Horse shoe

Horse shoe
Creation

Activate lump (0.50 kg) Right-click large anvil Open submenu "Create > Animal equipment"
Result
Horse shoe (0.50 kg)
Skill and improvement
Uses blacksmithing skill Improved using blacksmithing tools and materials

Description

These are said to bring luck! Apart from improving horse speed and safety, of course.

Horse shoes are U-shaped metal items which can be equipped on a horse's hooves to help it move somewhat faster.

4 horse shoes are needed per horse. (tested with one horse shoe and still got a speed bonus)
Horse shoes are damaged with every step the horse takes while mounted. Horse shoes are not damaged on horses being led.
The speed enhancement depends on the quality of the equipped horseshoes. 50 QL is required for any bonus {New information suggest that this is no longer the case, more research needed, see http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/77108-horse-gearspeed-test/ for more info}. A bonus of .24 km/hr is gained for each shoe at QL50, another .24 km/hr at QL70, and a final .24 km/hr at QL90.
Enchantment with WoA will increase the efficiency of the horse shoes. The same bonus is added as for the QL: a bonus of .24 km/hr at 50 WoA, another bonus of .24 km/hr at 70 WoA, and a bonus of .24 km/hr at 90 WoA.
Speed bonuses are only at each threshhold. For example, a QL70 horse shoe will give the same bonus as the same shoe improved to QL89, and a horse shoe with 50 WoA will give the same bonus as the same shoe with 69 WoA.

The following speed results were done using a wild horse - no traits of any kind on March 04, 2015.
The rider weighted 85.6 kg.
The base speed of this horse, with no shoes was 13.69 kph on a flat cobbled road.
The testing was a continuous non-stop process and did not afford the horse a chance to graze. During testing at the 140 Total Shoe Quality level, the horse became hungry, resulting in a prompt speed reduction, from 15.11 kph to 12.2 kph. Feeding the horse restored its speed performance.
It was found that the sum of the qualities of the shoes had an effect on the speed of the horse as seen below.
Shoes of various qualities were mixed in order to provide quality sums in increments of 10 - for example, 70 QL total = 1 shoe at 30 QL and 1 shoe at 40 QL.
Testing for total shoe quality above 200 was not possible due to lack of higher quality shoes for testing at this time.