Chinese zodiac
Horse
Horse — Wu, the 7th of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
In everyday use Japan counts the animals by the calendar year, from 1 January, and one pairing there carries a superstition: the Fire Horse (hinoeuma), said to make a woman born in it headstrong and a danger to her husband. In 1966, a Fire Horse year, births in Japan fell by about a quarter, from 1.82 million to 1.36 million, and recovered the next year. The pairing comes round every sixty years: 1906, 1966, 2026.
The Horse's earthly branch
The branch, Wu (午), is older than the Horse and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Wu 午The 7th of twelve. The animal is written 马.
- Polarity
- YangPaired only with the yang stems, so every Horse year starts in an even-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- FireThe Horse's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 11:00–13:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 5 June 2026At Mangzhong, Grain in Ear, when the sun reaches 75°. Beijing time, that has been 5, 6 or 7 June in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 180°Due south.
- Triad
- Tiger, Horse, DogThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Fire.
- Opposite
- RatSix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Horse does not begin on 1 January. In 2026 it began on 17 February. A baby born on 1 January 2026 — before that date — would be a Snake, not a Horse.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Horse since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 30 January | Metal Horse |
| 1942 | 15 February | Water Horse |
| 1954 | 3 February | Wood Horse |
| 1966 | 21 January | Fire Horse |
| 1978 | 7 February | Earth Horse |
| 1990 | 27 January | Metal Horse |
| 2002 | 12 February | Water Horse |
| 2014 | 31 January | Wood Horse |
| 2026 | 17 February | Fire Horse |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Fire Horse — is sixty years apart.