Viking Inspired Equine Snowshoes

In August 2019 the Secrets of the Ice Facebook page shared a new find from the Lendbreen Glacer in Norway. You can read about their finds in Antiquity, Volume 94, Issue 374. American Farriers Journal reported: "The snowshoe, which traditionally were made with a ring of juniper. as well as withe that were made from the twisted root shoots of birch. The shoe would have been attached to the foot with a fastener made from withe — a tough, flexible root shoot from a birch tree. The withe was not found with the snowshoe. Researchers will study it further to determine the materials that were used."

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Viking Era Equine Snowshoe - from Secrets of the Ice Facebook page

Attempt 1

Our first try using common grapevine, iris leaves and some binder twine.

Sadly this attempt fell apart rather quickly as the grapevine kept popping open.

Attempt 2

This leather, grapevine and iris leaf combination held up much better.  Examples of miniature horse walking in the snowshoe are below.  We thought we might have snow to see how well they worked but we only got frost.  There is always this coming winter.

Snowshoe Test 1

 Snowshoe Test 2

Many thanks to Joyce Haak for her assistance in this Covid-19 project.

The Road to Carriage Town

This is a project that I've been working on for quite some time - how the carriage industry affected Michigan cities and towns. How did the rise of labor unions affect carriage manufacturers? Were safety features being implemented to prevent fires, which were a major issue for the carriage industry? Thus far I've written two articles for The Carriage Journal on the topic and have presented two talks. 

This is a copy of one of the talks. I suggest starting at the 4 minute mark as there are some sound issues prior to that.

Making A Change

It has been a few years since this blog has been active, I'm looking forward to getting it up and running again.  The focus will be less on clinics that I'm doing or putting on and more about actual driving.  At this time I'm experimenting with pre-17th century equestrian activities through the SCA and 18th century to present through the CAA.  I've been particularly interested in doing reverse engineering on some projects including creating a Viking inspired snow shoe for a horse as well as looking into full collars for driving.