heel bruise -short stride question

[Teresa Van Hove <tvanhove@uswest.net>]

OK all you lameness experts.  I almost didn't take Grey to the Black
Hills ride memorial weekend because he'd been having this mystery grade 1
lameness at times that I was not even sure what leg was affected 
(I can usually tell but not this time) but I decided that I'd go ahead
and enter him and if it flared up at least I'd find out what the 
problem was.  Grey was grade 1 (I had the vet watch him in a circle)
at the 40 mile point, but felt great otherwise and we had plenty of time
so I walked him 9 of the last 10 miles and got the completion.  But I
still don't know what the underlying problem was/is.  He was short-striding
on his right front - no head bob.  He does have a heel bulb bruise on 
his left front -had a crack before the ride on the outside and seems to
be getting a crack on the inside of the hoof now.  I've been using 
scarlet oil on these bruises.  Question - would a sore left front heel
make him short-stride on the right front?  I noticed on the trail that
he would short-stride for a bit after he stumbled (he's just a lazy,
cocky gelding -doesn't pay good attention to where he's putting his
feet unless he's on the side of a cliff.)  Unfortunately I didn't have
any eagle eyes riding behind me and I'm not good enough to tell if he
was banging either front heel when he stumbled.  I did just a short
ride on him the other night and he seemed fine.  I tried some professional
choise bell boots on him to see if they were going to rub *so far so 
good* will have to see what happens doing a longer ride, but hopefully
can prevent future heel bruising.    

So - should I wait and see if clearing up the bruising fixes everything?
Or is he likely to have a problem somewhere else that I need to find?

Thanks,
Teresa