Navicular disease seems to have been lumped together with general heel lameness.
Let's not forget that the damage to a horse's foot can be serious enough to cause debilitating and permanent lameness. There is plenty of news about navicular disease, as evidenced by the recent international symposium on the problem held in Germany last fall. One of the most exciting developments is the successful surgery technique performed regularly at the Equine Research Unit of the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England. Collateral ligament desmotomy, or the severing of the collateral ligaments that hold the navicular bone, has been found a helpful treatment in dozens of horses. An important side note to the surgery is that Ian Wright, the Newmarket surgeon who developed the procedure, includes a regular exercise program following surgery, so that the horse's ligaments will not heal up and reattach.