Hoof imbalance - how it affects the parts you can't see

I've been trying to come up with a way to illustrate what happens when hooves get out of balance, but I haven't been able to find any pictures that do what I need.  

The problem is that I have therefore had to get out my crayons and start drawing - which as you can see is not my strong point.  Needs must, however, and I just hope you can make out enough for these to be useful(!) - you can click on them to enlarge. 

This is a fairly familiar side (lateral) view of a hoof showing P2, P3 and the distal sesamoid (navicular) bones with the collateral ligaments which connect them in blue and orange.  These ligaments, plus the deep digital flexor tendon (in green) commonly show up on MRI as the problem areas in horses who have caudal hoof pain or navicular bone damage on x-ray. 

From the palmar view (ie: as if you were behind the hoof and looking towards the toe) it becomes more obvious why the medio-lateral balance of the hoof is crucial and why those ligaments have to be evenly loaded and balanced for the horse to be comfortable.  

Although ligaments and tendons can't be seen on x-ray, it is possible to see how poor medio-lateral balance affects the hoof.  The blue lines show the angle of the old hoof capsule.  The green lines show the ground line compared to the alignment of P3 and you can see that they aren't parallel.  

This has led to strain on the collateral ligaments which was confirmed on MRI.  In this horse, the problem was caught very early but if this sort of imbalance continues for more than a short while it can lead to ligament damage (and eventually bone damage) as well - of course - as long-term lameness. 

This isn't primarily a trimming problem - in this horse's case the foot was already short and any attempt to trim or shoe the foot level would have been invasive.  

However, when the shoe was taken off and the horse came for rehab, she started to grow a hoof capsule (the red lines) which followed her bone alignment.  Over time, this has corrected the medio-lateral imbalance internally, as you can see here now that the whole hoof capsule has grown in.