Bought a 2006 LR3 HSE this past January (very happy!) and as a new car gift, a friend gave me something he found at a swap meet. It's a relatively heavy metal mini-version of a horseshoe, metallic gray in color, about 4-1/2" wide and 5-1/2" tall with the Land Rover logo stamped on both sides (and the year 2017 stamped on one side). It came in a black bag with the LR logo and the "Above & Beyond" tag line, along with the year 2017. OK, I think, there must be some rich history of the British Army lashing a horseshoe for good luck on the grills of their Series machines as they blasted across the desert during the Suez Crisis, but a Google search of "Land Rover"+"horseshoe" turns up very little of relevance. Curiously, I couldn't find anything on the Land Rover USA site for horseshoes, despite the presence in the black bag of an advert for Land Rover's Merchandise Collection on that very same website. And shockingly, an Advanced Search across all of the forums on our landroverforums.com returns but 18 threads, none of which involve this sort of tschotske (my favorite reference was something like "I must have had a horseshoe up my butt when I bought this used LR, because I just found out that the engine and tranny were replaced a year ago...").

Am I now the proud owner of a paperweight that I'll never use, or does this have some sort of nostalgic or cultural value I should appreciate? I'm happy to affix this bad boy on my grill just for grins and giggles (assuming that it doesn't adversely impact cooling), but if it's a totally lame move that would cause a veteran LR owner to grimace at the sight, I'll just toss it in my LR3 junk box and think no more about it.

Thanks for your insight!

Nick in Palm Springs

 

lets see a picture

 

Here you go!

The bag

The advert

Side 1 logo

Side 2 logo with year

Side 2 with mfg stamp?


Nick in Palm Springs

 

Weird yet cool

 

That's LR's "mood enhancer". When you breakdown, which will happen, you remove nifty horseshoe bag from glove box, remove nifty horseshoe from carrying bag, exit the vehicle, and walk about twelve paces from the front of vehicle, be sure to do this while there is no oncoming traffic, stop, turn towards vehicle, holding the horseshoe firmly between your index and thumb, rear back and chuck it through the windshield, mood should be enhanced, immediately, if not, retrieve horseshoe, walk twelve paces to rear of vehicle, stop, turn around and chuck horseshoe through rear glass, mood should be enhance, if not, repeat until mood is satisfactorily achieved or all glass is smashed. Sometimes it is necessary to start using it on body panels, but truth be told...a baseball bat works much better if it gets to that point.

Why this doesn't come as standard equipment with each model...l'll never understand...

 

I think the UK versions of the driver's handbook contains similar instructions, but not the North American version. Strange.

Thanks for the tip!

Nick in Palm Springs

 

It's from a LR-sponsored equestrian event. Saw one on eBay from Land Rover Kentucky 3-Day Event, stamped LRK3DE above the LR oval. https://kentuckythreedayevent.com.

 

Ahhhh!!!! So it's rich people's fair swag, essentially a useless paperweight from an event I have never and will never attend due to my obvious failure in life to own a stable full of hyper-expensive horseflesh.

Thanks roveronCO !!!!

Nick in Palm Springs