What it means
The Horse is the sign of freedom and momentum. Horse people tend to be lively, sociable and quick to act, and they often have more ideas than they can finish. They need room to roam, whether that means travel, a varied job or simply their own schedule. When they are interested, few signs work harder; when they are bored, they are already looking at the door.
Strengths
Energy, independence, warmth, quick thinking and a talent for getting other people moving.
Challenges
Restlessness, impatience, losing interest halfway through, and pulling away from anything that feels like a fence.
Horse years and dates
A Horse year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Horse years since 1950: Wood Horse, February 3, 1954 to January 23, 1955; Fire Horse, January 21, 1966 to February 8, 1967; Earth Horse, February 7, 1978 to January 27, 1979; Metal Horse, January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991; Water Horse, February 12, 2002 to January 31, 2003; Wood Horse, January 31, 2014 to February 18, 2015; Fire Horse, February 17, 2026 to February 5, 2027. The current one is the Fire Horse year, which runs until February 5, 2027. If you were born in January or February, check the start date: a birthday before it belongs to the year before.
Element
Every Horse year also carries one of five elements, which cycle so the same element and animal meet only once every 60 years. A Horse born in 1990 is a Metal Horse. The Horse also has a fixed element of its own, Fire, and is a yang sign.
Best and hardest matches
Traditional Chinese astrology puts the twelve animals in four groups of three, and in six opposite pairs. The Horse gets on most easily with the Tiger and the Dog, the other two in its group. Its opposite is the Rat, six years apart, which is said to bring the most friction.
How Cosmic Array reads it
Cosmic Array reads your animal next to your Western Sun sign. Together they give your Primal Zodiac, one of 144 combinations: a Sagittarius Sun born in a Horse year, for example, is a Centaur. The Architect blueprint shows your animal, its element and your Primal Zodiac, worked out from the exact Lunar New Year date, and reads them against the rest of your chart.