Horseshoe Pitching

[Ralph Davis — Horseshoe Pitching Superintendent] Being a lady, you get to step up to the 27th foot foul line. Then you take your step, and release the shoe. Very good. Wow. 

[Elli Blackford] Getting closer. 

[Ralph] I know. You're a natural.

Anyone can play. Come in and sign up. If they need some help getting started, we get them started, and they just have fun and go at it. We're open just about every day of the week.

[Tom Tabat — Fort Dodge, IA] First thing, you want to decide what kind of shoe you want to throw. Now, most of the shoes you can get in sporting goods stores, are what we call picnic shoes. They're not really balanced well, and you can see the difference in shape, how much narrower it is here. And the points are wider on the professional shoe.

Look at that.

This would be one point. And if the shoe is within 6" of the stake, it's two. And if it's around the stake, where the points break the plane of the stake, that's three. If I'm starting with somebody, watch them and see just how they throw. Let them throw a couple and see how they hold the shoe, what's comfortable for them, and then try to work from there.

There's so many different ways you can deliver the shoe. I throw a turn and a quarter, which the shoe will go around one and a quarter times. The idea is when it comes to the stake, it's going to be open. So it goes on the stake.

A lot of people, especially beginners, will throw a flip shoe where they throw it, make it flip like that.

[Ralph] I think horseshoes has been part of the Iowa State fair for years. I's one of those things that, back in the day, the farmers came in, and they all got together, they pitched horseshoe. And the way we have it set up is for children, for women, and adult men. And as you turn 65, you can move up closer as you get a little bit older, little bit weaker, and it keeps you going. And it's something you play probably all your life. 

[Ava Sinnott — Pella, IA] I'm the junior champion 2024. I just throw a lot of opens here and with my grandpa at his house, because they have horseshoe pits in the backyard. I watched him a lot. Because I didn't always pitch a win, and then I did it last year. Then I just decided I wanted to actually play.

[Ralpph] The championship games are sanctioned players. You gotta be a member of the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association and the Iowa Hawkeye Horseshoe Pitchers Association to participate. There are gonna be several classes. To qualify you gotta have three tournaments in from a prior year. So if you played in last year's state tournament, that's one. So really, all you need is two more tournaments between now and the fair. A lot of local tournaments. Some of them have several a year, county fairs. 

[Zachary Smith — Gladbrook, IA] I played in the open singles a few days ago, and I also pitched in the Cadet State Championship. And I won that. I won all my games. Me and my dad also won the doubles championship. So these are flip shoes. If you can tell, there's a thumb grip that you can put your thumb on. And on the back, there's these things that you can actually flip it better. Because it's all in the control of your thumb and stuff.

[Ralph] We need a lot of younger people doing it. We think it's very important, but it's very difficult. It's not so much the competition against the other person. It's you wanting to get better yourself. So, like you say, next year, I'm in class D. I'm going to practice. I'm going to be in class B next year. You know, I want to move up.

[Steve Hatch — Knoxville, IA] This is our world horseshoe lineup here with Kevin Cohn. And here's Frank Jackson. He was a multiple winner, world champion. Frank Lundin from New London, John Paxton from Ottumwa. From the 1929 State Horseshoe Pitching Tournament. These are all Iowa guys. All good pitchers. That was the greatest horseshoe game. It was in the Guinness Book of Records. It lasted two and a half hours. This offers a glimpse back in history to the pitchers the very good pitchers through the years. Iowa should be very proud of the pitchers they have. To be a good horseshoe pitcher you have to practice a lot. You can always tell somebody just made a ringer because everybody turns around. That sounded good. You'll see people walking along and hear the clanking going on and they got to come over and see what's going on and watch. What's that? Let's go check it out.