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Year of the Horse 2026: predictions, facts, myths and feng shui

Why the Year of the Horse 2026 could bring chaos but also great progress

Your horoscopes for December 2025, the month of the Earth Rat: work, money and health

Year of the Snake 10th month predictions for all 12 Chinese zodiac signs. Is your luck in?

Chinese zodiac predictions

Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Chinese Zodiac

Chinese culture

Horoscope

The Year of the Fire Horse begins on February 17, 2026. Being a “double fire” year, it could mean drastic change ahead. Photo: Shutterstock

2026 will mark the first Year of the Fire Horse since 1966. Photo: Shutterstock

A squad of Red Guards rally in Beijing in 1966 at the beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution. Photo: AFP

England’s national football team captain Bobby Moore holds the Jules Rimet trophy as he is carried by his teammates following England’s victory over Germany in the 1966 World Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London. Photo: AFP

With 12 animals and 5 elements, the Year of the Fire Horse comes around every 60 years and tends to bring both good fortune and bad.


Year of the Horse 2026: 5 famous works of equine art through the centuries

A scene from War Horse, performed at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2019. The award-winning British play is one of many artworks made over the centuries with a strong equine focus. Photo: Winson Wong

One Hundred Horses, by Giuseppe Castiglione. Photo: Taiwan National Palace Museum

The cover of a modern edition of Anna Sewell’s 1887 novel. Photo: Amazon

A visitor takes a photo of Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse’s Napoleon at the Great St. Bernard (1807), modelled after Jacques-Louis David’s original from his Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801-1805) series, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, in May 2025. Photo: Jelly Tse

The British play War Horse won recognition for the life-size horse puppets it featured that were operated by three puppeteers working in tandem. Photo: Winson Wong

Hong Kong actor and singer Hins Cheung (right) performs in a scene from Equus. Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play about a troubled teenager with an erotic fixation on horses is one of the darker pieces of equine art. Photo: Dionysus Contemporary Theatre

To celebrate the nearing Year of the Fire Horse, we look at paintings, books and plays that show how the use of horses in art has evolved.


5 of the best-known horses in Chinese legend, from the Red Hare to qilin

Warlord Lu Bu and his famous horse Red Hare are depicted in the 2013 video game Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends.

Horse-Face (right) and Ox-Head are guardians of the underworld in Chinese folklore. Photo: Zhihu

A stone sculpture of a horse stands near the entrance to the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, in China’s Henan province. Photo: May Tse

The daughter and her horse from a story in the Chinese folk legend collection In Search of the Supernatural. Photo: Baidu

Colourful qilin decorate the roof of a Chinese temple. Photo: Shutterstock

Horses play a fascinating role in Chinese folklore, ranging from the downright disturbing – one kidnaps a girl – to the gently auspicious.


Mongolia’s child jockeys are key to its nomadic heritage, but are they in danger?

Horse rider Dolgorsuren Batoyun (centre) is pictured as a child. Now grown up, the first woman member of Mongolia’s national polo team looks back fondly on the “cultures and customs” her father (right) taught her. Photo: Dominique Backhouse

Genghis Khan Retreat director D’Artagnan Giercke is pictured as a child. Photo: Dominique Backhouse

Dorjpalam Battumur, known as Palam, is a member of the Mongolian national polo team who started horse racing at the age of four. Photo: Dominique Backhouse

Batoyun is pictured riding a horse as a child. Photo: Dominique Backhouse

Tourists enjoy horseback riding near the iconic Turtle Rock outcrop at the Gorkhi Terelj National Park outside Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Photo: AP

People play polo in Mongolia. Photo: Ghenghis Khan Retreat

Batoyun (right) with her husband and son. In recent years, she has observed changes in laws and regulations that are “better for both jockeys and the horses”. Photo: Dominique Backhouse

Light and agile, children have long held the reins in Mongolian horse racing. But the hazards of the sport make it anything but child’s play.


From auspicious horse-themed phrases and couplets to whether your luck is in, discover all you need to know about the coming Lunar New Year.


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