Eleanor Osborne - Highborne Equestrian - OHL Australia

INSIDE LEG BIOMECHANICS What is often taught through a push, press or kick is the fastest way to create chronic stiffness, your horse’s confusion and total miscommunication. From a biomechanical perspective, a horse is a highly integrated system of muscles, bones, tendons, and fascia — a continuous, never-ending web of connective tissue that links the entire body, from poll to hind hooves. This fascial system thrives on glide, hydration, elasticity, and coordinated movement. When we press, we block. When we kick, we compress. And when we over-aid, we disconnect the horse’s ability to self-regulate his balance through this fascial intelligence. Many riders mistakenly believe that their young horses need to yield from a strong(er) inside leg in order to move outward on a circle or bend through the corner. But from a physics point of view, this doesn’t allow for the necessary redirection of momentum. During the trot, the horse is only physically capable of changing direction in the suspension phase. That’s the window of possibility for rebalancing and direction shift. If the rider’s inside leg is pressing or demanding outside of this phase, the horse has no biomechanical option to respond without creating compensation — typically by bracing in the ribcage, shortening the stride, or stiffening the neck. This begins a destructive feedback loop: the more tension we create, the more resistant the horse becomes, and the stronger our aids become in return. To change it the rider must first focus creating an environment in which suppleness is possible. Engage the horse not through force, but through invitation, supported by good timing. The result is not only a horse that bends with ease but also a straight horse — not by pressing or pushing, but by preparing the body to move through its fullest range without resistance. What looks simple is often misunderstood. But when you align your riding with the biology of movement & physics, the difference is profound. #OneHorseLife #dressagehorses #dressagetraining #dressageriding #flatwork #flatworkforshowjumpers #eventinghorses #jumpinghorses #onehorselife onhorseback #myofascialrelease #myofunctionaltherapy

👉Let's talk conscious muscle relaxation in horse training - adapted from a well understood biofeedback process utilised in elite level human sports performance - that restores functional health and remove blockages limiting performance potentials! OneHorseLife iconic techniques Relax That Stomach & Optimal Performance Program provide a systematic, step by step road map 🗺️ to take you and your horse on a TRANSFORMATIVE journey. These techniques are simple in application but highly sophisticated in nature, and yield profound results. They are applicable for amateur and professionals alike, and for ALL horses regardless their age, breed, background or training discipline....WHY IS THIS? 👉Because all horses (in fact any species governed by a central nervous system) experience tension vs relaxation at a biological level within their bodies. It is this natural process that can either work for the horse or against them in their every day lives! With Relax That Stomach & Optimal Performance Program techniques the horse gains the skills to make RELAXATION work for them - eliminating residual tensions that otherwise trigger a multitude of health and behavioural issues, instead learning to CONSCIOUSLY release them. This produces very happy, healthy horses! 👉If you and your horse struggle with any of the following issues then this work is for you: ❓Separation anxiety/herd bound ❗️Hypervigilant/spooky behaviour ❓Dull/lazy/behind the leg ❗️Girthy or dislikes touch/grooming ❓Trouble lifting legs for farrier ‼️Aggressive ❓Emotional around food ⁉️Overweight or underweight ❗️Poor topline ❓Ulcers ❗️Colic history ❓Wind sucking/crib biting OR perhaps your horse is recovering from injury/illness, has been out of work for a while or is transitioning to a new life eg OTTB...or you just wish to maximise your performance potentials... Then we welcome you to join us to take a deep dive into how you and your horse can move through the above issues (and more) to enhance and redefine your training. You will learn the skills to move on from these issues and at the same time build a beautiful connection with your horse and unlock 🔓 their potential - in fact you may be very surprised at the horse you meet on the other side! 🔑 This is where RELATIONSHIP & PERFORMANCE goals can co exist. We have an upcoming OHL 🇦🇺 Introductory Seminar being held in Brisbane in August. 📧 [email protected] for registration details or DM to find out more. What are you waiting for? Reach out today to secure your seat!

Problem: Reduced desire to move due to accusation of residual tension…

Solution: The powerful signature methods of Relax That Stomach, Optimal Perfomance Program and Residual Tension Release Therapy from OneHorseLife.

Our next Brisbane based introductory seminar outlining these methods will be held next month. Participants will gain valuable insight into the root cause of numerous undesirable horse behaviors and health issues, and more importantly a roadmap for resolving them without adding further tension or even directly addressing them. Curious?

You are welcome to join online from anywhere in Australia if you can’t make it in person. Please reach out to either myself or Angie through Thrive & Shine Equine for more information.

Are you ready to ‘Change the Game’?

The perception of “laziness” can be a byproduct, a symptom of so many restrictions to and within a horses body. 💭

YES.
The hindgut tension your horse is carrying — due to everyday stress, diet, dehydration, or subtle fear — is directly connected to the tightness in the pelvis, the psoas, and the tongue.

Why does it matter?
Because:

A horse cannot step under with ease if the colon is inflamed & cannot suspend his back if the intestines are tight.

And here’s the shocking consequence:

Your horse will lose the ability to sit, to coordinate his body, to breathe & to elevate.

Your doesn’t die due to lack of muscle engagement. It dies in the gut, long before you ever ask for the first step.

This is not a metaphor. It’s anatomical fact:
🧠The vagus nerve connects the gut to the brainstem
👅 The tongue is a fascial continuation of the digestive tract
➿The pelvis shares myofascial lines with the intestinal system.

So if your horse’s gut is inflamed, the piaffe will be blocked — no matter how much you practice. Intestines are not passive tubes. They are living organs with constant peristalsis, rich in nerve endings, wrapped in layers of smooth muscle, and deeply connected to:

✔️ The psoas (hip flexor and spinal stabilizer)
✔️ The diaphragm (which regulates breath and rhythm)
✔️ The tongue and jaw (via the vagus and facial nerves)
✔️ And the entire pelvic sling (which you rely on for sit and suspension)

Most trainers will never tell you this. Because they don’t know.
But in my course From Walk to Piaffe, we begin where others don’t even look:

– Relaxation of the gut,
– Restoration of vagal tone & relaxation of the pelvis.
– Activation of tendon-based movement,
– Oscillation before steps
– Pelvic vector correction from within

If your horse shows:
– Lack of sit
– Explosive reaction to piaffe aids
– Uneven steps or diagonal loss
– Lack of forwardness
– Or chronic tension…

Then you are not dealing with a training issue.
You are dealing with a GUT-SPINE COORDINATION BREAKDOWN.

And that is where I work.

➡️ Comment GUT below and I’ll send you on Monday more information about my system.
Or DM me the word PIAFFE and I’ll make sure you get link 🔗 to an early access! 💜

Because this time… we don’t train harder.
We go deeper 📈📈📈

Undoubtably…

And for horses it's avoiding the buck, bolt, rear, pull back, shut down, spook, the list goes on.

That's what the relationship work that I do is about, having them have a well regulated nervous system around us, and doing the things we ask of them.

Galloping, Bucking, Not Broken: The Greatest Lie Horses Ever Told 🐎💥

You step into the paddock, coffee in hand, expecting a peaceful morning and a whiff of horse breath that says “all is well.” ☕✨

Instead, your horse is on the wrong side of the fence, looking smug and oddly unscathed—or worse, still tangled in wire. You cut them free, patch up a scratch or two (or marvel at the miraculous absence of any), and thank the gods of lucky escapes.

Crisis averted.

Or is it? 😬

Here’s the problem: the real damage doesn’t always bleed.

Over the years, I’ve met a string of horses who’ve all survived this advanced-level self-sabotage. They’ve jumped a gate (well… tried), crashed through a fence, slipped on a slope, flipped, twisted, crushed or compressed themselves in ways that would make a chiropractor cry and a vet sigh while reaching for the X-ray machine (which, by the way, won’t show the damage either). 🏅💀

The horse recovers. No visible limp. They run. They buck. They play.

You think:
“They’re fine! Look at them go!”
But they’re not fine. Not even a little bit.

Enter: The Invisible Injury 🕵️‍♀️

What you can’t see—and what many professionals miss—is the slow-burn catastrophe hidden deep in the horse's body.

Ribcage. Pelvis. Sternum. Neck. Stifle.
The kind of stuff that doesn’t light up on X-rays or respond to your carrot-stick-wiggly-wand of trust. 🥕🌀

It’s the kind of discomfort that turns “walk, trot, canter” into “grimace, flinch, explode.”

And here’s the kicker: the horse doesn’t limp. It compensates.

Because horses, unlike people, don’t throw dramatic tantrums and demand cortisone shots. They quietly adjust. They twist, tighten, avoid, or overuse other parts of their body to keep going.

They are the masters of stoicism...
..until you put a halter on.
You ask for a transition, a bend, a float trip, or—God forbid—a trot circle. And suddenly—

You get emotion.
You get resistance.
You get confusion, agitation, blow-ups, shut-downs—
Every spicy ingredient in a full-blown training meltdown stew. 🍲🔥
The Spiral Begins 🌀

The owner thinks: “I’m doing something wrong.”
The trainer thinks: “We need more groundwork.”
The horse thinks: “Kill me.” ☠️
Eventually, the owner moves on—new trainer, new method, new online course promising the horse will “choose joy and connection.”

But the problems persist.
Cue spiralling shame, rejection of all prior knowledge, and a desperate descent into rabbit holes of essential oils, a connection-based enlightenment facilitator, and equine shadow work. 🧘‍♀️🌿🔮

When in fact, what they really needed was a bloody good vet and bodyworker, and someone to say:

“Hey, maybe your horse’s inability to pick up the left lead can’t be fixed with trust exercises and lavender oil.”

The Warning Signs We Miss 🚩

Here are the red flags waving harder than a liberty trainer at sunset:

The horse becomes emotional, reactive, or weirdly robotic.
What should be simple feels charged, unpredictable, and unnervingly fragile.
Training progress flatlines, no matter how much effort you throw at it.
The horse starts avoiding halters, floats, mounting blocks—or life in general.
The problem isn’t always psychological.

Sometimes, it’s a bloody rib.
Or a pelvis rotated like a cheap IKEA table leg. 🪑

But we don’t look there—because the horse looks fine.
It bucks in the paddock! It gallops!
It must be okay!

Nope. That’s not health.
That’s compensation.
It’s adaptation with the odd short step.

Or worse—when they can’t limp because everything’s uncomfortable.
That’s when it gets really insidious.

What Happens Next is Predictable… and Sad 😢

These horses often get labelled as:

Difficult
Shut down
Disrespectful
“Needing more wet saddle blankets”
Or… “Needing a softer approach”
Or… “Not aligned with your energy” 🙃
No one considers the simple truth:

It hurts to do what we’re asking.
Not in a “don’t feel like it” way.
In a “my sternum’s fused to my shoulder blade and I can’t rotate left without seeing stars” way. 🌟

They suffer in silence while we rotate through training ideologies like a midlife crisis through motorcycles—all because we never asked the most obvious question:

“Has this horse ever had an accident?”

Because if they have—if they’ve failed to clear a gate, slipped, fallen, crushed, or tangled in wire—it may have changed everything. Not just the body, but the brain.

Pain messes with movement.
It makes easy things hard.
It turns willing horses into wary ones.
And it ruins good humans who start to believe they’re not good enough.

What You Can Do Instead of Losing Your Mind 🧠➡️🧘‍♂️

Take my good friend Tami Elkayam’s advice:
If something happens, write it down in a diary. ✍️

Even if they seem fine.

Then, if things start getting weird months or years later, don’t reach for your third liberty course or $800 worth of chamomile pellets. 💸🌼

Consider that maybe—just maybe—your horse isn’t emotionally broken, disrespectful, or traumatised by a training method.

Maybe those fractured ribs are hurting when you do up the girth.

Before You Burn It All Down… 🔥🚫

Before you give up, throw out your halters, block your last five coaches on Instagram, or trade your saddle for an oracle deck… pause.

Reflect.

Is it possible your horse is trying—but simply can’t?
Could it be that what they’re resisting isn’t you—but a physical reality no amount of groundwork or paddock bonding can fix?
Is it time to stop blaming yourself, your horse, and everyone you’ve ever learned from—and instead… dig deeper?
Because sometimes, the source of your training failures, your emotional spirals, and your eroded confidence…

..was a bloody gate.
That your horse didn’t clear.
That day. 🐴💔

If this switched on a lightbulb 💡, hit share. Pass it on.

Disclaimer: This is satire. Humour helps people read long posts they’d usually scroll past—so they don’t miss something that might actually help them or their horse.

Feel like tone-policing? Fabulous. Write your own post. That’s where your opinion belongs.

📸 IMAGE: My Aureo—the horse who taught me this lesson...even the bit about lavender oil 😆