02/17/2026
Happy Year of the Horse! 🔥🐴
The Year of the Fire Horse and the collective horse 🔥 Starting 17 February 2026
As we move into the Year of the Fire Horse, I keep thinking about what this means for the horse as a species, not just for us as humans.
Because the Horse in this system represents life force, instinct, movement, relationship, and the ongoing tension between domestication and freedom. When Fire moves through that archetype it illuminates, accelerates and exposes. And that is exactly where we are in horsemanship right now.
All over the world people are questioning what used to be normal. More are noticing the brace in the body, the dullness in the eye, the shutdown that was once called good behaviour. More are feeling that discomfort of knowing something is off even if they do not yet have the full alternative.
That is the collective field shifting.
Fire speeds everything up. It will not create one unified way of working with horses. It will increase the polarity. Systems built on control will tighten because survival responses tighten under pressure. At the same time, the movement toward regulation, soundness, agency, relationship and correct development will gather momentum and become more visible.
For the horses themselves this often shows up as more expression and less tolerance for suppression. Not because horses are changing, but because the internal cost of the old agreements is becoming harder to carry and harder for us to ignore.
So the question this year is not how to be louder. It is how to be clearer and more embodied in what we are actually doing for the horse.
In practical terms this is very ordinary work:
creating environments that allow movement and social contact
following tissue and nervous system timelines instead of human urgency
becoming riders who are breathable, symmetrical and predictable
staying present when the horse says no
Fire Horse energy rewards courage that is backed by structure.
The collective shift for the horse will not come from one method. It will come from thousands of consistent, observable changes in how horses are kept, started, trained and listened to.
Real power for the horse has never been in force or speed.
It has always been in a regulated body, a clear intention, and a relationship that does not require suppression to function.
That is the direction this energy is asking us to keep moving in.
** For those who prefer things without the symbolic language, take this simply as a reflection on the very real, observable shifts happening in the horse world right now. This spiritually feels true to me, and you are welcome to translate it into the framework that feels true to you.
