The farmer told me, "It will happen after dusk."

One day in Spring, at midnight, when the rain was drizzling and the temperature was getting warmer, I heard from outside my room: "Hey, it's born!" It seemed like someone was beating at my door. Since I was fast asleep, I tried to regain consciousness. "You're coming with me! It's almost the break of dawn." I tried to understand what was going on.

"Oh my god…" 

When I arrived at the stable, it was already on the ground, standing on its own four legs. The farmer mumbled, "Bouncing baby boy," as if it were the arcane ritual of his long and winding road. "I'm sure he will become a great racing horse." The farmer said in a low voice as he gazed at the young pony. After only a couple of hours, he tried to get milk from its mother. I could hear birds chirping and noticed that the sun was rising.

 

Until the early 1900s, southern Hokkaido in Japan (around present-day Tokachi and Hidaka) was famous for producing military horses. As times changed, those military horses became racehorses. Today, approximately 7,000 new racehorses are produced in Japan each year, with around 80 percent of them born in this region. Additionally, approximately 5,000 racehorses are converted into riding and breeding horses each year, of which 80-90 percent eventually meet their end at slaughterhouses and are consumed for human and pet food, as well as other foodstuffs.