Small dark pottery horse with air hole

I found this yesterday. It has the hole in the back that I've seen in pre-Colombian pottery. It also has those speckles like little reflective dots that some people might think is mica.

It's about 7 inches long by 6 in high.

I have no idea what it is. I thought it had a little bit of a old smell to it

 

Looks like a horse of Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1487548319



The horse is a bit different, but this one also has a hole

 

Maker's mark?

 

Those kinds of things were for sale in a museum gift shop when I went to a traveling exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors about ten years ago. I hadn't realized that they also found chariots and horses along with the warriors. That is probably where this is from. It may have had a tail made of real horsehair.

 

Thank you.

I believe they were made by hand and fired. Were the ones you saw on that level? Other dealers are seeming to label them as vintage.

They were discovered in 1974. So these pieces must have been made after that.

I notice the two holes at the end are different shapes. I read holes like are sometimes needed to fire pottery pieces. So maybe the holes had duel purposes.

 

The original ones were, but these small souvenirs are mass produced. Sweet horsies though.

 

I saw the exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Early 2000s. I'm sure the figures were well done because I've been to that museum often and the items they sell seem on the upper end.

 

Thank you. I looked at others in Google and this one seems much higher quality.
The material used on mine has that porous old feel and look to it, while some other ones looked like a more modern polymer clay.

 

The souvenir ones sold along with the traveling exhibit were like yours, only a bit better. At least when I saw the exhibit decades ago.
Over the years many others were made, and quality depended on the maker and the price.
The Terracotta Army is still on tour afaik, I know it was back in Brussels last year. So you could check the current quality in museum webshops, and see if yours could be one of the exhibit souvenirs.