True Coexistence – Trust Beyond Control
True Coexistence – Trust Beyond Control
Introduction
Most people genuinely believe that loving a horse means protecting it.
But what if that very protection is what limits the horse’s natural strength and joy?
Horses were never meant to exist within human systems.
They are designed to think, move, and choose in harmony with their environment.
They teach us that trust—not control—is the highest form of love.
This article presents scientific evidence, philosophical reasoning, and ethical clarity to show why freedom under natural law is the only sustainable path to health and harmony.
I. Scientific Re-examination – The Fallacy of “Management = Health”
1. Behavioral Evidence
Studies consistently show that stalled horses are five to ten times more likely to develop stereotypic behaviors—
weaving, crib-biting, or box-walking—than freely pastured horses.
These behaviors stem from chronic stress caused by isolation, restricted feeding, and lack of movement.
(McGreevy et al., Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 1995; Mills et al., 2005)
Controlled environments do not create safety; they create stress.
2. Physiological Evidence
Ulcer prevalence reaches 60–90 percent in stabled racehorses versus 10–30 percent in free-range horses.
(Andrews et al., Equine Veterinary Journal, 1999)
Isolation raises cortisol and lowers oxytocin—the hormones that regulate stress and bonding.
(Fureix et al., Physiology & Behavior, 2012; McDonnell, University of Pennsylvania, 2000)
What looks calm in a stall is not peace—it’s learned helplessness.
3. Long-Term Stability in Natural Herds
Free herds show minor injuries at first, but long-term data reveal stronger immunity, fewer chronic disorders, and higher social stability.
(Hartmann et al., Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 2012)
Once hierarchy settles, aggression declines and overall well-being improves.
Natural interaction reduces anxiety and maintains physical conditioning far better than confinement ever could.
Short-term risk builds long-term resilience.
II. Philosophical Re-definition – The Myth of Protection
1. The Human-Centered Illusion
“Protection” presumes superiority.
To protect is to place oneself above another being.
As philosopher Martin Heidegger warned in Being and Time (1927), management transforms living existence into an object—what he called “the forgetting of Being.”
The moment humans label horses as things to be handled, their living essence is reduced to a resource.
Protection, therefore, is not compassion but a disguised form of dominance.
2. The Binary Trap of Welfare
The welfare model divides life into pain = bad and comfort = good.
Nature does not operate by such duality.
Pain and challenge are mechanisms of evolution and adaptation.
A life without adversity produces fragility, not peace.
Removing pain removes the capacity to grow.
Nature knows no morality.
The instant we impose good and evil, we separate ourselves from the natural order.
3. Self-Regulating Existence
Aristotle wrote that every natural being contains its own purpose (telos).
It requires no external will to function.
Intervention, then, denies this intrinsic purpose.
Eastern philosophy echoes this truth:
Lao Tzu’s Wu Wei (“effortless action”) and Buddhism’s doctrine of interdependence both describe harmony through non-interference.
Non-intervention is not passivity; it is alignment with the self-organizing intelligence of life.
III. Ethical Consequence – The Line Between Love and Control
1. The Violence of Good Intentions
Many forms of “love” toward horses are disguised authority.
Real love safeguards autonomy.
When expressed as control, love becomes violence dressed in virtue.
The most dangerous violence is the one committed in the name of kindness.
2. A New Morality
True ethics no longer separate “protector” and “protected.”
It recognizes both as equals in a shared field of consciousness.
When the horse is no longer an object but a being with agency, hierarchy dissolves.
Love shifts from ownership to resonance.
IV. The Practice – The Essence of Neutral Nature
Neutral Nature is not a system humans design.
It is the state that emerges when humans stop designing altogether.
It is not an “artificially created natural space” where movement routes or feeding stations are engineered for efficiency.
Rather, it is an attitude of complete acceptance—a willingness to trust whatever the land already offers.
If there is forest, it remains forest.
If there is hill, it remains hill.
If there is wet ground, it remains wet.
Within that reality, horses live, sense, choose, and learn.
The human presence is not that of a manager or a designer, but of an observer.
The observer does not stand apart.
They breathe with the land, perceive its changes, and engage without intrusion.
When horses read the wind, follow terrain, and move as a collective body,
the observer also becomes part of that rhythm—learning and harmonizing alongside them.
In this naturalness, no human plan exists—only the continual exchange of information among living beings as order restores itself.
Neutral Nature means not creating nature, but trusting it.
The moment humans withdraw their interference, nature restores its balance, and horses begin to self-govern through both instinct and intelligence.
Here, the human role is not manager, not architect, but observer.
Observation is an act of faith—the quiet recognition that life knows what it is doing.
In that silence, horses and nature recover their original equilibrium.
Thus, Neutral Nature is not a theory or a structure; it is a state of consciousness.
It appears the moment humans stop “improving” and start trusting.
Conclusion – Coexistence Is Not an Ideal but a Law of Life
The urge to manage horses stems from fear—fear of danger, of loss, of chaos.
But any action born of fear becomes control.
Science shows that natural freedom produces health and stability.
Philosophy shows that control erases the essence of being.
Ethics shows that non-interference is the highest expression of love.
Therefore, true coexistence between humans and horses converges on a single truth:
Trusting nature is the most rational and ethical choice possible.
Coexistence is not a dream; it is the architecture of life itself.
When humans remember this through their horses,
nature, the horse, and the human breathe once more as one living order.
Equine Notion
Tetiana V. NONAKA
Nobuyuki NONAKA