THE intelligence TRAP

The Intelligence Trap

This is the title of an interesting book that points out something that may not be obvious, especially if you consider yourself "intelligent"; being intelligent comes with the downside that it does not necessarily mean you make good decisions

This is incredibly true, and I have lots of stories about how horses can really turn intelligent people upside down.

Before I go any further, I want to point out that everyone has the capacity to learn. The major difference between those that are labelled by society as "intelligent" have typically had some moons align that supported them thinking this.

I am one of those people and have been validated my whole life for being intelligent, with all the certificates on my wall to prove it.

........And then horses did a brilliant job at proving how dumb that made me!

Let me tell you a story….

When I finished university and my internship, I saved up all my money and bought the flashiest young warmblood you have ever seen.

Because I was so intelligent, I purchased him sight unseen, confident I had been able to ride any horse I came across. I got a vet check and was completely sure of myself in working out any problem, because in my massive sample size of 4 horses I had ridden in my life, I had been able to work all of them out. [Note my sarcasm]

When he arrived, he was indeed the flashiest young warmblood you had ever seen, until I got on his back and discovered he was terrified of everything, making riding him not fun at all.

Being intelligent, I decided there was obviously something wrong with him. So, I set off on a 7-year journey of discovering what could help him with his "anxiety disorder".

When you are intelligent and diligent and you diagnose your horse with "anxiety disorder", you discover so many rabbit holes to investigate extensively.

My horse had a Bowen therapy treatment one day and was easier to ride for the next week. So, I did what a good intelligent person does and completed a Diploma of Bowen Therapy. Sadly, any further Bowen Therapy treatments just didn’t have the same effect, but they did put me in touch with people who recommended aromatherapy and animal communication.

More rabbit holes!

So, I investigated those rabbit holes as well because maybe I was not being open-minded enough.

Therefore, I would get my horse to sniff lavender and patchouli oil before each ride. I did decide to ignore the animal communicator's insights that my horse was just depressed he was no longer a stallion, as changing anything about that situation was impossible!

.........Then lo and behold, I discovered that my horse’s problem was...me and all my clever, risk management ways of protecting him from things he was scared of.

Just the positive impact of me ceasing creeping around thinking I was protecting him made a mockery of the hope I had in every supplement, herb and aromatherapy smell.

I was so damn clever that I could discover all these things that could be wrong with him and was completely blind to the possibility that I could be doing something wrong.

This was because I didn't consider I could do things wrong; I was able to work out everything that had ever come my way. I was so clever I had no clue about how I was impacting the horse.

Someone with more self-doubt might have come to this realisation much quicker!

It was shocking, and I have been doing something about that ever since.

This is just one of the things I love about horses. We might be the "intelligent" animal, but they are very good at highlighting that this has its drawbacks. Plus, the more "intelligent" you are the more profound your mistakes can be!

Therefore, if you are out there valiantly trying to fix your horse by being complex and clever…make sure you aren’t down a rabbit hole and your solution isn’t staring back at you in the mirror!