According to ancient documents, the relationship between man and the horse in Japan has a history of over 2, 000 years but it was not until the latter part of the 19th century that fullscale scientific research connected with horses got underway when veterinary science was introduced based on the modern scientific system from Europe. At that time, in our country, as the national policy was the improvement of horses through introduction of foreign breeds, and, in the field of related studies, the studies connected with the horse were the mainstream which achieved rapid progress in a period of a mere half a century. At the cessation of hostilities in 1945, in our country which had become a vanquished nation, dominant was the thought that it was a vice to be connected with equine science, other than the racehorse, which led to an utter disregard of subjects connected with horses up to the present day.
In looking back over the accumulatiom of achievements of the pioneers connected with equine science up to the end of the war, the achievements ranged over all fields including breeding, reproduction, infectious disease control and management but it is noteworthy that in those days the basic attitude of the pioneers toward the horse as a human being were quite apparent everywhere. Of these many achievements, even in an age of universal conscription, the 3 principal achievements were the [BAJI-TEIYO, or, “The Equine Management”] which even today can be called a masterpiece, [the studies on the exercise physiology and the performance-test of the racehorse by Drs. Shimamura and Matsuba which in those days attracted world-wide attention within the international academic society and the [rearing and training of racehorses in the Shimohsa Imperial Farm] published by the Shimohsa Imperial Farm from which, along with the Koiwai Farm, appeared many Japanese Derby winners.
These books not only are based on basic matters in regards to people connected with the horse who will be able to stand on their own internationally beginning with mental attitude in coming into contact with the horse, that vicious habits are caused depending on how the horse is handled, that the person who is in charge of rearing and training must be a technician who is well versed in knowledge connected with the quality of each individual horse, from behavior extending to life style and diseases, and that the young person who is in actual charge of young horses should be healthy, gentle in character and serious-minded but also the descriptive science of these books are so scientific that even the specialized books today cannot attain this level. The idea of exercise-performance-test has been highly appraised internationally and these performance tests based on this idea have been adopted even today by many European countries.
The achievements of the pioneers in equine science in our country whose point of view have been none other than that the horse is a partner of all mankind, in ideology and whatever the research results, these invaluable achievements have endured the test of time and can stand on their own today. By assuming a modest attitude by looking back again over the achievements of the past, we should exert further efforts to develop toward the day that the equine science of our country can be discussed on an equal footing within the international society.

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Anatomy for the artist (or, Artistic Anatomy) is a science which provides various knowledge for artistic expression in the observation of animals centering around man, or, the horse, or, describes the methodology of criticizing paintings, or, sculptures. Since “Anatomia” was introduced by Leonard da Vinci et al. during the occidental Renaissance, this name has been succeeded to this day but the contents of this Anatomia includes a broad interpretation of external aspects, motions and physiological, or, pathological conditions. Concurrently, this learning is comprised of knowledge about the theory and technique of artistic expression. In the 19th century, artistic anatomy indicated a temporary declining tendency as a result of the popularity of the so-called abstract paintings (sculptures) and the invention of the photographic technique but recently, there has been a tendency toward a reconsideration of the powers and methods of observation. In this paper, mentioned are differences between the specimen drawing which expresses the scientifically accurate actuality and the artistic tableau which expresses the true-to-life make believe while pointing out the finishing process of the tableau by the artist, the problems of the anatomical atlas and the artist's talk on his art and, further, a discourse is given regarding fictional specificity and poetical reality of artistic expression while explaining with concrete artistic samples. In concluding, out of a necessity of knowing more about this greatly different field and because of the difficulty of establishing methods of analysis and evaluation of this artistic anatomy, we have projected our aspirations and proposals in great expectations that this academic society will serve as the stage for the further expansion and development of the theory of equine artistic anatomical study.

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The aim of this study was to examine the factors affecting the oocyte recovery rates from slaughtered horse ovaries and the maturation rates of the oocytes in vitro. Follicle aspiration provided a constant average of 1.3 oocytes per ovary during winter up to 1.6 oocytes during spring. More oocytes were recovered by additional slicing and washing of the ovaries during winter (3.7) and spring (4.1) than during summer (2.1) and autumn (2.5). The overall recovery rate was 3.6 oocytes per ovary in summer, 4.0 in autumn, 5.1 in winter, and 5.8 in spring. Breed of ovary donors (light and draft horse) was a source of difference in oocyte recovery (4.4 and 7.6 oocytes per ovary, respectively), whereas age of ovary donors did not influence oocyte recovery rates. In vitro maturation rates of compact-cumulus cells-enclosed oocytes in winter (58.3%) and spring (55.5%) were not significantly different, but slightly lower, from those in autumn (65.7%) and summer (64.4%). The maturation rates of oocytes from light and draft horses did not differ (53.7% vs 58.7%, respectively). Storage (3, 6, 9 h) of ovaries in 30°C saline prior to oocyte collection resulted in a maturation rate of 62.3%(3h), 45.0% (6h) and 30.4% (9h), respectively. The number of oocytes per culture drop (50μl volume) had no effect on the maturation rates (1-5; 55.1%, 6-10; 56.3%, 11 -15; 50.8%). Supplementation of the medium with fetal bovine serum or B. S. A. gave similar results as in protein-free culture medium (58.1 %, 62.1 % and 65.3%, respectively). Under different atmosphere conditions (5% CO₂ 95% air; 5 %CO₂ 5 %O₂ 90% N₂), 60, 6% and 53.6% of oocytes reached Metaphase II, respectively.

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To clarify the location of Hokkaido native horses grazed on hilly woodland in the winter season, a 24-hour consecutive observation for the focal horse in a herd was conducted each month from October to December when available forage was abundant. Behavior of the focal horse was recorded at 1 minute intervals. The location and the moving route of the focal horse were recorded on the topographic map at 15 minutes intervals. Moving distance and daily located area of the focal horse, which was the area within an imaginary line surrounding the entire location of the horse, were measured from moving route and location points recorded on this topographic map, respectively. The woodland consisted of broadleaf trees and its underlying vegetation was mainly bamboo grass (Sasa nipponica). The experimental paddocks were adjoined by public roads and farm roads, in which a‘ was set for daily management of horses. The following results were obtained : 1) The horse frequently used the pass for moving, and the percentage of moving distance on the pass to total moving distance was about 50%. 2) The horse frequently located in the area near the pass or the public road, and the frequency of location of the horse decreased according to increasing distance from the pass or the public road. 3) Daily located area of the horse was not related to the paddock size. The longer the pass in paddock, the larger the area was located by the horse, while this correlation was not statistically significant.

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