BURLINGTON — This is a group of folks you’d want to avoid at picnics.

Members of the Skagit Valley Horseshoe Club take throwing horseshoes seriously.

They compete Tuesdays from April through September at their lighted 24-court facility in Burlington.

While they are serious about pitching shoes — they host two annual tournaments — the real emphasis is on having fun.

“That’s really what it’s all about,” said Don Ebey, who along with wife Mary makes the drive from Birdsview each week to toss a few shoes. “You have to have fun. And we do.”

The Skagit club is a member of the National Horseshoe Pitching Association of America and the Washington State Horseshoe Pitchers Association.

Debbi McRae of Sedro-Woolley has been pitching shoes for about 10 years, getting her start in a recreational tavern league.

Not only does she pitch shoes and keep score — she’s a sanctioned scorekeeper for the state’s governing body — McRae is also a big-time recruiter. Just ask Linda Pransky of La Conner.

A year ago, Pransky simply stopped by the club’s facility to kill some time before heading to a creative writing class at Skagit Valley College.

“I saw them out there pitching,” Pransky recalled. “I was on my way back from Costco and decided to stop and watch.”

Watching soon became pitching.

“There’s no watching,” McRae said with a laugh. “I told her (Pransky) that she had to pitch. ‘So get on out here.’”

Pransky gave in, and is pitching horseshoes full time this year.

“I got out there and discovered I could do it,” Pransky said. “And the more I did it, the worse I got. Eventually, I was able to find my own style.”

She said pitching horseshoes has helped her when it comes to her favorite recreational endeavor — fly fishing.

“It really helps me with my fly casting,” she said. “Horseshoes has made me slow down and take my time. That’s exactly what I needed to do out on the water.

“In the pits, you have to slow down and get the shoe up in the air. Just like fly fishing, you want to use the same motion every time. You want your release point to be the same with each pitch.”

Long-time horseshoe pitcher and current president of the Skagit Valley Horseshoe Club Ray DeBoer of Mount Vernon agrees.

“You want to throw a soft shoe,” he said. “If you release it low, then it’s going to be a line drive. Then you are bowling, not throwing horseshoes.”

Figuring out the perfect release point is not as easy as it sounds. It’s something that has to become second nature.

DeBoer has a wind-up just like a pitcher in baseball. He swings the horseshoe high over his head, then as it falls downward he steps forward on the pitching platform. Once the shoe has reached DeBoer’s high release point, he releases it. Each approach and pitch is like every other.

One would think that with such a big backswing DeBoer’s shoes would travel with a great deal of velocity and upon impact displace a great deal of sand from the pit.
That’s not the case.

It’s almost as if DeBoer’s shoes are dropped from just above the sand-filled pit. His horseshoes seemingly float through the air while slowly rotating about a revolution and a half while on their way to the pit. His horseshoes don’t explode into the sand. Rather, they nestle into it.

That’s the definition of a soft shoe.

Getting into a rhythm is the key.

“It’s really a head game,” said Pransky. “It’s a lot like golf. You have to have your head in it. You can’t be thinking of anything else.”

There are different styles of horseshoes and different ways to hold them.

There are 85 sanctioned horseshoes. The only thing standard is their weight. A shoe can’t be over 2 pounds, 10 ounces. The way the weight is distributed depends on the manufacturer. No horseshoe can exceed 7 1/4 inches in width or 7 5/8 inches in length. The opening of the shoe must not exceed 3 1/2 inches.

McRae said that if you hold the horseshoe by its toe (the area farthest from the open end), then it’s going to turn over during flight. If you hold the horseshoe by its side, then it has a tendency to move to the left or right.

“Rotation is really everything,” DeBoer said. “A good throw rotates about 1 1/2 times.”

Mount Vernon’s Lee Shinn takes his horseshoe throwing south for the winter. His destination is just outside Palm Springs, Calif.

“I’ve been at it for three years,” Shinn said. “There are some good players down there (Palm Springs). I play once a week up here and twice a week down there.”

According to Shinn, the key is repetition.

“And you have to relax,” he said. “And you have to pivot from the shoulder every time. Then you have to release it at the same point as well. The brain doesn’t always cooperate when it comes to that.”

N.T. Presnell also heads south for the winter, snow-birding in Yuma, Ariz.

“I actually run the horseshoe pits in Yuma,” said Presnell. “I pitch four times a week.”

The Burlington resident added that it’s nice to come home and be able to play horseshoes with a good group.

Participants pitch 30 shoes per game. Games are divided into innings, which consist of four pitched shoes — two by each player.

Horseshoe scoring is straightforward. A ringer counts for three points and closest to the stake earns one. If each player throws a ringer, then the two cancel out. This is also called a “dead shoe.”

In order to score, horseshoes must hit the pit directly. Horseshoes that contact anything other than sand or the stake are considered dead.

There is a handicapping system based on percentage of ringers. A pitcher’s ringer percentage is determined by dividing the number of ringers by the number of shoes pitched.

“The handicapping system makes sure everyone starts even,” said Don Ebey. “We played horseshoes when we were in Yuma. We do a lot of camping, and at campgrounds horseshoes are always big.”

In tournaments, the number of shoes increases to 40 per game.

Age decides the length of the pitch for players. Women, men over 70 and men under 18 pitch a distance of 30 feet. All other men pitch from 40 feet.

That means that 83-year-old Fred Mesman of La Conner pitches his horseshoes from 30 feet. Mesman helped create the club and its facility.

“I’ve been playing for a long time,” Mesman said. “It’s something to do.”

Mesman recalled seeing folks throw horseshoes at the Sedro-Woolley Rodeo decades ago.

It was at the rodeo that Mesman met Bill Owens. Mesman, Owens and Mesman’s brother Francis started the Skagit Valley Horseshoe Club.

While Mesman has been throwing horseshoes for years, Jim Garcia is a relative newcomer.

Garcia recently moved into a home that borders the courts, and decided one day to come out to have a look. It wasn’t long before he had a set of horseshoes in his hand.

“I wasn’t doing anything so I decided to come out and do some investigating,” Garcia said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve pitched a horseshoe. The last time, I was just a kid. But I have the time to learn.”

Horseshoes has something going for it that some other sports do not. It’s something that can be played on the cheap.

“It’s a sport I can enjoy without spending a bunch of money,” said Garcia. “The atmosphere is really, really nice. Everyone has been great.”

Most players carry a “hook,” which is basically a sawed-off golf club with a metal hook at the end. Instead of bending over to retrieve horseshoes, one simply uses the hook.

Garcia, however, was doing it the old-fashioned way.

“I don’t need a hook,” he said. “No, no, no. I need the exercise. All this bending is good for me.”

Don Ebey said throwing horseshoes isn’t as popular as it once was and young people tend to gravitate to other activities.

But that may be changing because of the economy.

“It’s a very inexpensive sport,” said Ebey. “Really, the only cost is getting here. It’s an easy game and everyone really enjoys it. We are really one big family and we have a lot of fun.”

If you are interested in giving horseshoes a try, simply show up at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays at the club’s pits, located on Whitmarsh Road in Burlington.

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at