A chorus of children said -“It’s a horse shoe.  A magnet.  A rock.”

I got out a magnifying glass and the magnets so they could test their ideas.

The following day I reintroduced the ‘mystery object to smaller groups of children and asked have you thought anymore about this?

“Have you seen one before.”

I asked them “Where do you think I found it?”

Some children were adamant that it was a horse shoe, others still thought it a magnet and others were still not sure. So

I showed the children a video of a draught horse being hot shod.

They were fascinated talking about how the man heated the metal in the fire and then shaped it to fit the horses’ hoof with an anvil and hammer.

The children were also concerned that shoeing the horse would hurt the horse.  We talked about how the hooves of the horse are made from the same stuff as our hair and fingernails, and it doesn’t hurt when we have our hair or fingernails cut.

The children asked to re-watch the video again in the following days and they are still finding and examining the ‘mystery object’.

Ro Jungmann