For years we had a horseshoe connected to a man overboard pole with a 6 foot line. The combination is good for bad weather as the pole gives you a good visible element if it takes some time to get the boat stopped and turned around.

We still have the horseshoe but have nixed the attached pole. Instead of the pole we installed a 'MOM-8'. I really like the idea of the MOM-8 but you'll have to shell out close to a 1,000 dollars. If you do offshore sailing the best you can get is a MOM-8. It's much simpler than any other device. You just pull a T-handle and a self inflating horseshoe shoots out of the bottom along with a pole, light and sea anchor. It almost deploys itself.

The MOM-8 is for bad weather and the horseshoe ring by itself is the throwable device in settled weather. (at least that's the idea)

http://www.switlik.com/stg-catalog-mom-8.html