By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate

If you’re  not a devoted follower of Chinese astrology, you might not realize (a) that the Horse is the seventh animal in the 12-year zodiac cycle, or (b) that February 17, 2026 is the first day of the upcoming Chinese New Year. This is a very special year, the Year of the Fire Horse, something that only occurs every 60 years.

According to Feng Shui, the Fire Horse sign is said to bring a year of passion and determination, making it a good time to bring your dream or long-term goal to life. Those who study astrology agree, predicting that it will bring the world both energy and transformation, noting that 1966, the last Fire Horse year, brought forth both a Russian advance in the Space Race, a huge upturn in the US participation in the Viet Nam War, along with all of the violence that accompanied the student war protesters.

And let’s not forget that 1966’s Fire Horse year also brought us the British Invasion, whose youthful “Swinging London” sub-culture music brought us The Who, The Kinks, and of course, the Beatles. Fashion-wise, the British Invasion brought the Mod fashions of designers like Mary Quant (think of Twiggy, center-parted long, straight hair for women and the end of the crew-cut head for men.) Women embraced straight-lined shift dresses, mini skirts and go-go boots and favored bold bright colors and geometric designs. Men wore skinny ties, button-down shirts, Chelsea boots and slim-fit tailored suits with narrow lapels.  The Mod look soon morphed into the Swinging Sixties, the international youth-driven cultural revolution which we Boomers led.  

Stop a moment to think what a tumultuous Fire Horse year that was! Beyond the huge headline news I mentioned above, some fascinating celebrities,  were born in that Fire Horse year, including Halle Berry, Adam Sandler, John Cusack, Kiefer Sutherland, Cynthia Nixon, Mike Tyson, Gordon Ramsey, Janet Jackson and Helena Bonham Carter.

Other zodiacal Horse years in our lifetimes haven’t been quite so energetic or exotic. For example:

• 1942 and 2002 were the most recent years of the Water Horse. Water horses are said to be graceful, intuitive, adaptable, versatile. Able to talk intelligently. Celebrities born in 1942 include Harrison Ford, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Calvin Klein, Carole King, Martin Scorsese, Muhammad Ali, Stephen Hawking and Joe Biden. Greta Thunberg, the teenaged Swedish climate activist born in 2002 is also a Water Horse.
• 1954 and 2014 belonged to the Wood Horse. People born in these years are likely to be stable, sociable, good conversationalists. American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, media personality and founder of the National Action Network is a Wood Horse, as is Matt Groening, the American cartoonist best known as the creator of The Simpsons. Both were born in 1954.
• 1978 was the most recent year of the Earth Horse, with earth bringing independence, pragmatism, practicality and stability to the horse sign. Celebrities born in the year of the Earth Horse include Zoe Saldana, Ashton Kutcher, Rachael McAdams, Kobe Bryant and Usher.
• 1990 was the last time we enjoyed a year of the Gold Horse, with the metal bringing it’s innate strength, ambition and resilience. Some of the Gold Horse celebrities born in 1990 include Emma Watson, The Weeknd, Jennifer Lawrence, Margot Robbie, Dev Patel, Liam Hemsworth, Machine Gun Kelly, Princess Eugenie and Paul George.

But let’s get back to the Fire Horse:

According to Chinese astrologists, people born in the year of the Fire Horse are said to energetic, independent, confident, and hardworking.  In addition, Fire Horses are adventurous and action oriented. Funnily enough, these are qualities I possess, which have regularly gotten me in to what I call “good trouble.”

Linda Ballou enjoys being astride her horse at a guest ranch in Jackson, Wyoming,
February 4, 2026.

In addition, the year of the horse people seek freedom of the soul often feeling confined and driven to pursue their own goals. These are the qualities that moved me towards becoming an adventure travel writer. I knew early on that I could not conform to norms of authority and had to make my own way.  I combined my love of writing, horse- back riding and adventure to get my first free-lance travel writing gig. For the last two decades my writing has taken me around the globe, birthing stories that I share in My Lost Angel Adventures book trilogy, and podcast.

Each horse year is also shaped by one of the five elements. 2026 is the year of the Fire Horse filled with passion and intensity making it favorable for new ventures and bold decisions. This feels totally relevant to my circumstance as I am coming out of a dormant period and gearing up for exciting new destinations. The horse symbolizes success through effort, travel and momentum.  Signaling time for me to “Giddy-Up!”

Spiritually, the horse often represents vitality, raw energy and a sense of freedom.  One Easter morning, I decided to greet the day as the Navajo people do in the Beauty Way. They wake at dawn and run towards the sunrise. I rode to a high ridge trail overlooking a green valley, gave my mare her head and felt her powerful charge into the new day. I cherish the exhilaration I felt in that moment of connection to her movements. We were as one. Like Pegasus, the winged horse we flew toward the sun.  This sense of companionship extends to my spirit horse, Wind Dancer. I met him in Moab where he loves to catch the thermals and glide high above the sandstone canyons carved by wind, rain and rivers of time.  He is the namesake for my publishing moniker Wind Dancer Press.

Promotional piece for Linda Ballou’s The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon

I see now how the independent, adventuresome qualities that move me forward are reflected in my characters. Gemcie, the protagonist in the Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon needs to go to the mountains to find her way through deception, and betrayal in her young life. She is a world class equestrian groomed by a show mom who has pinned all of her hopes and dreams on her daughter.

Gemcie has to decide if this is the life she wants.  She determines to ride solo in the John Muir Wilderness. There she finds solace and is able to release tumultous emotions.  She finds mother nature is big enough to absorb her pain and set her free. She becomes focused on breathing deeply of her surroundings and filling up at the universal energy pump.  Strengthened in nature she is able to move forward in her life with focused intent.

My historical novel Embrace of the Wild is inspired by the indomitable, Victorian Age explorer Isabella Lucy Bird.  At the age of forty, she lifts herself from the invalid’s bed to travel the world and becomes the best-loved travel writer of her day.  When she discovered that riding astride, rather than side-saddle like a Victorian Lady, relieved her of back pain. she went wild with her new-found freedom. She rode like a banshee all over the Hawaiian Islands and then sailed to the continent to explore the Rocky Mountains.

There she connected with a mare she dubbed Birdie.  She ventured out in the fall of 1873 to ride 800-miles solo in the front range of the Colorado Rockies.  Birdie saved her life on more than one occasion, tapping ice flows with her hoofs before moving forward, navigating snow drifts and keeping Ms. Bird on track. Isabella dubbed her “The Queen of Ponies” and often stopped to pick the ice from her hooves and walked alongside her to give her a rest from the treacherous journey. They were a team illustrating the companionship that forms between horses and humans if given the chance.

There are no horses in my novel Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai’i. However, Wai-nani resents the authority that is biased against her gender, questions the traditional order of things, and stand up to powerful priests who threaten her life. She is definitely a Fire Horse person. She is modeled after Ka’ahumanu, the favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great.  No small feat, as he had 32 wives. She walked shoulder to shoulder with him on progresses through the Hawaiian Kingdom that he united.

When he died he bestowed upon her the power to rule with his son. She was a passionate, independent, clever woman who changed the course of the Hawaiian history by ending the 2,000-year-old Kapu system. She remains a powerful, controversial figure today. Each year her birthday, March 17, 1768, is honored by a celebration at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center on Maui.

Horses have played a dynamic role in my life.

My first published article titled “The Art of Falling” appeared in Horse Illustrated.  I dared to do a cross-country course in Ireland aboard Marshal, a magnificent Irish Hunter.  I lived to tell about it in my story Irish Mist.   My heart-pounding experience clinging to Hula Girl, a mare totally devoid of Aloha spirit is included in Lost Angel Walkabout along with Falling in the Footsteps of John Muir about my horse pack trip in the High Sierras. I rode from hacienda to hacienda on the Inca Trail in Ecuador and did a horse back trip in the wild back-country of British Columbia. Guest ranches in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Arizona have served as perfect bases for explorations in a given region

2026 is a Fire Horse Year, that promises to be filled with passion, intensity and new quests.  I can’t ride the way I did in my youth, but  I can’t wait to hit the freedom trail again aboard my Spirit Horse Wind Dancer.

Linda Ballou Freelance Writer

Linda's mission is to experience as many beautiful places on our planet as she can before they are no more. Travel tales relating her experiences while kayaking, horseback riding, sailing, birding and hiking about the globe have appeared in numerous national magazines. She had great fun collecting travel stories, and profiles of people she met in “naturally high places” for her book, Lost Angel Walkabout-One Traveler’s Tales. Her latest book Lost Angel Unleashed is the third book in her Lost Angel Trilogy

Go to LostAngelAdventures.com for more adventures.

For more about Linda’s novels and media offerings go to. www.LindaBallouAuthor.com