Abstract
Today, as we greet the 2nd year of the founding of the Japanese Society of Equine Science, upon looking back again over the history of how the animal, the horse, came to live together with humans as a domestic animal, the horse presents an objective aspect different from that of other domestic animals and domestic fowls. As the cognition of the Japanese toward domestic animals possessing such diversity differs remarkably from other countries, the existing conditions point out that a change in conception was in order. And, in reviewing the past of the horse as an animal, there are many factors which have not been clarified even concerning biological characteristics and it was pointed out that the horse has the potential of becoming an invaluable object of humane research not only because of its high possibilities as research material but also as a domestic animal from the point of its relation with mankind. In Japan, we are unaccustomed to hearing the words Equine Science but it was pointed out that, in the field of scientific research into the 21st Century, there is the necessity that a diversified approach be made to any particular phenomenon and my personal views are offered here regarding how Equine Science should be as a specialized science.
