During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, folks around Glenboro, Manitoba did not have much money for recreation so neighbours often got together for a game of horseshoes. It is of little wonder, then, how Bert Snart was introduced to the game. What is outstanding is what he has put back into the sport. In 1938, the people of Glenboro took up a collection to send Snart to the Manitoba Horseshoe Championships. The youngster repaid their generosity by winning the first of his nine Manitoba singles championships. Snart also won the Manitoba doubles title on six occasions.

Through the years, Snart accumulated many championships and awards. Among his most prestigious were his induction to the Horseshoe Hall of Fame in Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1976; the Darrell Brydon award from the American Horseshoe Association in 1977; the Golden Horseshoe Award from the Diamond Horseshoe Company in 1968 in recognition of his outstanding career; and the Sportsman’s Club Award as Manitoba’s top athlete in 1954. When Snart’s home club in Dauphin hosted the National Horseshoe Finals in 1970, it donated a new trophy emblematic of Canadian horseshoe supremacy: The Bert Snart Trophy. Among the many competitions that Snart won were the Toronto Maple Leaf, the Carling Masters, the Champagne Lake Open in Minnesota, the Wade County Open in Florida, the Edmonton Klondike Days Open, and the Saskatchewan Doubles Open. In 1967, when Winnipeg hosted the Pan Am Games, Snart won the special Centennial Invitational competition held in conjunction with the games.

For thirty years, Snart was the president of the Manitoba Horseshoe Association. Dauphin, which became his home after his discharge from the armed forces in 1946 has been aptly called the Horseshoe Capital of Canada, largely because of Snart’s organizational efforts as president of the Dauphin Club for 32 years.