Does a video show real footage of a horse protecting its owner from a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan? No, that's not true: The video shows signs of being AI-generated. Additionally, Lead Stories could not find any reports related to such an event outside of social media posts.
The claim appeared in a post made on Bluesky by the account @contemprainn.bsky.social on April 23, 2026 (archived here). It included the video, and a caption that read:
Footage of a horse protecting its owner after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan 🇯🇵
This is what a still from the video included in the post looked like:
(Image source: Post from @contemprainn.bsky.social on Bluesky.)
A reverse image search of a still from the video on Google Images (archived here) only shows social media appearances of the video, not information from firsthand or news sources. Through this search, Lead Stories found earlier instances of the video being posted, such as in a post made on X by the account @dikkatmedya (whose watermark is at the center of the video) on April 20, 2026 (archived here), and a version of the video published on Facebook on March 27, 2026, in combination with a response video (archived here). The version of the video posted on Facebook does not mention the earthquake taking place in Japan; that narrative may have begun after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake happened off the coast of Japan on April 20, 2026 (archived here).
A search on Google News of the phrase "Horse protecting its owner after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan" (archived here) did not show any relevant results.
Visual clues point to the video being AI-generated. There is a lack of structural damage to the stable, which appears to experience something closer to an explosion rather than an earthquake. The bucket shown to the left of the video spills water when the "earthquake" strikes, but has no bottom, making it impossible for it to have held water in the first place.
(Image source: Post by @contemprainn.bsky.social on Bluesky. Red circle added by Lead Stories.)
A piece of debris that flies out of a stall in the stable during the "earthquake" transforms from what appears to be a solid state to a trail of water once it lands on the ground.
(Image source: Post by @contemprainn.bsky.social on Bluesky. Red arrows and red circle added by Lead Stories.)
