During the early part of this century, the overwhelming majority of freight into the Interior was hauled by horses, although to most people it is the dog team that comes most readily to mind when speaking of early transportation in the far north. While the dog teams were invaluable in their primary role as an express delivery service, the horses bore the brunt of the heavy labor. On the side of the shoe away from the horse's centerline, the caulk is triangular and tapered inward from the tip toward the center to prevent sideways slippage, while the inward caulk is either square in cross section or tapered from the tip of the shoe at the rear toward the front to give better forward traction. Freighting shoes such as these were not the only contrivances designed to give horses better traction. Although the derivation of the word is Obscure, Dave Nester tells me that borium is merely carbide steel.
Silver dollar is shown for scale.
Its obvious purpose was to distribute the weight of a horse and prevent it from sinking to its knees in muddy conditions, much as a snowshoe supports the weight of a man. It is merely a board with indentations carved in it which match the caulks on a horse's shoe, and a metal strap which passes over the hoof and holds it into place. One cannot help but marvel that nothing succeeds like success. Despite their apparent ungainliness, such devices must have worked, because I am told that many of them are still used today.