Eleanor Osborne - Highborne Equestrian - OHL Australia

Eleanor Osborne - Highborne Equestrian - OHL Australia OPP PRO🌟 BM PROšŸ’— RTRT PRO🐓 Promoting optimal performance for horse & human! Have you given up on your dream goal??? Aim Higher in 2016!

If you are an eventing rider based in the Darling Downs, New England or South West QLD regions; who struggles to make your own progress a priority - Highborne Equestrian is here to help you! Did you get involved with eventing for the regular dose of adrenaline that cross country riding provides? Perhaps you were attracted to the unique challenge of mastering three different equestrian disciplines?

Do you find it difficult to fit regular lessons into your busy lifestyle or are quality coaches in short supply in your region? Highborne Equestrian is here to offer you the support and training you need to be the event rider you always wanted to be, and to give your horse the best chance of the success you know they’re capable of. Programs launching now in preparation for next eventing season with limited spaces available!

24/07/2025
19/07/2025
Problem: Reduced desire to move due to accusation of residual tension…Solution: The powerful signature methods of Relax ...
11/07/2025

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 ā€˜Change the Game’?

The perception of ā€œlazinessā€ can be a byproduct, a symptom of so many restrictions to and within a horses body. šŸ’­



22/06/2025
09/06/2025

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
šŸ‘… The tongue is a fascial continuation of the digestive tract
āžæThe 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:

āœ”ļø The psoas (hip flexor and spinal stabilizer)
āœ”ļø The diaphragm (which regulates breath and rhythm)
āœ”ļø The tongue and jaw (via the vagus and facial nerves)
āœ”ļø 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.

āž”ļø 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 šŸ”— to an early access! šŸ’œ

Because this time… we don’t train harder.
We go deeper šŸ“ˆšŸ“ˆšŸ“ˆ

Undoubtably…
29/05/2025

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.

14/05/2025

Galloping, Bucking, Not Broken: The Greatest Lie Horses Ever Told šŸŽšŸ’„

You step into the paddock, coffee in hand, expecting a peaceful morning and a whiff of horse breath that says ā€œall is well.ā€ ā˜•āœØ

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). šŸ…šŸ’€

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

You think:
ā€œThey’re fine! Look at them go!ā€
But they’re not fine. Not even a little bit.

Enter: The Invisible Injury šŸ•µļøā€ā™€ļø

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. šŸ„•šŸŒ€

It’s the kind of discomfort that turns ā€œwalk, trot, canterā€ into ā€œgrimace, flinch, explode.ā€

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. šŸ²šŸ”„
The Spiral Begins šŸŒ€

The owner thinks: ā€œI’m doing something wrong.ā€
The trainer thinks: ā€œWe need more groundwork.ā€
The horse thinks: ā€œKill me.ā€ ā˜ ļø
Eventually, the owner moves on—new trainer, new method, new online course promising the horse will ā€œchoose joy and connection.ā€

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. šŸ§˜ā€ā™€ļøšŸŒæšŸ”®

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

ā€œHey, maybe your horse’s inability to pick up the left lead can’t be fixed with trust exercises and lavender oil.ā€

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. šŸŖ‘

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
ā€œNeeding more wet saddle blanketsā€
Or… ā€œNeeding a softer approachā€
Or… ā€œNot aligned with your energyā€ šŸ™ƒ
No one considers the simple truth:

It hurts to do what we’re asking.
Not in a ā€œdon’t feel like itā€ way.
In a ā€œmy sternum’s fused to my shoulder blade and I can’t rotate left without seeing starsā€ 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:

ā€œHas this horse ever had an accident?ā€

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 šŸ§ āž”ļøšŸ§˜ā€ā™‚ļø

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

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. šŸ’øšŸŒ¼

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… šŸ”„šŸš«

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. šŸ“šŸ’”

If this switched on a lightbulb šŸ’”, 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.

šŸ“ø IMAGE: My Aureo—the horse who taught me this lesson...even the bit about lavender oil šŸ˜†

Address

101 Glenbuckie Road
Allora, QLD
4362

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