I love hunting down traces of horse era in Melbourne. If time travellers from the nineteenth century were to arrive, one of their first questions would be “where have all the horses gone”?
This collection of horse-shoes is part of the City of Darebin collection, most likely inherited from Preston Historical Society, and most likely donated by Merv Harris, aka the last blacksmith in Coburg (Coburg Historical Society have his leather apron).
The display labels are short and crisply written but bring the random metal curves to life. I particularly like the label for the horse-shoes on the far right of the image: ‘HEAVY FRONT SHOES DESIGNED TO MAKE A SHOW HORSE LIFT HIS FEET’.