Are Horses Intuitive?

A 'timely' Bank Holiday chat!

I spent time tonight, with a fellow livery hand grazing our horses enjoying the last rays of a balmy august evening, the sun setting in a dusky pink surround.

Out of the blue she commented on how "happy" she thought her horse was. Not that she believed he was normally unhappy, "but" she went on to explain it "wasn't a look, or anything in particular it was just a feeling... a sense that at this moment in his life he was particularly content".

I was struck with the timeliness of her words given that I've spent time today considering if horses are intuitive. Now, here was a lady explaining her own intuition at work.

Maybe that's how it works this intuition thing - we simply get a sense about someone, something, or a place that informs us - for no reason other than we believe it to be the case, with or without evidence to back it up. When we get that sense it sits right, it feels right, it resonates as true and we speak it as if it is so. That is intuition at work.

Are horses capable of a similar process? Why ever not? Our dogs wait at home by the front door apparently sensing when we are about to return. Cats are renown for sensing our negative emotion and absorbing it to help relieve our emotional pain.  So why on earth couldn't a domesticated horse, whose life is so entwined with ours and who is so 'plugged into nature' - not possess similar intuitive ability?

Do horses have hunches?  I'm not the expert. I am sure they sense our 'intention'; they know if someone's intent is positive, loving, helpful or not as they approach!  They seem to know when we are there to help them - if tied up in a fence line, snarled in a rug strap, or in physical pain.

They know when to be careful, even slow moving and gentle around young children, or the elderly.  Even the arrival of a puppy or kitten on a yard can bring out the 'delicate side' of a strapping warm blood!

So how do we explain an apparent change in character of a normally flighty, spooky horse into one calm enough to carry a 3 year child?

I'm sure there are some who would suggest horses are creatures of great observation, nothing more than that.  I would agree with that view point, as any prey animal will need strong powers of observation to survive. I don't subscribe to it being the whole story though - although who is to say that intuition is nothing more than 'high' powers of observation? 

Essy 2010

I'm not advocating that horse intuition is something ethereal or mystical.

On the one hand I think that because they operate with a wonderful simplicity, being present, living moment to moment and not worrying about later today, or next week, does help them to pick up on vibes, energy or whatever it is that informs intuition, being it is a very in the moment event.

Being in such a consistent space, responding to what's in front of them now, must free up mental capacity leaving space for intuitive skills to develop.  I suspect this is why so many of us (unlike our horses) are so out of touch with our intuition - having comparatively less 'free mental disc space' in our brains.

Surely intuition in a horse is no less probable than the phenomena of deaf or blind people reporting heightened acuity in other functioning senses, or elephants sensing water through vibrations in their feet.

Up to date research has now proved that human thoughts can be measured and are known to have a physical 'strength' - tangible and quantifiable.  Therefore it seems that pretty much any living organism (including plants) sense vibrational energy in words, thoughts and intent.

Given that all 'things' are actually moving and vibrating (see movie What the Bleep) with more space in them than actual matter - it's no big stretch of the imagination to consider horses pick up on all these vibrations and use their intuition to respond.

We too, have the same ability (dormant or active) if we want to see beyond the obvious and look at the spaces between the notes!

"Simples"... Right?