Hokkaido Pony

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Dosanko
Conservation statusFAO (2007): not at risk[1]: 71 
Other names
  • Hokkaido Horse[2]: 8 
  • Hokkaido Pony[3]
Traits
Height
  • average 132 cm[3]

The Dosanko (道産子)[a] is a Japanese breed of small horse. It is one of eight extant indigenous horse breeds of Japan, and the only one of them not critically endangered.[2]: 8  It originated on the island of Hokkaido, in the far north of the country, and is found particularly along the Pacific (eastern) coast of the island.[3] The people of Hokkaido may be nicknamed "Dosanko" after the horses.[4]: 37 

History

Japanese horses are thought to derive from stock brought at several different times from various parts of the Asian mainland; the first such importations took place by the sixth century at the latest.[5] Horses were used for farming – as pack-animals although not for draught power; until the advent of firearms in the later sixteenth century, they were much used for warfare.[2]: 67  The horses were not large: remains of some 130 horses have been excavated from battlefields dating to the Kamakura period (1185–1333 AD); they ranged from 110 to 140 cm in height at the withers.[2]: 67 

The Dosanko is thought to derive from horses brought to the island from the Tōhoku region of north-eastern Honshu in the late Tokugawa period (1603–1868), and abandoned there.[4]: 37 

Total numbers of the breed grew from 1180 in 1973 to almost 3000 head in the early 1990s, but by the year 2000 had fallen to 1950 horses.[2]: table 10  A herd-book was established in 1979.[6]: 12 [3] Hokkaido University receives a grant to study conservation measures for the breed.[2]: 11 

The conservation status of the Dosanko was listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as "not at risk" in 2007.[1]: 71  Population data has not been reported to DAD-IS since 2008, when there were 1254 horses, and in 2025 the conservation status of the breed was not known.[3]

Notes

  1. Also known as the Hokkaido Horse (北海道馬, Hokkaido uma) or Hokkaido Pony (北海道ポニー, Hokkaido ponii)

References

  1. Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. [Editorial Committee Office of the Japanese Country Report, Animal Genetic Resources Laboratory, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan] ([n.d.]). Country Report (For FAO State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources Process); annex to: Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 15 October 2012.
  3. Breed data sheet: Dosanko / Japan (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed July 2025.
  4. [Nihon Daigaku, Jinkō Kenkyūjo; Hokkaidō Daigaku] (1981). Planned population distribution for development: Hokkaido experience (Conference papers: report of the UNFPA/NUPRI International Seminar on Planned Population Distribution for Development: Hokkaido Experience, 19–23 May 1980, Sapporo, Japan, sponsored by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, in collaboration with the Nihon University Population Research Institute and Hokkaido University). New York: United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Accessed October 2014.
  5. Japanese Native Horses. International Museum of the Horse. Archived 22 August 2010.
  6. Taro Obata, Hisato Takeda, Takao Oishi (1994). Japanese native livestock breeds. Animal Genetic Resources Information 13: 11–22. doi:10.1017/S1014233900000249. Also available here.