Sheared heel questions?

How to begin. I moved to NZ 1 1/2 years ago and purchased a lovely Tb x mare. She had lovely feet but hated the farrier I tried first (needed sedation) so I went looking to try and find a farrier that she got along with and could shoe her. Remember that I didn't know hardly anybody at the time. I finally found a guy who could shoe her with any problems at all and get her to stand very quietly so for the last 6 months he's shod her and all had seemingly gone well. Then the winter hit and I noticed her feet were cracking, she was getting some hoof wall separation, and her toes seemed to long to my eye and I thought of switching farriers. Two weeks ago she got what the vet/farriers etc diagnosed as an abscess, no lameness but swelling in the pastern of the right front. I did the normal abscess treatments with no success so I asked another farrier for a second opinion. He diagnosed her with a sheared heal and showed me what was going on. It makes perfect sense and I wish I had caught the fact she had some unbalanced shoeing going on before. Obviously I switched farriers and started getting corrective trimming and shoeing (she can't go barefoot for other reasons).

The farrier certainly answered most of my questions but I want feed back from others who have had this problem. How quickly did your horse recover? I was told to I can ride her (since she's not lame) but very gently on soft surfaces at the walk with a tiny bit of trot, is this normal? When was the horse able to start jumping again? Any advice?

Thanks! I feel very badly as she gets the best of everything and I can't believe this happened : ( so any encouragement would be great!