means A throwing game in which players toss U-shaped metal horseshoes at a stake in the ground, scoring points for ringers and for shoes that land close to the target.

from Named, plainly, for the iron shoes nailed to horses' hooves — the game began as soldiers and farmers pitching real, worn-out horseshoes at a stake when no proper quoits were handy. 'Horseshoe' itself stitches together Old English 'hors' (horse) and 'scoh' (shoe), and the protective iron shoe goes back to Roman times, though it spread widely in medieval Europe. So the sport is, quite literally, recycled hardware: cast-off footwear for horses given a second life as a backyard pastime.