Freedom, fire, and fate: 3 horse songs for the Lunar Year of the Red Fire Horse… 2026 … a year of movement, courage, instinct, passion, and sudden turns of fate …
As 2026 welcomes the Lunar Year of the Red Fire Horse, three horse songs of living, loving, leaving, and returning come to mind. Each song has a different kind of wisdom for the year ahead. There’s a tenderness in the 1971 song “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones that often gets mistaken for sadness. It isn’t really about loss; it’s about loving without possession. … “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away. Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day” … Some things, like people and dreams, were never meant to be held too tightly. Relationships change shape, paths in the road fork unexpectedly, and plans may loosen their hold. The wisdom of “Wild Horses” is: Don’t exhaust yourself trying to control what’s meant to move freely. Freedom doesn’t always mean loss. Sometimes it’s the deepest form of love. Then there’s the haunting beauty of the 1989 song, “The Horses” by Rickie Lee Jones, and in 1990 a number one hit for Australian singer Daryl Braithwaite, my preferred version. This song sounds like surrender, but it’s really about trusting the journey once the gates are open. … “We’ll be riding on the horses, yeah, way up in the sky, little darlin’. If you fall, I’ll pick you up, pick you up …” The message for me in this song is: Let life carry you sometimes. Not every leap needs a plan. Not every answer needs urgency. Some of the best transformations in life happen when you stop wrestling the reins, stop steering every turn, and let the horse go where it wants to go. And finally, the wandering soul of “A Horse with No Name” by America. This 1971 song is about drifting, but also about simplicity. The desert in the song isn’t emptiness; it’s away from noise, expectation, and the endless news of the world, where the song’s narrator finds peace by being present. For me its wisdom is: You don’t have to understand the whole journey to travel it well. … “You see, I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain. In the desert, you can remember your name, ‘cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain” … Taken together, these three songs give me a survival guide for a year of freedom, fire, and fate. “Wild Horses” is a song of freedom of the heart; the freedom and grace to let go of expectations. It represents letting people and dreams be what they are. “The Horses” and its soaring version by Daryl Braithwaite is a song of inner fire. Transformational fire represents momentum after stagnation, new opportunities, and renewal, like the legendary phoenix rising from the ashes. “A Horse with No Name” is a song of an unexpected path, a turn of fate. It represents detours that become destiny, losing direction but finding peace, and sudden confusing shifts that become liberation. The trio is a life compass for this year. Release. Rise. Trust. Can’t see the whole article? Want to view the original article? Want to view more articles? Go to Martina’s Substack: The Stories in You and Me More Paris articles are in my Paris website The Paris Residences of James Joyce You're currently a free subscriber to The Stories in You and Me . For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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