A question! Of history, and horsing!

[desperance]

So we read, in the records of the Frost Fairs on the frozen Thames, about carthorses and carriage horses hauling freight and noblefolk up and down the river; but would the horses have needed special shoeing (crampons!) to give them purchase on the ice? Or do we assume that the surface would have been either snowy or else churned up enough to offer a grip to normal horseshoes? Or would sacking over the hooves offer better friction? Or...?

(This question brought to you by the rather delighted realisation that on Mars, Christmas comes but twice a year.)

Comments

[wordweaverlynn]

In snowy climates, horses are given shoes with texture to help traction. Thus the expression to ride roughshod over someone.

[desperance]

Heh. Really? I did not know that.

[clanwilliam]

Most likely thing would be studs in the shoes. Some shoes have built-in studs, some have swappable studs (racehorses, for example) and sometimes you just use different nails. For example, Peggy was understandably wearing through her shoes at a tremendous rate while I was riding her around England and I asked farriers about road studs, since some of the roads were very slippy. The general consensus was that road studs were a bad idea because of all the different surfaces I would encounter during the day, but road nails would be an excellent compromise (and they were).