Horseshoeing Around: The Lebanon Horseshoe League Finds Camaraderie at Riverside Community Park

On a warm sunny weeknight in August, a crowd of people gather at the horseshoe pits at Riverside Community Park on Glen Road in West Lebanon. Some people have folding lawn chairs, and others wield long metal hooks for picking up shoes. An enclosed bulletin board houses the weekly team lineup with each player’s average and total shoes thrown, scoresheets, and the club’s bylaws. The pitching platforms in the pits face each other, 40 feet apart. Each has a metal stake surrounded by sandy soil, a wooden backboard, and a cement slab. Laughter, cheers, and the clanking sounds of metal on metal ring out as horseshoes hit the stakes.

Everyone is relaxed and conversational. Sayward “Shep” Shepard, the league’s vice president, said his favorite part about the league is the camaraderie. “We’re friends for many, many years and when something happens with one of our members, whether it be the member or a family of the member, we all pitch in if we can,” he said. “We go to funerals. We step up and support the people we enjoy being with.”

“We’re like one big, happy family,” said Tom Schwarz, the league’s president.

“On top of the camaraderie, which I agree with you on, is the fact that we make jokes across the pits all night long,” added Rick Paul, the league’s secretary. “Because we all realized, yeah, do we want to play well? Do we get angry when we don’t play well? But in the end, we all have to go to work, we all have families, we all have that. And it’s just a game. Everybody shakes hands after a game.”

Why horseshoes?

The four offi cers of the league: (left to right) Shep, Tom Schwarz, Rick Paul, Foster Moodie

“Why not?” said Shep.

“Back in the day when we started, it was the only sport where you could get together like this. Cornhole wasn’t a thing. They were outlawing lawn darts,” said Rick. “I started playing at the age of 11 in my hometown of Belmont. When I came up here, right out of college, I met Shep and we started throwing in the White River league. That was 1985. A lot of us have been throwing a long time.”

The league has six teams of four people each, plus eight subs. The players bring their own horseshoes. “Everybody pretty much has their own shoes that they prefer to play with,” said Shep. Traditional-style horseshoes are flat on one side with three cleats on the other side, and are thrown through the air like a frisbee. Flip-style horseshoes have a reverse center “thumb cleat” and two end cleats, and are tossed end-over-end.

A game consists of 50 shoes thrown by two players and a match consists of four games, so each player throws 100 shoes total. Teams play in a round-robin format throughout the season. The league plays by National Horseshoe Pitchers Association (NHPA) rules, unless they have incorporated changes into the league’s bylaws. Players shoot from 40 feet (the distance between stakes), with a few exceptions. Women can choose to shoot from 30 feet, as can players over the age of 65 or those who have a medical exemption.

Finding a Home in Lebanon

Many league members volunteered their time and skills to help build and prepare the horseshoe pits area (with Lebanon Rec’s permission) at Riverside Community Park.

The sign at Riverside Park says “Home of the Upper Valley Horseshoe League,” but since moving from White River Junction to Lebanon in the 1990s, the official name of the group is now the Lebanon Horseshoe League. Established in 1979, the league met at different venues, including Storrs Hill Ski Area, until it found its home at Riverside Park in 2002.

Shep said league members pitched in to build the horseshoe pit area in the park. “Lebanon Rec wanted to utilize this area, but they also wanted to put a skate park in,” said Shep. “So, I went to the town and talked to Lebanon Rec and I told them let me have the place and we’ll build it and we’ll take care of it.”

League members built the pits and volunteered to install lights and the cables to power them. “We had a lot of different occupations [among the players],” he said. “We had electricians, we had concrete guys, backhoe operators. We dug the ditches, ran all the wires out along there.”

Building Community

The league meets every week from the first Wednesday in May to the last Wednesday in August. They hold an end-of-year banquet with awards for the top two finishing teams, top high average players, top ladies’ average players, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, and the Art King Sportsperson of the Year.

The league currently has 24 regular shooters and eight to 10 subs. Anyone over the age of 16 can join the league. Most new members are recruited by word of mouth, but the league also has a social media committee that is working to bring more awareness to the league.

“We’d have a losing battle to cornhole,” said Rick. “Cornhole, I mean, you don’t have to throw metal objects, and instead of throwing from 30 or 40 feet, you throw from 27 feet.”

“It’s a family sport,” added Tom.

Shep credits the league’s sense of community with improving players’ skills. “The thing with players that are new to the league, it has some psychological effect, I think, because as people get more comfortable with the people they’re playing and the game – regardless of whether they’ve played the game for years – it’s getting used to the people,” he said. “And everybody gets along great. And once somebody gets along with people well, their numbers start going up.”

“What we’d like to instill in people’s minds is that this is a camaraderie,” said Shep. “Everybody gets along. It’s a well-controlled game and everybody’s welcome. [Ages] 16 and up, men, women. We’d like to fill up the horseshoe pits.”