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6 Best Horseshoe Sets Reviewed For Your Backyard 2023

Best Horseshoe Set

The game of horseshoes has been making people happy for a long time. It’s deceptively simple — it’s super easy to set up and start playing, but you’ll find that pitching the solid steel or cast iron horseshoes is part art, part science, part skill and all fun!

The best horseshoe sets are listed below for your consideration. We especially like the St Pierre Sports American Presidential Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case and the St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game Set, but any of these sets would be a great choice for a great game. They are all solidly made, feel satisfying and will last a long time.

#1 Editor’s Choice

St Pierre Sports American Presidential Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case
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#2 Editor’s Choice

St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game Set
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St Pierre Sports American Professional Horseshoe Game Set
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Triumph Sports USA Premium Forged 6 Piece Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case
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Champion Sports Rubber Horseshoe Set
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Franklin Sports Professional Horseshoe Set
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1. St Pierre Sports American Presidential Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case

St Pierre Sports Presidential Horseshoe Set

Editor’s Choice #1: The St Pierre Sports American Presidential Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case looks and feels as if it belongs in the White House, but you’ll have fun with this solid set wherever you play. The colors are classy and every single piece feels solid. The case is a conversation piece in itself and deserves a place of honor.

The St Pierre family has been making the best sets for games — horseshoes included — for decades. You’ll be getting super high-quality horseshoes from a legacy manufacturer. The set is NHPA-approved for professional and tournament play and has been designed to meet the needs of professional players, but it’s also accessible and attractive for you to use in your home! Some of what makes it so special includes horseshoes forged with extra weight at the tips for maximum control, a tapered edge that seems to guide the horseshoe to the stake, longer tips to grab the stake, ringer breakers, and finger positioners. These features will take your play to the next level so take advantage of them today.

Professional Quality And Pretty Too

This set is designed for serious play but it’s seriously nice-looking too. The powder-coated horseshoes come in regal gold and silver, and the vintage style pine box features a mahogany stain with an etched-in logo and a heavy-duty handle to take it anywhere you go. It measures 25″ x 9″ x 2.5″ and weighs 21.5 pounds All the game pieces are resistant to weather and heat so this is the perfect set for summertime play on the beach, in the backyard, around the campfire, or anywhere else. Get ready to play like the pros do! You get two silver and two gold horseshoes, two silver stakes, a rule book/instruction manual that includes court layout diagrams, and the case.

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2. St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game Set

St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game

Editor’s Choice #2: The St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game Set comes with an impressive legacy and an even more impressive set of horseshoes. This family company has been making the best outdoor games for decades. The set is appropriate for super serious pitchers but just as much so for backyard fun with family, friends, and loved ones.

This horseshoe set comes with everything you need for a great game of horseshoes, whether you’re playing casually with family and friends or getting ready for a tournament or competition. With this set you get:

  • Two red and two blue horseshoes
  • Two silver stakes
  • A rulebook/instruction manual
  • A scorekeeper
  • A hard plastic carrying case with a handle

The set is made in the USA and it is NHPA-approved for tournament play, so you know that it meets the best standard. In total, it weighs around 16 pounds with the case.

Solidly Engineered

This set is ideal for competitive or recreational horseshoe play and it is designed to maximize every player’s game. It’s manufactured by the St Pierre family, who is America’s largest manufacturer of the horseshoe sets. The horseshoes are solid forged steel for the best weight distribution and are made with special trademarked features for superior balance and control. The baked-on, electrostatically-applied finish resists chipping, rust, corrosion and slipping. They’re great for outdoor play just about anywhere.

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3. St Pierre Sports American Professional Horseshoe Game Set

American Professional Horseshoe Game Set

Horseshoes With Heritage

As mentioned above, the St Pierre family has been forging horseshoe sets for the best play for well over eighty years. These folks know what they are doing and this set is a perfect example. It’s made in the USA and approved for tournament play. This professional horseshoes set boasts a patented design created by a world champion horseshoe pitcher. There is more weight forged into the tips of each horseshoe for better balance and control as well as a tapered leading edge, longer tips to grab the stake and ringer breakers. The horseshoe also has a finger positioner for a good grip. The colored coating is baked on for durability and it is resistant to chipping, weathering and corrosion.

What You Need

This St Pierre American professional pitching set comes complete so you can set up and start playing right out of the box.

Included in this set:

  • Four forged steel horseshoes (two white and two blue)
  • Two corner stakes
  • Official rulebook
  • Court layout diagram
  • Convenient hard plastic carry case.

Weighing in at 19 pounds, the St Pierre American professional series set is NHPA-approved and is ideal for both casual and more serious players.

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4. Triumph Sports USA Premium Forged 6 Piece Horseshoe Set With Carrying Case

Triumph Forged Horseshoe Game Set

Horseshoes: The Game

This professional series set comes with four powder-coated horseshoes (two blue and two white), two powder-coated steel stakes, a rulebook/instruction manual and a hard plastic case with latches and handles. You’ll have what you need to set up a recreational horseshoe game with family and friends or train for a tournament, although you will probably want a hammer to drive the stakes into the ground. The case protects your game pieces from the elements and everything else from the heavy metal horseshoes and stakes.

Thoughtfully Designed

This best horseshoe set was engineered to the highest standards. The powder coating makes the horseshoes and stakes resistant to weather, UV rays, heat, water, rust and mildew. You can play in any environment and under any conditions! The four horseshoes themselves are made from forged steel and feature both a finger positioner that makes them easy to grip, and ringer breakers which help the steel horseshoes spin when they hit the stake, instead of bouncing off. This set was also manufactured to achieve fair trade/fair labor certification, reduced harmful chemicals certification and reduced carbon/carbon neutral certification.

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5. Champion Sports Rubber Horseshoe Set

Champion Sports Horseshoe Set

Introductory Or Indoor Horseshoes

This professional series set comes with four powder-coated horseshoes (two blue and two white), two powder-coated steel stakes, a rulebook/instruction manual and a hard plastic case with latches and handles. You’ll have what you need to set up a recreational horseshoe game with family and friends or train for a tournament, although you will probably want a hammer to drive the stakes into the ground. The case protects your game pieces from the elements and everything else from the heavy metal horseshoes and stakes.

The Same But Different

While this set looks and plays a lot like traditional horseshoe sets, there are some obvious and important differences. The horseshoe pieces are much smaller and lighter, and the stakes are shorter. This means that you can set up in a garage or basement; you don’t need the same amount of room that you would for a traditional horseshoe court. It also means that smaller hands can handle the rubber horseshoes easily, and smaller bodies can pitch them on the smaller court. It gets children and new players accustomed to the rules and gameplay so they’ll be ready to play the full-size, real-horseshoe game later on.

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6. Franklin Sports Professional Horseshoe Set

Franklin Sports Professional Horseshoe Set

Authentic Horseshoe Set

This Franklin Sports set comes with everything you need to get started, including convenient instructions on how to lay out the court and play the game. You get four forged steel horseshoes — two grey and two black — and two chrome-plated, solid steel stakes. All pieces are regulation size and weight, and the set is professional-quality. It’s just like the ones used in the best national horseshoe competitions. The set weighs just over 14 pounds in total and comes in an attractive black carrying case with a zipper and handles.

Pack and Play

You can take this American professional horseshoe set just about anywhere. It’s regulation-size solid steel but not too heavy to transport in the included storage bag. Everything packs up neatly so that you can stash it in the trunk of your car to go on a picnic, to the beach, to a tailgate barbecue, or on a camping trip. These horseshoes, made for play, are a great addition to your game quarium and great fun with family or friends.

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Buyer’s Guide

How To Choose The Best Horseshoe Set

Horseshoe Game Buyers Guide

Whether you’re wanting to play with your friends and family or getting ready to compete, there are a lot of great sets out there and we’ll help you decide which is the right one for you! It is a great game for all ages and the equipment doesn’t take up much space, unlike cornhole boards and bags

Professional Vs. Recreational Sets

If you are preparing for tournaments or competitions, you will probably want to make sure that you are playing with the best professional horseshoe sets. According to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association, the standard competitive, professional pitching horseshoes are 2.5 pounds (1.14 kilograms) in weight, 7.625 inches (19.4 centimeters) long, 7 inches (17.8 centimeters) wide, and 3.5 inches (8.9 centimeters) wide at the gap. The best horseshoe set for tournaments and competitions should be made from solid forged steel or cast iron alloy.

Recreational horseshoe sets can be made of pretty much anything that feels good to hold and throw! Common materials for the best horseshoe sets for recreational use include cast steel, plastic, or rubber. They may also have rounded edges or other features that make them easier to throw. If you are playing on a home court that is smaller than a tournament court, it is fine for the horseshoes to be somewhat lighter than tournament-grade horseshoes.

Horseshoes in any form has long been praised as a comfortable, cozy game for people of all ages and skill levels. Whether you’re reading this buying guide to find a competitive set or something pretty for the patio, we’ve got you.

Type Of Horseshoes

Material: The best horseshoe sets can be made from forged steel, cast iron alloys, cast steel, plastic, or rubber. If you plan on playing inside, plastic or rubber are by far the best horseshoe choices! They are, however, much lighter than metal horseshoes made to be heavy. Steel or cast iron horseshoes may be finished for appearance and durability. Powder-coated or baked-on finishes are generally the most desirable for outdoor play and they will last a long time.

Quality: The best heavy-duty, high-quality horseshoe set should be solid, symmetrical and well balanced. It should have a smooth but not slippery feel and an opening that circles the stake easily.

Weight: The standard for tournament or professional horseshoes is 2.5 pounds. It’s fine to play at home with any weight, and younger and smaller players will likely want to play with lighter horseshoe sets. Plastic and rubber sports horseshoe sets tend to be lighter than cast iron horseshoes and are appropriate for all skill levels.

Maintenance

A plastic or rubber horseshoes set will be relatively low-maintenance. Iron or steel horseshoes with the best-quality powder coatings or baked-on finishes are also usually resistant to water, weather, and corrosion. By their very nature, thoroughbred horseshoes are meant to take a beating and your horseshoes game should do fine by you for many years. 

How To Play Horseshoe Game

How to Play Horseshoe Game

Setting Up The Court For Horseshoe Game

The best and most traditional horseshoe court measures 48 feet by 6 feet, though it is possible to shorten it somewhat. The crucial measurement is that the two stakes must be exactly 40 feet apart.

Once you have designated your area, you’ll need to mark out a pitcher’s box (6 feet by 6 feet) at each end of the court. Each pitcher’s box contains a pit, a pitching platform and a pit backboard, with the pit centered in the pitching box. The pitching platforms are parallel to each other and on the right and left sides of the pit. Stakes are centered between the pitching platforms and 40 feet apart from each other.

Rules And Scoring

The games of horseshoes is played in a similar way to Bocce Ball and ladderball, which you can see here. Game play consists of players taking turns throwing both their horseshoes at the stake. You want to get as close as possible to the stake.

Have you heard “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”? It’s true. The point of horseshoes games is to get your horseshoes around the stake. But if neither player lands a ringer (which is when the horseshoe encircles the stake), then the closest horseshoes score points.

If there are no ringers, the closest horseshoe earns one point. If both of your horseshoes are closer than both your opponents’, that earns two points. A ringer is worth three points. If your opponent lands a ringer on top of yours, though, they cancel each other out. But if you have a ringer plus the closest other horseshoe, you get four points.

Hints And Tactics

As with pretty much every other game, you have the choice to play either aggressively or defensively. In the best case, playing aggressively would mean going for the ringers at the possible cost of bouncing off the stake. A defensive player would focus on getting their horseshoes closer than their opponent’s to prevent the opponent from scoring at all.

Other refinements include learning just how to grip the horseshoe to best achieve the proper number of turns with each pitch. The standard turns are 1-1/4 and 1-3/4 turns. Other turn combinations are referred to as “freak” or “off” turns, however this does not mean that they aren’t effective, as championships have been won with freak and reverse turns.

Frequently Asked Questions

The official dimensions of a horseshoe pit are 48 feet by 6 feet. It’s possible to set up a shorter pit but the stakes need to be 40 feet apart. The sand in a horseshoe pit should be at least 4 inches deep; competition pits usually have at least 8 inches of sand so the closer you can get to that, the better.

Horseshoes can be played on grass, gravel, granite, or clay as well as sand. You can play on any surface that absorbs shock and allows you to anchor the stake securely. It’s also important to have a backboard or barrier to catch errant horseshoes. Weeds may be the biggest problem with a grass playing court.

You do not have to win by 2 points in horseshoes. The official rules are silent about needing to win by any specified margin. There are many variations and “house rules” that people enjoy in non-sanctioned play and there is no reason why you and your family and friends cannot play however you want to!

A leaner in horseshoes is when one of the pitched horseshoes touches the stake but does not encircle it. A ringer has the highest point value. If there are no ringers, a leaner that touches the stake (it does not actually have to lean against the stake, despite the name) is the next closest and therefore scores a point for the player who pitched it.

You win at horseshoes by scoring the most points. Points are scored by pitching your horseshoes around the stake, or closer to the stake than your opponent’s horseshoes. Competitive games are typically played to 21 points; championship games are played to 40 points. Handicapped divisions of sanctioned tournaments typically play 50-shoe games where each player pitches 50 shoes and the highest score wins.

Conclusion

The game of horseshoes has a long and happy history. People have enjoyed playing it for hundreds of years. All that you have to do to be part of this history is to pick up one of the best horseshoe sets on the market, and we highly recommend the St Pierre Sports Royal Classic Horseshoe Game Set.

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