Ox shoe
A thin iron plate fitted in pairs to each foot of a working ox, one for each claw.
Also: cattle shoe, ox shoeing, naal
Oxen that worked on hard roads or stony ground were shod to protect their hooves. Because a bovine foot has two claws that move separately, each foot takes two small, flat, half-moon shoes instead of one horseshoe, so a fully shod ox wears eight. Oxen cannot easily stand on three legs while a foot is held, so farriers in Europe often used a wooden frame, called a travis or shoeing stocks, to support them. Drovers had cattle shod before long journeys to the London markets, and old ox shoes still turn up along drove roads. In parts of India, working bullocks are still shod.