Horse in Love

The folk reading gives the horse warmth and independence in relationships, and pairs it with the tiger, dog and goat. The pairings come from the branch scheme; the characterisation follows the animal's attributed temperament.

It is one factor among several in the traditional system. The folk reading gives the horse warmth and independence in relationships, and pairs it with the tiger, dog and goat. The year animal is the coarsest of the four pillars — the month, day and hour carry equal weight, and the classical sources never read the year alone. The goat pairing comes from the six harmonies rather than the affinity group — both mechanisms apply to the horse.

The tiger, horse and dog form one of the four three-fold affinity groups. It is grouped under Fire (火) in the five-element system.