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. 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. 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 in height at the
withers. The Misaki and the area in which it lives, Cape Toi, were declared a
Natural Monument in 1953 (
Shōwa 28).. The Misaki was classified as "critical-maintained" by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2007. No population data has been reported to
DAD-IS since 2008, when the breed numbered approximately 120 head, up from a low of 53 individuals recorded in 1973. In 2025 its
conservation status was unknown. A genetic study of Japanese and Mongolian horse breeds in 2003 found the Misaki to be most closely related to the
Noma,
Tokara and
Yonaguni breeds. In 2011, twelve horses of the Misaki herd gave positive
Coggins test results for
equine infectious anaemia. From the blood of one of them, the whole viral
genome was
sequenced. It was found to be substantially different from the two equine infectious anaemia strains that had previously been completely sequenced. == Characteristics ==