After 1 month, the owner put shoes back on.

The images indicate clearly that in this horse's front feet, the upper branch of the blood supply is open and blood flow to the bulbs and bars is o.k., while blood supply to the toe area is very much reduced. This area is supplied by the main branch that is running through the navicular bone.

The images were taken about 2 days after taking off the shoes. The reduction of blood flow is therefore not due to shoes, but might be due to the following reasons:

1. High heels:
   According to Dr. Strasser, the main branch through the navicular bone is pinched with steep alignment. This explanation fits exactly to the observation. According to her, lesions in the navicular bone that are observed on X-rays of navicular horses are caused by longtime high heels --> pinching of artery after navicular bone --> increase of pressure in arteries --> increase of diameter --> loss of bone material around arteries.
2. Contraction:
   Fronts are very contracted; hoof mechanism is not working, or even making the hoof more narrow, pushing the blood out of the toe.

More comments from Sonja on interpreting thermographic images:

It is amazing what you can see with thermography, but interpretation on the hoof is usually tricky, as there is an overlaying effect of:

    - heat, e.g. by inflammation or better blood flow
    - insulation, e.g. by thicker horn or stretched lamellae.

So, if a horse has pain in one foot that is not from inflammation, this hoof may actually appear colder than the others because there is no load on it. On the images of this lame horse, though, the difference between bulbs and toe area is striking, and shows the blocking of blood flow specifically to the toe.

In conventional literature, navicular is blamed on bad blood flow as a cause. Well - we know that it is not the bad blood flow that is causing the decay of the navicular bone, but the blood pressure of the pinched artery, and this is caused by the high heels that in turn cause the heel pain diagnosed as navicular.

How can we scientifically prove it?

By the way - I have looked at shod and unshod horses, and didn't see much difference in temperature. When I got my lame navicular (and already shod 1 year) 3-year-old gelding, though, I remember that he had long heels and cold feet. We started with the usual treatment - Isoxuprine - but after a few weeks Peter Speckmaier CSHS came and opened our eyes. That was 2 years ago. Since then much has gone wrong due to the food, so now we're fighting back from rotated coffin bones and bad laminar connection.  Progress of my horses recently is thanks to the information about magnesium on the naturalhorsetrim site!

Copyright by Gretchen Fathauer, 2013  All rights reserved.