Horseshoe tossing will never rival basketball or football for the most popular sport at San Quentin Prison. However, for Isiah “Zeke” Daniels, the sport that most people consider just a hobby taught him discipline and brought him into a brotherhood of fellow aficionados.
Tournaments are held periodically, involving about a dozen competitors.
Pitching horseshoes is a game of hand and eye coordination. It requires muscle memory for a horseshoe player because it involves using various gripping techniques to make the tossed horseshoe turn in specific ways in an attempt to encircle a stake in the ground around 45 feet away.
The difference between pitching and throwing horseshoes is “throwing horseshoes is for the inexperienced, and pitching them is for the experienced people,” Daniels explained. “Each time you pin it, it is three points and called a ringer. A double ringer is a “six-pack.”
He proudly added, “In a series of regular games, I’ve pitched 12 six-packs, during the evening yard, and that is about an hour and 30 minutes. That is a six-pack nearly every other pitch, averaging a ringer percentage of 80 to 85 percent.”
Growing up in West Virginia, Daniels learned how to control his pitching arm.
“I was 14 years old when I started pitching washers into a hole,” Daniels said.
Daniels continued to develop his horseshoe pitching skills after moving to Nebraska in 1985.
“There were horseshoe circuits I participated in as a contestant,” he said. “Some of those guys seemed to never miss. They were professionals, in my book.”
Daniels described these tournaments as good experiences to connect socially with people.
“In horseshoe circuits, the majority of the contestants were black, white and Indian. It was an array of cultures in acceptance of each other,” he said. “The horseshoe pitchers were good old boys. They only cared about your game, and not your race.”
Daniels is convinced that his job traits as a certified drug and alcohol counselor are the same traits he uses when pitching horseshoes – patience, discipline, tolerance and dealing with all cultures.
