Is this what
Japanese horses
used to look like?
They're so small—
kind of like Nomao.

H-hey!
I’m still growing,
you know!

Back then, horses stood
about 130 centimeters
tall at the shoulder—
about the size of a
modern pony. Even the
famous warhorses in The
Tale of the Heike were
only a little over 140
centimeters. Bones found
at samurai residences in
Kamakura suggest the
same size.

Horses today are
way bigger, right?

Aye. Thoroughbreds,
which are common
today, stand around
160 centimeters tall.
After the Meiji period,
foreign breeds were
imported and
crossbred, which
made horses in Japan
larger. But only a few
native breeds remain
today, like the Kiso
horse and the
Hokkaido pony.