Ox Shoes

One ox shoe, collected by Scotty Zion, 19th Century [2017.074.79]. 5.25" x 2".

This ox shoe has a heal cauking (calk) but not toe calk. A nail protruding from the edge confirms it as a used shoe.

Hooved working animals have received metal shoes from humans for over one thousand years. The thick keratan of laboring animal's hooves experience abnormal wear and tear when required to haul heavy weights. The raised features in these ox shoes, called caulkins, caulks, or calks, assist working animals with traction.

The way an ox is shod is quite different from the way a horse is shod. Oxen, unlike horses, are incapable of balancing on three legs while a farrier nails in a shoe. (They're either incapable of balancing, or they hate it so much that it's impossible to do this to them. Can you blame them? A big heavy ox standing on four tiny feet - would you be comfortable with any one of those supports lifted off the ground?) Massive stocks were built to hold supportive slings which slid under the ox's belly for support while each half of his cloven hoof was shod. Another method of shoeing oxen is to bring the ox to the ground, put him on his side, tie his legs to a large post, and then shoe his hooves.

Shoeing oxen is no longer a common practice here in the American West as they are utilized less for the labors which were required of them years ago before machinery took over as the main powerhouse workers.

Ox shoe from the Scotty Zion collection with heel and toe caukings (calks), 19th Century [2017.074.78]. 5" x 1.75". There is a single nail protruding from the edge, confirming this is a used shoe. Ox shoes for a single foot were symmetrical. These two shoes (2017.074.79) were once displayed together on a large board, however the two different variants (2 calks vs 1 calk) would not have been used on the same hoof or perhaps even the same animal.

One ox shoe from the Scotty Zion Collection, undetermined date [2017.074.107]. 4.5" x 1.750". Like objects 2017.074.78 and 79, this ox shoe has heel and toe caukins (calks). Nail fragments fill 3 of 6 nail holes in the fuller.

Special thank you to our volunteer Jerry Clark for compiling this research and for his work cataloging the Scotty Zion Collection, making this article possible.