when appling a rockerbar where should the rocker be ?
chris

chris bunting wrote:
i like to but it just a little behind COA....that way in 4-6 weeks when the hoof is long it has not moved the rocker in front of the COA..if that happens then the foot is rocking back..not good

how many of you have applied a rocker/bar shoe ? and how many of you can forge one ? i know several can , but i reckon those that can make them have not needed to apply them , and as usual those that cannot make them have the most experience using them . strange life isnt it ?

chris bunting wrote:
I've never used one. If I thought I had an application for them, I'd go out to the shop and forge a few. By time I was done, I'd be able to do it.

Why wouldn't you just rocker/banana a flat shoe instead of hanging all that iron on?

I guess aluminum might be the ticket here?

chris bunting wrote:

spot on Chris

smitty88 wrote:
That's not supported by the evidence at hand. Eric is using them and he's making them.

Mike Ferrara wrote:
I agree with Chris! Most people who can actually make one don't need to apply them.

It's taken me a long time before I could find a horse that could use one.

Mike Ferrara wrote:
I don't like making them so if you could explain how to rocker a shoe and still touch the foot I'm all ears.

The rockering the shoe would create 2 points of contact. I just don't see that as something I would want to do.

texfarrier wrote:

Could you explain how the foot would rock back via anatomy? Could you or anyone explain what the coa has to do with static balance? Since you don't consider the deep flexor and extensor as important to a rocker shoe, should we cut both of them since they don't really have to do with anything?

Eric Russell wrote:
Why not Just rocker the foot too?

Mike Ferrara wrote:
You might not have enough foot.

You can shape a pad to fit in the rocker I guess if you really wanted to use a machine made shoe.

SlowShoe wrote:
You might not. Ron Alders seems to get them on a lot of horses though and I don't know that you'd have to use a machine made shoe.

Anyway, I'm just asking questions.

Eric Russell wrote:
How about them standing over or under. They'll usually shift their weight to the most comfortable position. That's the whole idea, isn't it?

Regards

if you dont know or have not studied any of Dr.Redden's concepts here is a link that i think will answer most of yalls questions
http://www.nanric.com/dr_redden_notes_archive.asp
i have been studying his notes and have taken a hands on clinic..he is where i learned how to use and apply the rocker shoe...i know this way of shoeing is not up every ones alley and is not the answer for every horse..i do not use this method alot only when there is a lot of pathology in the hoof..the rocker has been working very well for me with laminitis cases...as far as rockering a flat shoe to be applied to a hoof you have to use the 4 point trim(rockering the toe and the heels so the shoe rest on the toe and heel pillars) again i know some of you do not agree with the 4 point trim either ...and i always use aluminum shoes for rockering...

texfarrier wrote:
Ron has talked quite a bit about how he trims a foot for a rockered shoe. I don't think it's really a "4 point" like Redden but I don't get the impression that either is too concerned about the shoe making perfect contact across the entire foot. Redden makes that much pretty clear.

I've only dabbled a little with rockered shoes so I'd defer to those with more experience with it.

Ron is using rockered shoes on performance horses so I think the weight of a steel rocker would be an issue. My other concern is that the few rockered shoes I've seen with a flat foot surface like the one in this thread (or Todd Walker's shoe in the hoofwatch video) have a fairly small radius at the apex of the rocker rather than a large radius curve. I guess if you pack enough steel in there you can forge any sort of radius you want but then it's really going to get heavy.