1990 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Metal Horse

沉浸 TeamAugust 26, 20264 min read

The 1990 Chinese zodiac animal is the Horse. More precisely, 1990 was the Year of the Metal Horse (庚午 gēngwǔ): the zodiac year ran from January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991. If you were born in that window, your Chinese zodiac sign is the Horse (马 mǎ).

One catch before anything else: the zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not January 1. Born in 1990 before January 27? Then you belong to the previous animal, the Earth Snake. The next section has the exact dates.

1990 Chinese zodiac at a glance

Animal: Horse (马 mǎ), the seventh of the 12 zodiac animals
Element: Metal (金 jīn)
Traditional name: 庚午 (gēngwǔ) in the 60-year cycle
Dates: January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991
Lucky numbers: 2, 3, 7
Lucky colors: yellow, green

Born in January or February 1990?

Chinese New Year fell on January 27 in 1990. So:

Born January 1 to January 26, 1990: you're a Earth Snake (snake year 1989), not a Horse.
Born January 27 or later in 1990: you're a Metal Horse.

This is the single most common mistake people make with the Chinese zodiac. When a January or February birthday is involved, always check the new year date before assuming the animal.

The Metal Horse personality

Horses run on freedom and momentum. They're energetic, straight-talking, and easy to love: the friend who says yes to everything and means it. Routine drains them; open roads, new projects, and moving crowds bring them alive.

Metal is the element of structure and will. It adds discipline, high standards, and real persistence. In the 60-year cycle each animal pairs with one of five elements, so a Metal Horse (born 1990) reads a little different from Horses of other years: the metal side colors how the horse's core traits show up.

Strengths:

Energetic and upbeat
Honest and direct
Independent spirit
Quick to act

Watch out for:

Impatient with slow people
Loses interest quickly
Speaks before thinking

Horses thrive in sales, journalism, travel, sports, and performance, in any job that keeps moving.

1990 zodiac compatibility

Traditional Chinese astrology groups the 12 animals into "trines" of three signs that share a temperament, and pairs each sign with a "secret friend" and one clash.

Best matches for the Horse: the Tiger and the Dog (trine partners), plus the Goat, the Horse's secret friend.
Trickiest match: the Rat, the Horse's opposite on the zodiac wheel.

Treat this as folk wisdom rather than fate. Plenty of happy couples "clash" on paper, and Chinese families today read these charts with a wink more often than a frown.

How to say it in Chinese

马 (mǎ): horse
生肖 (shēngxiào): Chinese zodiac sign
我属马 (wǒ shǔ mǎ): "I'm a Horse." The verb 属 (shǔ) means "to belong to"
本命年 (běnmìngnián): your own zodiac year, when your animal comes back around

Born in 1990? Your next 本命年 is 2038, the next Horse year after 2026. Tradition says to wear red that year for luck.

Want to go beyond the zodiac? Create a free Chenjin account to hear words like 马 and 生肖 pronounced by native-quality audio, save them as flashcards, and start reading real Chinese stories at your level.

Other Horse years

1966: Fire Horse (January 21, 1966 to February 8, 1967)
1978: Earth Horse (February 7, 1978 to January 27, 1979)
2002: Water Horse (February 12, 2002 to January 31, 2003)
2014: Wood Horse (January 31, 2014 to February 18, 2015)
2026: Fire Horse (February 17, 2026 to February 5, 2027)

Read the full Year of the Horse guide for the personality in depth, or look up a different birth year on the Chinese zodiac overview.

1990 Chinese zodiac FAQ

What animal is 1990 in the Chinese zodiac?

1990 is the Year of the Horse. Anyone born from January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991 is a Horse; a birthday earlier in 1990 belongs to the Year of the Snake.

What element is 1990?

Metal. The full sign for 1990 is the Metal Horse (庚午 gēngwǔ), a combination that repeats only once every 60 years.

How old is someone born in 1990?

Someone born in 1990 turns 36 in 2026, or is still 35 if their birthday hasn't come around yet this year. In traditional Chinese age counting (虚岁 xūsuì), you'd add one more, since babies are counted as one year old at birth.