19/11/2025
Most injuries don’t start “out of nowhere.”
They start with a stiff body, a dropped sternum, a fake frame, and a nervous system that’s been forced to cope with bad information stride after stride.
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GRF: The Force Your Horse Can’t Opt Out Of
Every time a hoof hits the ground, the horse pushes down and back into the surface.
The ground pushes up and forward with equal force.
That push from the ground is GRF – Ground Reaction Force.
• Vertical GRF = impact and weight-bearing.
How hard the ground hits back up into the limb.
• Horizontal GRF = braking and propulsion.
How much the ground resists sliding and how much push the horse can generate.
• Side-to-side (mediolateral) GRF = the wobble.
What happens when the horse lands more on inside/outside of the hoof, or on a camber, rut, or slippery patch.
GRF is the signal the body uses to organise movement.
It travels from hoof → tendons and ligaments → fascia → thoracic sling → spine → whole body.
If the horse is aligned and allowed to move honestly, GRF is used like a spring:
absorbed, stored, and released.
If the horse is crooked, stiff, or shoved into a false frame, the same GRF becomes a weapon.
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How a Fake Frame Starts the Injury Chain
Take a body that is already a bit tight and crooked. Then add:
• Head and neck pulled into “roundness.”
• Nose behind the vertical, over-flexion at C3–C5.
• Base of the neck dropped, withers not truly lifting.
• Rider chasing outline instead of balance.
Now look at what happens to GRF:
• More vertical force goes into the front end because the horse is tipped onto the shoulders.
• Hind limbs can’t step under properly, so hocks push behind the horse, not underneath.
• One diagonal (e.g. right fore–left hind) usually ends up doing more work.
Fascia reads this distorted force pattern and adapts:
• The forelimb fascial sleeve (hoof → tendons → suspensory → thoracic sling) densifies on the overloaded leg.
• The thoracic sling (serratus, pectorals, subclavius) starts to brace to stop the horse falling on its nose.
• The thoracolumbar fascia (back) stops gliding and starts acting like armour.
From the saddle, you feel:
• A back that gets harder and less swinging over time.
• One rein that is always heavier; one shoulder that always wants to fall in.
• A horse that “needs longer to warm up” and “works out of it” once you’ve forced it into shape.
That “works out of it” feeling is not improvement.
It’s the body hiding the problem by adding more compensation.
This is where injuries start.
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Surfaces: How Bad Footing Twists GRF Even Further
Now add footing that makes GRF even more hostile.
Hard / Compacted Ground
• Very fast, high-impact vertical GRF.
• Shock travels straight up the limb with little help from the surface.
• Forelimb fascia, pastern joints, fetlocks, and carpi take the hit.
In a fake frame, where the horse is already downhill, that means:
• More concussion in the front end.
• More bracing in the thoracic sling and neck to stabilise the rider.
• A back that gives up on swinging and just holds.
Deep / Holding Ground
• Slower vertical load, but massive braking and drag.
• Every stride, the hoof sinks; the limb must climb out of a hole.
• Flexor tendons, suspensories, and hocks do enormous eccentric work.
On a horse in a false outline:
• The front legs dig and drag because the body is already on the forehand.
• Hind limbs trail out behind instead of stepping under, overloading the plantar fascia, hocks, and proximal suspensories.
• Fascia along the flexor and gluteal lines becomes tight cables instead of elastic springs.
Slippery / Uneven Ground
• GRF direction changes stride to stride.
• Feet slide, twist, or land unevenly inside vs outside wall.
• The nervous system can’t predict load, so it chooses survival mode: global stiffness.
On a horse already stiff and forced into a frame:
• Proprioception (body awareness) crashes.
• The horse shortens stride, braces the back, and moves like it’s on eggshells.
• One side of the body turns into a permanent stabiliser; the other side turns into a permanent pusher.
Again: this is where injuries start.
Not on the one “bad” day, but on thousands of compromised strides where GRF is being pushed through a body that can no longer handle it correctly.
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What You See Before the “Sudden” Injury
Before the suspensory tear, the “mystery” lameness, the SI issue, or the blown tendon, you nearly always had:
• A horse that needed “more leg” to go forward.
• A neck that was round to the eye but dead in your hand.
• A back that got flatter, not more lifted, the more “on the bit” you tried to ride.
• Stiffness that was dismissed as “just how he goes” or “he’s a bit cold-backed.”
Underneath that:
• GRF was loading the front end more than it should.
• One diagonal pair was taking more than its fair share every single stride.
• Fascia had been armouring for months to stabilise joints and keep the horse upright under a rider in a frame it could not support.
The eventual “sudden” failure is usually the weakest link finally saying, “enough.”
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Where Bodywork Fits – Honestly
Bodywork absolutely helps in this picture.
Done properly, it can:
• Restore fascial glide so GRF can travel through the body instead of smashing into blockages.
• Decompress overloaded lines – suspensory/flexor chains, thoracic sling, thoracolumbar fascia.
• Improve proprioception so the horse can rediscover how to use all four limbs more evenly.
• Give the nervous system a chance to choose elasticity again instead of permanent bracing.
But:
Bodywork cannot override years of:
• Fake frame riding,
• Chronic stiffness,
• Poor surfaces,
• And unbalanced training patterns
if those same patterns continue unchanged.
Think of it like this:
• Bodywork hits the reset button on the tissues and fascia.
• Training, footing, saddle fit, and rider choices decide what gets written back into the system afterwards.
Use bodywork alone, and the body will slide back towards the same protective patterns.
Use bodywork plus better surfaces, more honest frames, and smarter schooling, and now you’re genuinely changing the horse’s injury risk.
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The Point
Injuries start long before you see a limp.
They start when:
• GRF is pushed through a crooked, stiff, falsely framed body.
• Fascia quietly armours up to survive bad surfaces and bad patterns.
• Early warning signs are ignored because the horse can still “do the job.”
If you want fewer “mystery” breakdowns:
• Stop chasing outline over balance.
• Stop schooling serious work on deep, hard, or inconsistent ground.
• Start paying attention when stiffness appears and keeps repeating.
• Bring in bodywork to restore glide and give the horse’s system the chance to reorganise – then protect that change with better riding and management.
GRF is non-negotiable. The ground always pushes back.
Your choice is whether that force feeds an elastic, well-carried body – or slowly builds the next injury.
