably the easiest that this is the easiest,
18:35
Speaker 1: but Alan Francis does this too, And from what I'm finding,
18:40
Speaker 1: a lot of pro or really good horse shoe pitchers
18:45
Speaker 1: use the single flip pitch. So what you do is
18:49
Speaker 1: you grab the thing using your thumb and your index finger,
18:52
Speaker 1: or your thumb and your index and middle finger. You
18:56
Speaker 1: squeeze the toe between that, so you've got them the
19:01
Speaker 1: horseshoe level with the ground, horizontally level with the ground
19:06
Speaker 1: above it, and uh, you bring your arm back like
19:09
Speaker 1: a pendulum. You raise it up again. You swing it
19:13
Speaker 1: back and forth until you can feel it. And you
19:15
Speaker 1: got to do it within fifteen seconds because you got
19:17
Speaker 1: another one to pitch. But right when that thing feels right,
19:21
Speaker 1: you let it go when it hits eye level with you,
19:24
Speaker 1: roughly whatever feels comfortable, but eye level is recommended. You
19:28
Speaker 1: want to send it in an arc about six to
19:30
Speaker 1: eight feet into the air, and you can. In this
19:35
Speaker 1: method the thing might turn three and sixty degrees once.
19:38
Speaker 1: It's why it's called a single flip method. But more
19:40
Speaker 1: often than not, if you're a pro, your shoe does
19:43
Speaker 1: not turn at all. It follows the arc, but it
19:46
Speaker 1: stays flat the whole way. And then right before it
19:48
Speaker 1: gets to the steak, the heel caulks drop and hit
19:53
Speaker 1: that steak and ring around it, and everybody goes like
19:58
Speaker 1: takes a sip of corn waste, and they carry you
20:01
Speaker 1: off on your shoulders, on your shoulders. That is the
20:04
Speaker 1: flip pitch single flip pitch, uh, more advanced players, and
20:10
Speaker 1: they say that this is an easier way to get
20:12
Speaker 1: ringers if you're if you can master this, you know,
20:16
Speaker 1: if you spent enough years mastering the quarter turn. I'm sorry,
20:21
Speaker 1: the one in one quarter turn, not the quarter turn.
20:23
Speaker 1: And there's others just like three quarter turns one and
20:25
Speaker 1: three quarter turns. This is the standard other one. Yeah,
20:29
Speaker 1: for one. In a quarter turn, you hold the horse
20:31
Speaker 1: shoe by the shank, so the opening is to the
20:34
Speaker 1: left of your grip if you're right handed, opposite if
20:37
Speaker 1: your left the obviously you swing your arm back and
20:40
Speaker 1: forth like a pendulum, just like you were going to
20:42
Speaker 1: do with the flip pitch. And then, uh, I get that.
20:46
Speaker 1: You let it go lower, is that right? Yeah, usually
20:48
Speaker 1: when it hits like your thigh area, Okay, which I
20:51
Speaker 1: think would give it a higher arc. Is the difference, right,
20:55
Speaker 1: sharper arc? Yeah, but you want to keep that shoe
20:57
Speaker 1: level to the ground instead of flipping it. Uh, it's turning,
21:01
Speaker 1: I guess, turning in a quarter until it meets you know,
21:05
Speaker 1: the steak. Obviously, your your goal there with the turn
21:09
Speaker 1: is to meet the steak with the I was about
21:12
Speaker 1: to call him prongs. After we just went over all
21:16
Speaker 1: that the cocks facing the steak, and then you've got
21:20
Speaker 1: yourself a ringer. Everyone drinks corn whiskey and raises their
21:25
Speaker 1: glass for more corn whiskey to be poured into it.
21:29
Speaker 1: So if you get close, you get no points, right
21:31
Speaker 1: because close doesn't count in horse shoes. Close only counts
21:35
Speaker 1: in horseshoes and hand grenades. Oh is that where that
21:39
Speaker 1: comes from? It does? I was being koy. Yes, obviously
21:41
Speaker 1: you get points by being close. That's where the axion
21:43
Speaker 1: comes from. Yeah, it's it's called an in count. So
21:46
Speaker 1: let's let's say you and I are just both thrown. Yep,
21:49
Speaker 1: that's one inning. We're gonna go score our inning. Um,
21:53
Speaker 1: let's say I threw one wild because I've had a
21:56
Speaker 1: lot of corn whiskey from all the ringers I threw
21:58
Speaker 1: previous to this round, this ending before I got there
22:00
Speaker 1: to witness it. And huh, well, I'm just saying like
22:05
Speaker 1: you're lying about how many ringers you through. I get there.
22:07
Speaker 1: You look earlier through twelve ringers. Okay, that's why I'm drunking.
22:12
Speaker 1: So I throw one and it's out of the out
22:15
Speaker 1: of the court. That's dead. That's a dead shoe. It
22:19
Speaker 1: doesn't count. Not a dead ringer. No, but there are
22:22
Speaker 1: such things. We'll explain that in a second. Um, but
22:26
Speaker 1: I did throw one and it hit the ring and
22:29
Speaker 1: it's spun around, and we're doing the all count or
22:32
Speaker 1: count all scoring, which means that I get three points.
22:37
Speaker 1: Three points. It's the highest you can score. Okay, you
22:40
Speaker 1: threw a ringer two and um, you three years on
22:44
Speaker 1: top of mine. You've got three points for that one.
22:47
Speaker 1: And then your second ringer it stayed in and I
22:49
Speaker 1: only did a stay in. It fell and is leaning
22:52
Speaker 1: now vertically up against the steak. It's not around it,
22:56
Speaker 1: but it's just up against it. It's called leaner. That's
22:59
Speaker 1: worth one point. I think that should be two points.
23:02
Speaker 1: It depends. Some people do score two points. I've seen
23:06
Speaker 1: videos that that's one. Yeah, I think this is just
23:09
Speaker 1: my opinion. I think it should be three two and
23:11
Speaker 1: one not three one and one. It makes sense. And
23:14
Speaker 1: the one that I think you're under your house rules
23:16
Speaker 1: counts is one point. No matter what, everybody counts as.
23:19
Speaker 1: One point is one that lands within six inches of
23:23
Speaker 1: the steak. Yeah, well, how we play is um, you
23:26
Speaker 1: just measure with another horseshoe, and if it is within
23:31
Speaker 1: the length of the two cocks, you know, that's what
23:34
Speaker 1: we measure. I don't know if that's six inches or not,
23:36
Speaker 1: but that's what we use. That makes sense. Um So
23:40
Speaker 1: three two and one or three one and one, depending
23:42
Speaker 1: on how you're scoring. That's the count all method. Yeah.
23:45
Speaker 1: I don't get this other method. Okay, I'll explain it
23:47
Speaker 1: to you. It doesn't make sense to me, it does.
23:50
Speaker 1: It took me many times and I actually had to
23:53
Speaker 1: watch a video to get it. It's complex, but it's
23:56
Speaker 1: not really. It's just sometimes the rules of games are
23:59
Speaker 1: hard to right down to get across and writing. Um So,
24:03
Speaker 1: the other method of scoring is called cancelation, right, and
24:07
Speaker 1: so in cancelation rules, that one that I threw out,
24:10
Speaker 1: that's out. It doesn't count either way. Remember I threw
24:13
Speaker 1: that ringer. You threw that ringer on top of mine.
24:17
Speaker 1: That canceled out my ringer, which made my ringer and
24:22
Speaker 1: your ringer they cancel one another out. See that's what
24:24
Speaker 1: I don't get. What's the point. That's the same thing
24:26
Speaker 1: as both of us getting three both of us getting zero. Okay,
24:29
Speaker 1: it's true, but does that just keep the score down?
24:32
Speaker 1: Or something. It does. I think also if you're really good,
24:35
Speaker 1: you know how to cancel other people's points out in
24:38
Speaker 1: addition to scoring yourself. But yes, it does. I think
24:41
Speaker 1: it extends the game to really because cancelation, I mean,
24:46
Speaker 1: like that keeps the points down and if you're trying
24:48
Speaker 1: to get to forty points, that's a long game. Um,
24:52
Speaker 1: but that one that you threw, that's leaning. I didn't
24:55
Speaker 1: throw one like that, so there's not one for you
24:58
Speaker 1: to cancel out mine, which means you get your points,
25:00
Speaker 1: whether two points if you're playing at your house, or
25:02
Speaker 1: one point if you're playing in a tournament. So cancelation
25:06
Speaker 1: is just if you do something that's the same as
25:07
Speaker 1: somebody else, they cancel one another out, and then if
25:10
Speaker 1: there's something that's like yours as closer than mine, that
25:13
Speaker 1: you get that one point. I mean it makes sense,
25:16
Speaker 1: I guess in a way, and then I like to
25:18
Speaker 1: score points, so I would just give everyone points, right, Yeah,
25:21
Speaker 1: that's the thing in cancelation points. I'm not gonna win
25:23
Speaker 1: any points like because yours is if yours is closer,
25:26
Speaker 1: even if mine is within six inches of the steak
25:29
Speaker 1: and yours just within six inches, if yours just closer,
25:31
Speaker 1: you're the one who gets the point. I don't, so
25:33
Speaker 1: it's all like I'm getting all the points in this ending.
25:37
Speaker 1: But yeah, that makes for a long game, I would guess,
25:39
Speaker 1: although if you have people who are just throwing a
25:41
Speaker 1: ring or ring or ringer, a game would probably go
25:43
Speaker 1: by like in a in a blink of an eye.
25:45
Speaker 1: So cancelation rules are probably for people who are really
25:48
Speaker 1: good at horseshoes. Yeah, and I've also seen where a
25:50
Speaker 1: lot of times you played a win by two. I
25:53
Speaker 1: don't know is that the official rule or is that
25:55
Speaker 1: house I didn't see that anywhere. That's the first first
25:58
Speaker 1: person to get to forty. Okay, that may be a
26:00
Speaker 1: house rule or a local thing. Yeah, but I'm always
26:02
Speaker 1: a win by two. Like it sounds a lot like
26:03
Speaker 1: what you're describing as volleyball play one win by two.
26:08
Speaker 1: That's pink punk two. Right maybe? So WHOA, I think
26:11
Speaker 1: we happened upon a magical rule that permeates almost all
26:14
Speaker 1: games backyard or otherwise have fun stuff. That's it, man,
26:20
Speaker 1: Do you got anything else? No, I, as much as
26:23
Speaker 1: I tried be careful. Yeah, And if you have lawn darts,
26:28
Speaker 1: turn them into your local government because you're you're not
26:32
Speaker 1: supposed to have this. Yeah, they're hoarding those for the
26:35
Speaker 1: the apocalypse. Those are gonna be valuable one day. Message
26:40
Speaker 1: break not yet, all right. If you want to learn
26:42
Speaker 1: more about horseshoes, or if you just need a handy
26:45
Speaker 1: print out of these rules for your own home horseshoe court,
26:49
Speaker 1: just type horse shoes in the search part how stuff
26:51
Speaker 1: works dot com and it's all right there for you. Uh.
26:54
Speaker 1: And since I said horse shoes, now it's time for
26:57
Speaker 1: message break. Uh. And now it's time for listener mail. Huh. Yeah,
27:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this burning Man correction because uh, you know,
27:11
Speaker 1: we've never been We didn't get it, all right. That
27:14
Speaker 1: was a tough one. We've never been to Cerne either,
27:16
Speaker 1: but we still talked about a large Hadron collider. Yeah,
27:18
Speaker 1: but we learned with listener mail that uh, burners take
27:23
Speaker 1: their burning seriously. Let's hear about it. And I feel
27:26
Speaker 1: terrible because I don't have her name, and I apologize
27:29
Speaker 1: about that anonymous burner, but here it is, miss Burner. Hey,
27:34
Speaker 1: Chuck and Josh and Jerry. I was so excited when
27:36
Speaker 1: I saw you did a podcast on burning Man. I
27:37
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to listen. I went to Burning Man five
27:40
Speaker 1: times from two thousand and two thousand five, so she
27:44
Speaker 1: knows what she's talking about. I don't know if y'all would. Um,
27:47
Speaker 1: I didn't know if y'all would get it since you've
27:49
Speaker 1: never been, But you nailed it. You made me laugh
27:52
Speaker 1: out loud a number of times. Some people get all
27:56
Speaker 1: serious about it and pretend that it's not all about
27:58
Speaker 1: sex and drugs, but just let me tell you, sex
28:01
Speaker 1: and drugs are a huge part of it. That place
28:03
Speaker 1: wouldn't exist without hallucinogenics. I have seen police there and
28:07
Speaker 1: that's the one thing he got wrong. I have a
28:09
Speaker 1: friend who was actually arrested for drugs there, so there's
28:12
Speaker 1: definitely a police presence. The man is everywhere, so I
28:17
Speaker 1: just wanted to add Also, even though it's not a
28:20
Speaker 1: music festival per se, you can really catch some great
28:23
Speaker 1: acts there on the downlow. We saw Paul Oakenfold there
28:27
Speaker 1: in two thousand when he was one of the world's
28:29
Speaker 1: top DJs. There was no advertising, just word of mouth
28:33
Speaker 1: that he was there. We rocked up to see him
28:37
Speaker 1: spend an amazing set to about three people. Uh it's
28:40
Speaker 1: pretty cool, man, Yeah, very intimate. That's a big name.
28:44
Speaker 1: Another cool brush was with music legend Perry Farrell. We
28:48
Speaker 1: saw him dancing at Sunrise and asked him to come
28:51
Speaker 1: over to our place to eat cheese and crackers with us,
28:53
Speaker 1: and he did. He's really really nice guy and really
28:56
Speaker 1: really high and in the burning Man spirit. That no
29:00
Speaker 1: sense of them being famous people or being anything other
29:04
Speaker 1: than just part of the city like the rest of us.
29:08
Speaker 1: All are equal on the player. That's cool. And uh,
29:11
Speaker 1: maybe it's good I don't have our name. Yeah, she
29:14
Speaker 1: just disappeared into the play exactly like a mirage. So
29:18
Speaker 1: we appreciate that correction, and thank you for the kudos. Yeah,
29:21
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Um, we appreciate that. If you
29:25
Speaker 1: want to correct us on something we got wrong, we
29:29
Speaker 1: always love those. Thank you for everyone who who has
29:32
Speaker 1: ever written in to correct us. You can tweet to
29:35
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29:38
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29:41
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29:44
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29:46
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29:49
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29:57
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