ひき or 頭 for horses? Initially I'd thought is for small animals and is for animals that are not small ("big" animals) however EDICT (< seems to claim that horses belong to the group and not the group (yet of course I think we can agree that a horse is not "small" at all!). 1) Basically I was wondering is it true that "horses" is the exception where we ignore the "small" / "big" rule and they are always counted with (regardless of the size of the horse) instead of ? 2) Are there any cases when is used to refer to a _non-small_ animal?

I don't personally know the answer, but exploring my way through EDICT:

a) In the definition, sense 3 - counter for horses - is listed only as " only" (so not ); it is also marked as an archaic term.

b) Skimming the examples page for , I could only find one example using a counter:

>
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> Only four horses competed in the race.

**Edit:**

Actually, I found another one as well:

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> He exchanged his cow for two horses.

So both of the examples use for the counter.