The Journal of Animal Consciousness Vol 1, Issue 2 Vol 1 Issue 2 | Page 12

environment in a very active and functional way. When
we restrict the limb system of a horse (e.g., stalling) or
stress it beyond its capability (e.g. racing as a two-year
old), it suffers physiologically. The metabolic system in a
horse is true to his biological nature; given an appropriate
diet and lifestyle, the horse is able to transmute via a dual
digestive process (enzymatic and fermentative) into
sustenance that which he finds in nature from foraging and
browsing. And yet again, this same metabolic system also
makes him susceptible to physiological issues when it is
subjected to abnormal stressors (e.g. biologically
inappropriate diet and/or inappropriate mental stress).
Unfortunately almost all domestic horses experience
multiple unnatural stresses.
Evolutionary biology
approaches the environment and the animal as two
separate parts, stating that the animal adapts to his
environment and then natural selection takes place. Yet
through Goethe’s living biology of meaning, we come to
understand that the environment is, in a sense, given to the
particular animal form as necessary for him to survive in.
In this way, we can begin to see a unity between the two in
which the animal and the environment are, at the same
time, extensions of each other creating a wholeness of
place which is simultaneously expressed expansively
overall and focally in the parts (Riegner 1993, p. 204).
Schad said: “Each animal is fully viable … since its
specialized character is matched and supported by an
equally specific environment” (Schad 1977, p. 16). All we
have to do is look at various animals removed from their
natural habitat and placed in c