午
Year of the Horse
wǔ · 7 of 12 · the hours of 11:00 – 13:00
Movement first — sitting still is the hard part.
Years of the horse
1930 · 1942 · 1954 · 1966 · 1978 · 1990 · 2002 · 2014 · 2026 · 2038
Each one begins at that year's new year, not on 1 January — so a January birthday in one of these years belongs to the animal before.
The horse is the sign of the open road: energetic, sociable, quick to enthusiasm and quicker to leave. It is the most independent of the twelve and the least suited to arrangements that require staying put.
The tradition's warning is inconstancy rather than unkindness. A horse means every word at the moment of saying it, which is not the same as meaning it in a year, and the sign's own difficulty is usually finishing rather than starting.
In Japan the same branch is read uma. The twelve are the eto there, and they still name the hours, the directions and the years.
Which animal you actually are depends on the day you were born rather than the year on the certificate — work it out exactly, free, from the real lunisolar boundary.