Horse around or saddle up in 2026? A look back at previous Horse years as S’pore gallops into the CNY

SINGAPORE – There is a meme that makes its rounds on social media every now and then: a drawing of a horse, divided into three or four panels.

It starts off realistic, but eventually devolves into more rudimentary line work, something resembling a child’s drawing.

Usually, this graphic is accompanied by some variation of the same engagement-bait question: What movie/show/artist is this? 

It is, in short, a way to rate (and lampoon) media with a sharp drop in quality – for instance, Game Of Thrones post-Season 5.

To express high praise, part of the drawing might be replaced by a graphic of a flaming horse. And when something is “fire” – slang for good – from start to finish, the whole horse gets to flame away. 

With any luck, 2026 will prove to be the Year of the Fire Horse through and through. History, however, has not always been so humane. 

The year 2014’s wood horse, like its Trojan ancestor, visited death and destruction upon unsuspecting communities.

For one thing, it was a terrible year to fly. That was the year Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean and flight MH17 was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine. In total, 1,328 people perished in aviation accidents – 869 more than in the previous year. 

Then in June, a militant group by the name of ISIS began its offensive through northern Iraq, killing thousands and displacing millions more. Terror reigned in Nigeria too, where Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls and later killed more than 300 people in a night attack. 

Yet, 2014 was by no means unique in its misfortune. In 1978, the Greek tanker Spyros exploded at Jurong Shipyard, killing 76 people in the worst industrial accident in Singapore’s history. One zodiac cycle prior, the collapse of a coal waste tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan buried a school and its surrounding homes, killing 116 children and 28 adults. 

Nature, too, has shown little mercy. In 1906, it sent a calamitous typhoon sweeping through Hong Kong, claiming the lives of some 15,000 people. 

As if summoned by its zodiac counterpart, the red horse of war has reared its ugly head many times, most violently in 1966, when the Vietnam War escalated; and in 1942, when Singapore fell to Japanese invaders on the first day of the new horse year. 

In 1918, this warmongering beast slowed to a trot instead, as World War I wound down after four brutal years of unprecedented bloodshed. The final armistice was signed in a train carriage near the French town of Compiegne, and came into force at 11am Paris time on Nov 11.

But not all horse years have been draped in the pale cloak of death. Some, like their mythological Chinese counterparts, sprouted wings and lifted humanity to greater heights.

The world welcomed the first baby born via in-vitro fertilisation in 1978, the same year the Global Positioning System (GPS) was launched. And in 1846, anaesthesia was administered successfully and publicly for the first time at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Indeed, horses throughout time have served as vital harbingers of change. It was the domestication of the horse, after all, that proved a major turning point in human history. 

Yet, it is because of its work ethic that horse years in Chinese culture are generally seen as energetic rather than uniformly auspicious, as Dr Charles Wong, a lecturer of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore, points out.

Though once a symbol of military power – the six-horse chariot ridden by the rulers of the ancient Zhou Dynasty was synonymous with imperial prestige – the horse’s symbolic significance declined as elite culture morphed from martial to civil during the Song Dynasty.

Unlike the revered dragon, vested with cosmic power, the horse today is primarily perceived as a utilitarian animal. 

Dr Wong says: “People born with the horse zodiac are often described as independent, active and free-spirited, but also prone to restlessness. As such, horse years are considered favourable for change, travel and taking initiative, but not so great for those seeking stability or predictability.”  

For instance, if you were in Beijing in 1966, you would have been caught up in the early stirrings of the Cultural Revolution. You may have heard shouting as the Red Guards carried out Chairman Mao Zedong’s order to bombard the headquarters, or caught a whiff of burning paper as libraries were destroyed. 

Or, if you found yourself on the Sussex coast 900 years earlier in late September 1066, you might have been gripped by the sight of William the Conqueror and his invading Norman army, thundering into England to wrest the crown from its last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson.

In the intervening millennium, the Gregorian calendar was introduced (1582), slavery was abolished in the British Empire (the Slavery Abolition Act came into force in 1834) and India swore in its first female prime minister (Indira Gandhi in 1966). 

Closer to home, horse years have been filled with great political significance as well. The People’s Action Party was founded in 1954, and Mr Goh Chok Tong became Singapore’s second prime minister in 1990. 

Culturally, too: In 2002, the Esplanade was officially opened and Jack Neo’s I Not Stupid was released. Inuka, the world’s only tropical polar bear, was born at the Singapore Zoo in 1990. 

As the world gallops into a new year, it is hard to say for certain what 2026 has in store. Will the US annex Greenland? Will the Nipah virus upend everyday life? Will American singer Beyonce release another horse-adorned album, the third in a rumoured trilogy? 

Judging from the way things have gone in the past, get ready to giddy up. This horse year is unlikely to remain stable for long.