2026: Year of the Fire Horse!

Happy New Year! As you probably have seen just about everywhere, it is the year of the Horse, the Fire Horse to be exact. Officially the year of the Fire Horse doesn't start until February 17, this is the Chinese New Year and we'll move from the year of the Snake to the year of the Horse. And apparently we will be going from introspection to bold outward going energy! Sounds promising!

The Chinese Zodiac has 12 cycles, named after an animal. Every 12 years we have a year of the Horse, but there are other influences, such as the 5 Elements and Yin-Yang and together they make a 60 year cycle. I have always been fascinated by the 5 elements, using there in character typing for horses (but it fits humans as well)

The "5 elements" in relation to horses typically refer to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) system of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These elements are used to describe a horse's personality, energetic constitution, and potential health issues, and they are linked to specific meridians and organs. I have used these characteristics in my recent Partnership Challenge, in which we used the 5 Elements to understand more about our horse's personality.

5 Elements, horse personality typing

The five elements of a horse's personality are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Wood horses are dominant and fearless, Fire horses are expressive and emotional, Earth horses are reliable and calm, Metal horses are competent and responsible, and Water horses are timid and sensitive. Understanding a horse's dominant element can provide insight into its behaviour and needs, and help maintain its health and well-being.

Every horse actually possesses characteristics from all types so often you can see a mixture. Each horse has a basic personality type that can be affected by external factors. For example, training can have one effect on the type, while living conditions can have another. Seasons, aging, even gender plays a part. These influences can even temporarily alter the basic personality so much that it is no longer recognizable. The basic personality is usually best observed when the horse has the space and freedom to be itself which will also benefit its health.

To celebrate the year of the Fire Horse I will explain about each element each day. Of course we start with the Fire Horse, do you have a Fire horse?

Personality description of the Fire Horse
The Fire Horse loves interacting with people, especially when they come to admire it and give it lots of attention. It is cheerful, intelligent, and is the first one ready in the morning to greet its owner. Life is one big game and the Fire horse doesn't want to miss a thing.

The Fire horse enjoys every attention paid to it, all interaction grooming, working. It also loves being in the ring, relishing the attention there, the bigger the audience, the better. After it has completed its work, the Fire horse enjoys being thoroughly praised. It cares more about beauty and grace than speed. A balanced Fire Horse is a horse full of joy.

They are emotionally oversensitive and will react extremely if their rider is not feeling well. With strong intuition, it completely anticipates the rider's wishes, but also its flaws or bad habits or potential difficult situations . This hypersensitivity can cause the Fire Horse to be skittish and anxious. Stress and being pushed too hard can lead to hyperactive behaviour, spooking or napping and difficulty concentrating. Because of this theyneed a calm, clear and confident rider that will support them and won't leave them hanging when they are worried.

Training the Fire Horse
When training the Fire Horse, you need to keep in mind that this horse often finds it difficult to concentrate. Not because of a lack of interest, but because there are so many. It is distractions therefore important to make and keep the training interesting enough to hold the Fire Horse's attention. The Fire Horse learns quickly and but equally loses interest fast in boring repetitive exercises. However, repetition is essential in training, so you will need to present the same exercise in different ways. The Fire Horse benefits from several shorter training sessions rather than long ones.

Health awareness for the Fire Horse
The Fire horse can struggle with separation anxiety and hyperactivity, this can cause it to get stomach ulcers. Avoiding stress and plenty of forage is crucial. The Fire Horse is sensitive to dehydration. Therefore, it is important that the horse always has enough fresh water and is not overworked. Fire Horses are also very sensitive to pain. The Fire type has a preference for bitter flavours. Bitter substances eliminate stagnation at the intestinal level and stimulate digestion and the heart. Because the Fire type has a sensitive small intestine, feeds should be provided that do not have an irritating effect on this part of the digestive system and are high in energy. The Fire type generally eats neatly and carefully, so blockages are rarely encountered.

These horses do not thrive when left alone in a stall, as they always need friends and lots of attention. They are not the easiest horses to manage, but if you succeed, you won't find a better dressage or show horse, as this horse loves applause and thinks very highly of itself.

Suitable discipline: dressage and show. We also see a good few Fire horses in endurance in the Arabs bred from show lines

My Fire horse: Niqui.
I rarely have Fire horses, they are not really my type normally but Niqui is just amazing! He's a big cuddly bear, always kind and interested in contact and he loves to play with his friends. Interestingly, his Fire qualities didn't come to the surface until we started working under saddle, and he began to find it a little more challenging. The first work was easy, he picked up lunging, a saddle, and all other pre-backing so easily and quick. A first rider on his back was no problem, not his first walk and trot work on the lunge. But when he needed to do the work with just his rider and less support from me on the ground he got insecure.

I had struggled to find a rider for him, and the different riders I had were not always as attentive (either mentally or physically) to his signals and body language as he needed, which meant he went through a phase of being worried. We are now doing well, but concentration for prolonged periods of time is something we need to work on and build up. We joke that he is not the brightest, I think he is very smart, but things sometimes get a little scrambled in his brain and he then needs a little moment to get the traffic jam in his brain to clear. He loves the attention and praise and he really wants to do well which is so much fun. He's just easily overloaded.

Because he is still entire he has a splash of the wood element as well. That's the testosterone, it will be interesting to see how that develops over time but at the moment he's just loving to strut his stuff in the field, thinking he's imposing my other stallion Watt. When they are out hacking together Niqui has completely forgotten that he is a stallion.

I'm sure when he gets older he will change a bit again, but for now we are going to have fun together.