It sounds like contrary to what the trimmer thought, the horse needs the support of the eggbar shoe for a lot longer time frame. Unfortunately, 8mm of new growth for this type of injury is just not enough to hold the hoof together. It may actually require two full cycles of hoof capsule replacement to get an really good, strong hoof capsule, although with a tight, balanced trim in place you likely won't need any type of shoes after the first entirely new hoof capsule. If there is motion in that crack, it will just tear apart. You may be able to substitute casts at some point instead of shoes but for now, I'd go back to the eggbars.
Due to the extent of the damage, and the size of the horse, it will likely require keeping the eggbar shoe on until the damage has grown out at least 2/3 of the way, maybe even all the way to the ground. As you know, I'm an advocate of barefoot but also recognize that sometimes you just need to accept that the restrictions a shoe provides are exactly what is needed at that time to provide the structure for healing. Although putting a broken limb in a cast causes atrophy of all the surrounding muscles, it is necessary to allow the bone to heal. Once the bone has mended, then you work on rehabbing the other structures that were impacted negatively from the immobilization. In this case, stabilizing the wall fully takes precedence over all the optimum functioning of all the other structures.
The J-herb is not creating weaker growth, it's fueling increased growth due to improving circulation to the foot thereby increasing efficiency.That means more nutrients available, waste products removed more quickly. It will take a shorter period of time for the hoof capsule to grow out fully, so the time needed to be spent in the shoes will be less overall.
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Lavinia
Moderator/ECIR Support
