To those whom it concerns and witness to this ceremony, may we drink from our steerhorns nut-brown ale for enlightenment. Hail Gold! Gold is nineteen times heavier than any other metal. So take a thousand-pound horse or an even heavier horse like a Clydesdale or any large draft horse shod with iron-forged horseshoes, those iron shoes hold up and aren't candidates for squashing, hardly at all with gold being it is NINETEEN TIMES heavier than any other metal would they squash either. I do know what I talk about. I do extensive research on any and all of my writings. I am quite confident of my abilities for they have taken me far into the film world, and life.

George Washington, upon his inauguration, had his horses shod with gold shoes.

The Wife of Emperor Nero, Poppaea had the mules who drew her carriage shod in gold, and five-hundred asses produced milk for her daily bath.

Of the six colonial governors who gave their names to Virginia counties, Alexander Spotswood, with his spacious and hospitable country home, is probably the most interesting character.  While governor he made an exploring tour through the country from Williamsburg across the mountains to the Shenandoah River.  The parties had a jolly time, and were gone six weeks.  On their return each tourist received a golden horseshoe as a souvenir of the trip, and thus was instituted the order of the “Knights of the Horse-Shoe.”  A horse-shoe was chosen as the badge of knighthood because the horses, which at home needed no shoes, had to be shod in order to be able to travel over the rocky regions of the mountains.  In 1724, Governor Spotswood had above the falls on the Rappahannock River an iron furnace, considered by him as the first regular iron furnace in the United States.  But there was a furnace for smelting iron ore at Falling Creek, in Chesterfield county, in 1619.  It was destroyed and the people killed in the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622.  There is a pig of the iron with the furnace mark in the State Library in Richmond.

Examples of ostentatious extravagance in horse-shoes are numerous in the middle and succeeding ages. During the Roman period, I would like to make it a point, displays in this particular direction were made by the wife of Nero and others, when golden or gilded soles were fastened on the feet of mules or horses. Gold and silver shoes and nails were fashionable, it appears, among the wealthy who were ostentatiously inclined, to so late a period as the 17th century.

When Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, one of the wealthiest princes of his time, went in 1083, to meet Beatrix, mother of the famous Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany, who married Godfrey of Lorraine, his escort was so grandly equipped, that instead of iron, the horses had silver shoes and nails, and when any of these came off they were the property of those who picked them up.

Bartholomeus Scriba, in his Annales Gennenses, for the year 1230, asserts that a certain man, named Ermemolinus, gave eight thousand bizantines to Genoa, as a mark of his affection and friendship; and with this money the very best horse that could be procured was to be purchased, and presented from him to the community of that town, covered with the best gold, and shod with silver shoes (ferri pedatus clapponis argenteis); which horse or destrier (charger) was bought and led through the state of Genoa, as a remembrance of his noble act, robed in a cloth of gold, and wearing silver shoes {clapponis argenteis)

William of Tyre, for the year a.d. 1130, in describing Boemond, a brother of Robert Guiscard, Count of Apulia, and who was assigned the principality of Antioch after the first Crusade, relates how 'he sent to a distinguished nobleman, through a friend of his, a white palfrey shod with silver shoes (argento ferratum), and a beautiful bridle ornamented with silver.'
 
Johannis Bromton, describing the journey of Duke Robert to the East, states that at Rome he placed a valuable mantle on the statue of Constantine, putting to shame the Romans, who refused to bestow one even in many years. 'He rode, also, a certain mule whose shoes were gold (auri fecit ferrari), and prohibited his servants from picking these up when they fell off.

In the 11th century, the first Norwegian king, Oluf Kyrre, the Quiet (1066—1087), introduced many new and extravagant customs into his country. Mr de Capell Brooke, describing them, informs us that 'the former inclination of the Norwegians to magnificence universally increased. Silken sails, golden shoes for their horses, cushions of down with silk hangings, silken hoods embroidered with silver, gilded helmets, etc., were almost necessary to those who sought the Court.'
 
In the Saga of Sigurd Jorsalafar, the Pilgrim of Jerusalem, or Crusader, who reigned in Norway in 1103, it is told that he had his horse shod with golden shoes when he rode into Constantinople, on his way to the Holy Land, and so managed that one of the shoes came off in the streets, but none of his men were allowed to regard it.

Even so late as 1616, we read that James Hayes, afterwards Lord Doncaster, an English ambassador, when he made his public entry into Paris acted in a similar extravagant manner. 'Six trumpeters and two marshals, in tawny velvet liveries, completely suited, laced all over with gold (richly and closely laid), led the way: the ambassador followed, with a great train of pages and footmen in the same rich livery, encircling his horse.

And some said the ambassador's horse was shod with silver shoes, lightly tacked on; and when he came to a place where persons or beauties of eminency were, his very horse prancing and curvetting in humble reverence threw his shoes away, which the greedy understanders scrambled for, and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a farrier, or rather the argentier, in one of his rich liveries, among his train of footmen, out of a tawny velvet bag took others and tackt them on, which lasted till he came to the next troup of grandees; and thus, with much ado, he reached the Louvre.' 
 
At a still later period, we find Duke Eberhard of Würtemberg causing his dead charger to be skinned and stuffed, and its hoofs shod with gold shoes, before being set up at Stuttgart. The creature had saved his master's life by swimming with him at the battle of Hochstadt, 13th August, 1704; but was accidently shot eight days afterwards, through the carelessness of one of the duke's followers.
 
Von Tschudi mentions that during the brilliant period of the Spanish domination in Peru, like signs of wealth and foolish display were in vogue among the conquerors. Incredible sums were frequently expended on carriages and mules; and very often the tires of the caleza wheels and the shoes of the mules were of silver instead of iron. A Tartar song of the 14th century causes a Mongol khan to say, 'Bid the horses be put to my golden chariot, and let them be shod with golden shoes and silver nails.'

The nails are described. 'The nails ought to be large, moderately long, and neither flattened, hammered, or otherwise hardened. With ordinary horses eight or nine is the usual number; and with coursers or "Frisons,"  ten, and sometimes more, and with some hoofs six or seven nails are sufficient, but there are few of these. When the number is odd, the majority of the nails should go to the outside of the foot, which is the least sensitive.'

The Gold Horseshoes in Sage Sweetwater's Jett Durango: The Resurrection in the Jett Durango Trilogy indeed have a golden storyline. Blessed Be.

—Sage Sweetwater, writer of the Jett Durango Trilogy for Film and Television
 *Jett Durango
 *Jett Durango: The Resurrection
 *Jett Durango: My Heroes Have Always Been Outlaws