thumb|right|English horseshoes from the 11th to the 19th centuries thumb|Making horseshoes in India thumb|A hoof boot right|thumb|An oversized horseshoe for soft soil to distribute horse's weight Historians differ on the origin of the horseshoe. Because iron was a valuable commodity, and any worn out items were generally reforged and reused, it is difficult to locate clear archaeological evidence. Archived 8 February 1998. Although some credit the Druids, there is no hard evidence to support this claim. In 1897 four bronze horseshoes with what are apparently nail holes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated around 400 BC. The assertion by some historians that the Romans invented the "mule shoes" sometime after 100 BC is supported by a reference by Catullus who died in 54 BC.Robert E. Krebs, Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World, , (Greenword/ABC-CLIO), pp. 27–28. However, these references to use of horseshoes and muleshoes in Rome may have been to the "hipposandal"—leather boots, reinforced by an iron plate, rather than to nailed horseshoes.Rodney Carlisle, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries (2 August 2004), , John Wiley, p. 117.
thumb|right|English horseshoes from the 11th to the 19th centuries thumb|Making horseshoes in India thumb|A hoof boot right|thumb|An oversized horseshoe for soft soil to distribute horse's weight Historians differ on the origin of the horseshoe. Because iron was a valuable commodity, and any worn out items were generally reforged and reused, it is difficult to locate clear archaeological evidence. Archived 8 February 1998. Although some credit the Druids, there is no hard evidence to support this claim. In 1897 four bronze horseshoes with what are apparently nail holes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated around 400 BC. The assertion by some historians that the Romans invented the "mule shoes" sometime after 100 BC is supported by a reference by Catullus who died in 54 BC.Robert E Krebs Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World, , (Greenword/ABC-CLIO), pp 27–28. However, these references to use of horseshoes and muleshoes in Rome may have been to the "hipposandal"—leather boots, reinforced by an iron plate, rather than to nailed horseshoes.Rodney Carlisle, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries (2 August 2004), , John Wiley, p. 117.