The Year of the Horse

It’s the Year of the Horse. I know, it’s nearly halfway through the Chinese Horse Year.

I fully intended to write this post in January. January didn’t unfold at all in the way I planned. No one plans for hospice care, death and funerals, do they?

Anyway, I did some research back in December about the Chinese zodiac because I was thrilled the Year of the Horse was upon us.

You see, I was born in the Year of the Horse (a few horses ago). This fascinates me because I spent much of my life being obsessed with horses. Yes, the family-given title of “Horse Crazy” belonged to me.

While other girls posted things like this on their wall:

I posted something like this:

While others played house and imagined they were the mom or dad or whatever, I pretended I was the horse and rider both. Galloping around holding my hands as if they gripped the reins and smacking my hip with an open palm. Yes, that was me.

I read every book with a horse on the cover or the word horse in the title. I dreamed of owning a horse. I collected horse statues and named them and talked to them and petted them.

My imagination works well – a plus for a fiction writer. If you’re shaking your head at my insanity, you wouldn’t be the first. My sister could tell some stories…but I hope she abstains.

Back to my research. I don’t buy into any sort of star-predictions. That doesn’t keep me from being curious. After all, I somewhat resemble the Sagittarius of my astrological sign. Of course, I could probably say the same about most of them.

According to what I found about people born in the year of the Horse, I agree that my strengths are:

• Ingenious communicating techniques (hello, I’m a writer after all)
• Cheerful
• Sometimes talks too much
• Perceptive
• Refuses to be reconciled to failure

I disagree with these attributes, however:

• Always wants to be in the limelight
• Clever
• Talented
• Earthy but stubborn (what does this even mean?)
• Like large crowds (Uh, introvert here; crowds drain me)
• Popular among friends (don’t you have to have friends to be popular?)

Simple math shows that the nays have it (although it was fairly close).  As usual, some generalizations can fit a person while others will not.

As much as I love horses, I don’t think it has anything to do with being born in the Year of the Horse. I have always been so proud that I was a “Horse” in this system, however. Have you seen the other choices?

What’s your perception of zodiac charts, symbols and predictions? Which one of the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac you are? Does it fit you?