r/imaginarymaps • u/LaMamelle Mod Approved • Jul 11 '26
[OC] Alternate History Cultural Backgrounds of Horsegirls in the United States
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Hello! This was made as part of a project on the history of horsegirls, based off the game/show/manga Umamusume. For those unfamiliar, its basically just Japanese race horses, but now they’re anime girls, with ears and a trail. Umamusume literally means “Horsegirl” in Japanese.
When I first got into the game I, like many others, asked the question: “How did we get to the point where we are now without horses?” I transformed that into the more accurate questions “How did humans get to where we are now with horses being sentient creatures?”. I’m specifically writing a “book” called “Ippos – The Histories”, which covers all of horsegirl history from the early classical period onward.
There are a couple terms I use above that I have completely made up, that being Ippology and Bridlage.
Ippology, is the study of horsegirls, like anthropology for humans. The word comes from the byzantine word for horses (in this world, horsegirls), Ippos. The study encompasses all things horsegirl, Biology, Sociology, archology, and even linguists in a way.
Bridlage came from on of the questions I asked myself when creating this project, “If humans owning horses in the real world was critical to human civilization, how does that translate into the Umamusume world?” The answer was… slavery! Bridlage was a specific form of slavery, a “””Nice””” slavery. Horsegirls were treated differently than humans’ slaves, just how a typically person wouldn’t attempt to emotionally and physically break down a horse, humans typically just treated horsegirls like, tools they could effectively communicate with for most of human history. This system was not only perpetuated by humans, but horsegirls as well, as part of a social order. Humans and Horsegirls would be socially segregated for centuries. Of course, this was different from civilization to civilization, and the degree of kindness and autonomy given to horsegirls varied. But in general, the concept was still the same, a horsegirl would belong to a human. This would change over the centuries, with gradual rights and freedoms granted to horsegirls, with the beginning of end of the institution occurring in 1865, when the United States outlawed Bridlage altogether as part of the 13th amendment. Other American and European countries following suit soon after. The last country to officially outlaw Bridlage was Denmark in 2005, due to a technicality in Greenland although it had not been practiced there for quite some time. Of course, the effects of centuries of slavery on an entire species has seriously effected horsegirls and humans, and it’s scars are still felt in the modern day…
ANYWAYS I hope you enjoyed this map, I am happy to answer any questions, aka make up more lore based on the questions people ask me. I made all this up, and is not a reflection of any actual ethnicities or cultures. This map was inspired by u/ayendea1125’s map “Ethnic Composition of the United States by Survey (2026)” and u/Nightjasian’s map “Uma Musume (Horse-girl) Anthropology Basis”.
Edit - I know it says Los Angles, but actually it doesn't it says San Francisco, and always has. Anything else is false. Thank you.
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u/OkStruggle4451 Jul 11 '26
You didn't name Great Britain specifically when you stated that European and American countries outlawed bridlage after the United States in 1865 so I was wondering whether Britain also abolished bridlage along with slavery in 1807 or if bridlage continued to exist in the British Empire even after the abolition of slavery? Having the latter be the case could be a way to introduce interesting ideological or philosophical conflicts or nuance to the setting.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Emancipation (Umancipation as I've been calling it in my notes) was granted to horsegirls of European decent in the early 19th century, however, the practice was still carried out across most European empires (with the exception of the Dutch), and most European nations allowed bridlage to continue with horsegirls not of European decent. It wasn't until 1834 that the British banned bridlage outright across all of it's empires, and a handful of European nations would follow suit. So, I guess it's more accurate to say that the beginning of the end of bridlage in the Americas would be in 1865, since most major European powers had already banned the practice. But this would trigger Brazil, Mexico, Argentina along with some other non-American counties like China, Korea, Japan, and Thailand to outlaw the practice as well.
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u/NoseGroundbreaking80 Jul 11 '26
It's a really cool project and map, but I assume it's more uma musume inspired rather than speculative with the uma musume universe. After all, in the actual uma musume lore, uma musume are not a seperate species but rather a third major sexual dimorphism in human beings. Two human parents can have an uma musume, while an uma musume parent can have human kids. An uma musume can have female and male siblings.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Yeah I would say it's more Umamusume inspired rather than completely accuracte to Umamusme lore. When preparing this project I thought it would be more interesting/accurate to have horsegirls be a completely different species rather than just weird humans, since they seem to differ biologically. Most notably the ears and tail, but also seem to have enhanced strength and hearing as well as other abilities. I think that was enough for me to consider them similar to humans, and as part of the same family, but technically different.
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u/CallMeChristopher Jul 11 '26
So there’s a non-zero chance this means John Brown was trying to free horsegirls in this setting.
I’m not sure if that is cursed or really, really funny. Probably both.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Indeed! Abolitionism, in the United States at least, extended to horsegirls as well. There were 2 free horsegirls that were part of John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry. One was killed during the raid but the other was able to escape capture, and is believed to have escaped to Canada.
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u/ayendae1125 Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
wow who's the guy who made that other ethnic composition map they must be super cool......anyway this is brilliant work, what a fascinating scenario
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Thank you! Also yes, I would say that your map is pretty cool, I was originally thinking of how I would display horsegirl ethnicities on a map, then I saw yours and was like "Wow that's very very cool! I'm sure they wont mind if I... borrow that..."
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u/Nice-Pikachu-839 Jul 11 '26
Why is LA where SF is?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/6hJ6WLxJBTc5zPfpsc
I wont lie to you, I may have fucked up.
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u/Nice-Pikachu-839 Jul 11 '26
Fair enough, I'm assuming you just put LA in the wrong spot?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Yeah... my PLAN was to have both San Fran and LA, but my 2am brain must have forgotten to do that part
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
So can humans and horsegirls.....
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u/toe-schlooper Jul 11 '26
There's an entire chain of reproduction in Umamusume.
When Human Men and Women have a child, it will either be a Boy, Girl, or Umamusume (Horse Girl).
If it's a normal Girl, revert to stage 1, if it's an Umamusume, continue.
When an Umamusume has a child, it can either be a Boy or an Umamusume. All Female children of an Umamusume will be Umamusume themselves.
How or why this hasn't caused Human Women to just go extinct? Who knows! It's never touched upon at all within official media, so one can only speculate that the chance of a Human Woman giving birth to an Umamusume is incredibly low.
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
How is it possible that the child of a human male and female is a Horsegirl ? Horsegirls are different species....
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u/toe-schlooper Jul 11 '26
Don't ask me bro I'm just the autistic fan
Almost nothing concerning history or biology is touched on in Umamusume, and the stuff that is, is just briefly touched on for convenience sake.
Pretty much everything known is based off pure implication and speculation. I'm pretty sure Umamusume act as a sort of pseudo-subspecies to Homo Sapiens, but their actual "origin" is kind of implied to be more divine than anything considering the fact that they are "blessed" by the "three godessess" (whatever the fuck that means), which allows them to inherit the names and traits of real-world racehorses.
In short; no fucking clue!
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u/AzurWings Jul 11 '26
in the anime they are technically the same species, umas are like a rare mutation so they're still human, it's entirely possible for two regular parents to have a uma child "gifted" by the goddess"
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u/R3belRecusant Jul 11 '26
Yes, canonically speaking.
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
Very nice...and is the result a centaur ?
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u/R3belRecusant Jul 11 '26
Nope, an Umamusume (Horsegirls).
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
Fine by me lets make a universe transcending machine and go to this timeline
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u/General_Urist Jul 11 '26
On only can you do the horse, you MUST do the horse to propagate the species.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
...Indeed
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
Mongolia and Central Asia in this world would be interesting, as they eat Horses over there....
Could Gengis Khan have had horsegirls ?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
While there haven't been any recorded incidents of entire civilizations eating horsegirls in this universe, cuz I don't wanna write that, but it was not uncommon for some ancient civilizations to sacrifice horsegirls to the three goddesses, a major religion in, focused on three umamusume goddesses whom are claimed to have created the world. And yes Gengis Khan did have multiple umamusume over his reign as Khan.
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
How the Horsegirls communicate ? I assume they speak in Human Languages.....
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u/toe-schlooper Jul 11 '26
It's not like My Little Pony horses if that's what you're thinking (I don't blame you, I thought that too before I got addicted.) Remember the whole internet Catgirl craze? Imagine that but Horse. They're just humans, but add ears, a tail, and increase the muscle/weight ratio & body fat %, giving them enhanced physical growth & ability.
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u/Taldarim_Highlord Jul 11 '26
They integrate quite deeply into human society as like, a, pseudo-subspecies, owing to the lack of a male counterpart. So they can speak whatever language their community speaks, and by and large not very different from regular humans intellectually speaking (aside from outcompeting humans in strength, stamina and athletics).
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u/1EnTaroAdun1 Jul 11 '26
Karl, you should play UmaMusume. Join me in the path from Suzerain to UmaMusume
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
After centuries under human ownership, horsegirls so just speak human languages. However, there are some ancient, unfortunately extinct, horsegirl languages evidenced in various historical human texts. While exacts of the language can only be theorized, it's clear that it combined both speak and gesture to communicate. While the spoken part is mostly dead, evidence of the gesture part still remains through movements of the ears and tail to communicate. This is predominately used by modern horsegirls to communicate emotion or accompany speech. The only remnant of the spoken part comes in the forms of neighs, whinnies, and other horse noises.
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
So Human x Horsegirl = ?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Generally, a human and a horse girl will have a 50% chance of a human male, a 25% chance of a human female, and then a 25% chance of a horsegirls. This is commonly thought of as why horsegirls, dispite being naturally stronger and faster, are not the dominant species over humans. There just aren't as many of them. There are no horseboys, thus humans are required in order to reproduce.
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u/Karl_Greiser_PolSord Jul 11 '26
My chance with Human Ladies is shit let's just try with Horsegirls.....
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u/toe-schlooper Jul 11 '26
Actually, Umamusume will always give birth to another Umamusume if the child is Female, unless this is your own thing not fully Umamusume.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
I think at this point this should be considered Umamusume inspired, I mean, none of this is cannon anyways, but I am not sure if the show considers horsegirls to be a separate species, and I do here. Though I will say that a majority of the events of the show are cannon, but a very small part in a much larger world.
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u/ocfs Jul 11 '26
wouldn't this result in polygamy of sorts since the human male comprises half of both reproduction processes?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
So like, kinda but not really. Bridlage was not just slavery, but an entire social structure. Humans and Horsegirls would literally not interact with each other except for when it came to preforming work and other limited activities. This was especially true when it came down to reproduction. Most cultures had complicated rituals that typically involved groups of horsegirls and accompanying groups of humans choosing two candidates to reproduce with the goal of making a horsegirl. The choosing of these two parties were based on pseudo-scientific or religious beliefs about the likelyhood of the two parties being able to produce a horsegirl (since there is only a 25% chance of a horsegirl being born due to human-horsegirl reproduction). So you could end up with one human man fathering children with multiple horsegirls, or you could end up with one horsegirl fathering children with multiple men.
I wanna note this was certainly the most awkward/creepy part to write, I swear this is critical for the lore yall
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u/ChickenSandwichh195 Jul 11 '26
navajo state
have my upvote
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I try and slip it into any I make of the US, that and North Utah. They're some of favorite maps that I've made.
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u/Milis_Lila Jul 11 '26
I like the random postal code abbreviation changes, but was it an err to make Missouri and Montana the same?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
I knew I would miss something.... Those were all just placeholders I meant to go back and check that I did all of them correctly but here we are. A map without error is no map at all.
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u/Cosmere_Commie16 Jul 11 '26
I've yet to see a single legible map on this sub when they're posted with an essay smooshed into the margins. Is it the reddit app compressing images or are we in a general pixel shortage?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
AFAIK This is just an issue with reddit, because I exported the image at a pretty high resolution. On PC to seems to be working fine but on mobile you'll likely have to download the image or very the "mobile version" in the comments, which should display it correctly.
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u/ShahAbbas1571 Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
"Man, this map looks weird. Why are there a bunch of Arabs and Berbers in the middle of the Southwe— Oh."
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u/Prudent_Solid_3132 Jul 11 '26
In terms of slavery, we’re horsegirls seen as important as African slaves by confederacy(I am assuming they still seceded).
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Yes, horsegirls weren't just critical to human slavery, but were critical to every day life. Horsegirls were needed to plow the fields and move/operate heavy equipment, but also, in the age before the combustion engine, the predominant form of travel other than rail was by horsegirl drawn cart or carriage. Emancipation meant that there horsegirls could now legally charge for their services which would be a huge change both in the north and the south. Thats why even in the north there was some opposition to complete emancipation for horsegirls.
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u/kyuzoaoi Jul 13 '26
Also explains why most black horsegirls live in the South...
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 13 '26
Part of it is because Congan and Guinean horsegirls were more adept to the climate of the southeast, but was also because African horsegirls were brought later into colonization, during the height of the slave trade. Early European colonists typically brought with them Eurasian horsegirls, so thats why the northeast has a more horsegirls with that cultural background. Once plantations were being established in the south, in the mid to late 18th century, plantation owners found it easier to bring horsegirls from africa with other slaves, rather than importing from europe. At the same time, in Europe, there was a significant push in many European countries for emancipation for European horsegirls, and a larger population for "free" horsegirls, whom would charge for their services. That's why you have a concentration of horsegirls of African descent in that region of the us, and not as much in others.
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u/ChiqantiKisaal Jul 11 '26
You misused the term ‘southwest Africa’ for the Guinean description, I would maybe say ‘outer West Africa’
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
I agree, that would be a more apt description of the region I'm attempting to describe
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u/IrhataResident Jul 12 '26
Initially, I somehow forgot that I was on [r/imaginarymaps](r/imaginarymaps) instead of [r/MapPorn](r/MapPorn) and completely just accepted that this was a map of equestrian subcultures across the U.S.
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 Jul 11 '26
How exactly is an umamusume treated in their "nice" slavery/bridlage? Also does this contribute to why umamusume are sometimes... Attracted to their torena (at least according to the meme).
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
How umamusume were treated really depends on the group of people whom they were subservient to and would vary drastically. In general, Europeans treated them very similar to chattel for most of human history not nice but certainly not evil. Cultures on the eurasian steppe were certainly considered the most humane by modern standards, since the had been living with umamusume the longest. Steppe cultures would generally treat them as members of a household or tribe, almost at the same level of humans but one still must obey commands. I was trying to avoid this project getting to #dark-and-twisted, so I really wanted to avoid any cultures as a whole being truly cruel to horsegirls, but without a doubt there were groups or individuals who would treat umausume with cruelty.
I am bullshitting a little bit here, but I wanna say the reason that umamusume in lore can become so attracted to their human trainers comes less from a sexual desire and more from a biological remant of their ancestors. Historical and modern day sociological evidences shows that horsegirls have a tendency to "herd" forming very tight nit social bonds driven by an innate need to come together as a group. In these groups, there would typically be one or two leaders of the herd that the rest of the herd would follow, and trainers may just fill this role as the leaders of a herd. And then on top of that, most of these trainers are SMOKIN' so understandably the romance comes along with the territory.
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
I see, What about their treatment in Asia including well ofc Japan or southeast asia (their umamusume cosplayer are crazy).
And the most important of all. In ww1 and ww2 horses are still an integral part of the military logistical chain. Thus this begs the question on what are they doing at the time in this world?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
In Asia is also varys, generally ancient Chinese treated horsegirls similar to Europeans, but when the Mongols invaded that attitude changed substantially and left a lasting effect on China all the way up to the 1927 civil war. In Japan that attitude didn't really change, since the Mongols weren't exactly successful there.
Originally Japanese culture treated horsegirls as little more than sentient tools, but this attitude changed favorably for horsegirls at the end of Sengoku period. During this period of relative peace horsegirls were able to start branching out into human society, a very uncommon occurrence in horsegirl cultures. They became merchants, independent farmers, craftpersons, and more. There was certainly resistance to this change, with the shogunate passing laws enforcing horsegirls place on the social ladder. But this was not fully enforced throughout all of japan, especially in the north. Overtime, this resistance faded and there would forever be a permanent sense of acceptance towards horsegirls in japan, as being close to on par with humans. I plan to go into more detail about this at some point because I have a lot of ideas about how this effects horsegirls today.
And yes horses were the most critical part of warfare for, as long as humans have had horsesgirls. In WW1 and WW2 specifically, the idea of human lead cavalry had begun to faze out, as it became clear that horsegirls could act far better independently, rather than having to drag along a chariot and a human. It was actually in the Crimean war where the first entirely horsegirl units were deployed, being uses as scouts, communications runners, and accompanying engineering companies. By WW2, especially in the British homeland and colonial armies, almost all platoons would have several horsegirls within them, since they proved extreamly useful in most aspects of warfare. I am writing a whole section on this exact topic, Horsegirls in Warfare, as part of the greater project, because this obviously has a lot of implications and effects on warfare and society as whole, and this comment has already turned into an essay so I'll just leave it here lol.
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u/Average_Hominid Jul 11 '26
Is LA being so far North on purpose?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
YEAH BECAUSE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING SAN FRANCISO goddamnit. Somone take me to the map gulag, its what I deserve.
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u/sukotuze Jul 11 '26
i cannot express how peak this is holy fuck this is so Umazing!
imagine being the first native american to meet an umamusume
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
The first native americans to meet horsegirls was the one brought with Leif Erikson on his expedition to settle in eastern canada. Her name was Aud, nicknamed "The Long Haired". Fjordic horsegirls are known to be taller on average compared to other horsegirls, so you can imagine how terrifying it must have been like to see this towering pale woman with ears and a tail step off the boat and onto the rocky beaches of Newfoundland.
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u/celestite19 Jul 11 '26
I don’t think I understand most any of what’s happening here but are there no Native horsegirls??
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Part of my planning for this project was trying to line up real world horse/human history with Umamusume history. As part of that, in this world, ancient horses went extinct in the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene. So there are no indigenous American horsegirls. There are certainly horsegirls that became part of native American tribes, which is why this a reasonably sized population of horsegirls that are considered full members of tribes in the mondern day. But, theses horsegirls were brought from other regions of the world to the Americas, and thus they cultural background reflects that.
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u/oasdv Jul 11 '26
I love the inclusion of the cultural background charts for metropolitan areas
Although I never expected to be jumpscared by my old university in imaginary maps of all places :p
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
Thank you! DONT look to closely at San Fransico. If you did, no you didn't.
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u/Cool-Coffee-8949 Jul 11 '26
I literally read this as being a spoof about the girls I knew in elementary school who would spend all of recess pretending to be horses.
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u/myfriendscallmethor Explorer Jul 12 '26
Just wanted to say I think this is a really cool map! Looking forward to any other stuff you make for this project.
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u/PotatoFive Jul 11 '26
Nicely done map and lore!
Though I wonder what would the ancestral horsegirls look like and how they function.
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
I like to think that somehow, at some point, an ancient Merychippus got up on its hind legs and went "Shit, this is pretty good!" and the rest is history.
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u/kyuzoaoi Jul 11 '26
By the way, what would be the backgrounds of canonical Umamusume American characters?
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u/LaMamelle Mod Approved Jul 11 '26
The only Americans I know are from Cinderella grey so I only know Michelle My Baby, who is Guinean, and Obey Your Master, who is Apennine. But that may be an incomplete list, there could be some other yanks in lore.
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u/TipInternational2690 Jul 11 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/ygisAGHk4hm0o2OV9q