The year of the horse

A short gallop across the brand landscape.

Feb 05, 2026

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I’m immune to the allure of astrology, but I do pay attention to the Chinese zodiac, which this time around, beginning February 17, brings us the Year of the Fire Horse. (“Think energy and dynamism,” says Vogue.)1 The lunar new year is always a big deal here in San Francisco and in other places with large Chinese diasporas, and it’s a lot of fun for brand-watchers like me. There’s themed merch, special ad campaigns, and often some zaniness.

Take, for example, Cry-Cry Horse, which I haven’t yet seen in person but which has been in headlines around the world. (I learned about it from Jason Kottke, who called it “the perfect mascot for 2026.”)

CGTN told the story:

With the Year of the Horse approaching, a netizen in Hangzhou recently shared photos of a stuffed horse toy that came with an unexpected flaw – its mouth had been stitched upside down. Instead of a cheerful smile, the little horse looked unmistakably gloomy, quickly earning it the nickname “Cry-Cry Horse.”

The “mistake” went viral, and the owner of Happy Sister, the factory that makes the toys, had to add ten production lines to keep up with demand. And she gave all her workers a bonus.

In the U.S. you can buy a 10-inch-tall Cry-Cry Horse on Walmart’s website ($13.15 each). The product copy calls the upside-down smile an “intentional design flaw,” which I guess by now it is.

You don’t have to be Chinese to get in on YotH action. Don Julio tequila, hecho en México, wants you to know that it’s “a legacy born in 1942,” which was another Year of the Horse. The special-edition 750ml bottle sells for $144.99 at TotalWine.com.2

Don Julio ad, Financial District, San Francisco, January 8, 2025. Photo: Nancy Friedman

I’ve also been interested in non-equine brands that incorporate the word horse or even a horsey concept. When I opened a Substack Chat thread on this topic I got a bunch of good submissions:

Baojun is a Chinese joint venture with General Motors; the name means “Treasured Horse.” (Emily Hawks)

Horse Soldier, a brand of Kentucky bourbon, has a story that’s more recent than I would have guessed: “Just days after 9/11, elite teams of Green Berets were inserted into Afghanistan, some on horseback. Dubbed the ‘Horse Soldiers’, their exploits3 were retold in the Hollywood blockbuster 12 strong, the CNN documentary ‘Legion of Brothers’, and memorialized by America’s Response Monument located at Ground Zero in New York City.”4 (Mason Colby)

A Horse with No Name is another bourbon brand, this one infused with habanero chili mash and emanating not from Kentucky but from Germany’s Black Forest. Now you probably have that awful song as an earworm, and I apologize. (Ken Grace)

Caroline Smrstik, who lives in Switzerland, noted that there’s a hotel or café or bar or restaurant called Le Cheval Blanc (The White Horse) “in every second village” of the Francophone part of the country. She added: “I’ve always wondered: why only white horses? but have not yet made the deep dive to learn more.” It’s not only Switzerland: There’s a White Horse Inn on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, “serving the LGBT community since 1933” (but rumored to have been a gay speakeasy during Prohibition). And the White Horse, a pub in Dover, England, that’s said to have been built in 1365, is a favorite of English Channel swimmers, who leave their signatures on the walls.5

Braulio Agnese offered these examples:

“Hyundai called its first large sedan Equus (2009⁠–2016) as a way to symbolize power, nobility, status — the car was meant to compete with Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, etc. Eventually superseded by the Genesis brand.”6
Hunt Seat Paper Co. makes equestrian gifts, decor, and paper accessories. “I dreamed up Hunt Seat Paper Co. while laying [sic] in the grass watching my horse, Regal Rowdy graze in the Southern California sunshine.” — Amy Summer Ellison, founder
Hinny Hard Seltzer. “A hinny is the offspring of a stallion and a jenny, which is a female donkey; not quite a mule – the hinny is a bit more mild-mannered – but close. Close enough for Nickels, who originally wanted an Army mule to help his hard seltzer stand out on store shelves, but that was taken. So was a jackass.” — Rochester (New York) Democrat & Chronicle

Here are a few more from my own research, which I limited to brands with “Horse” in their names:

The Horse is “a curated collection of leather goods” — everything is curated now, don’t you know — based in Sydney and run by married couple Scott and Amy Hawkes. I wondered about the brand name (why not “The Hawk”?), and when I couldn’t find an answer on the website I sent an email query. This was the reply, from “Samantha”: “While we really appreciate the invitation, we’ll have to politely decline participating this time.” OK, I’ll just make something up: Scott and Amy like to eat horsemeat with horseradish.
H-O-R-S-E, a California activewear brand, is more forthcoming about its name: “Named for the pick-up basketball game, H-O-R-S-E harkens [sic — it’s harks] back to a time when physical fitness was simple. We were active outside. We moved our bodies with the simple goal of wellbeing. And we wore loose-fitting clothes made from natural fibers — not plastic.” That’s nice, but it’s a pain in the ass to type all those hyphens.
Horses was until recently Los Angeles’s “most exhilarating new dining experience.” It opened in 2021 and closed abruptly last month. The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Named after one of the space’s earlier incarnations — long-running pub Ye Coach & Horses — the restaurant bordering Hollywood and West Hollywood electrified the L.A. dining scene with stylish clientele, seasonal Euro-tinged California cuisine, a thrumming energy and a throwback playlist.” Personally, I find that restaurants with “thrumming energy” give me a thrumming headache.
Crazy Horse, the Paris cabaret on Avenue George V famous for its “divine dancers” with “mystical names,”7 opened in 1951 and is still attracting crowds. The name is indeed “a tribute to the American Sioux Chief Crazy Horse” (Thašunka Witko); the original design was meant to resemble a Western saloon. There are many unrelated Crazy Horse establishments, including an “adult entertainment club” in San Francisco and a “saloon and grill” in Nevada City, California.
Oris, a Swiss maker of “luxury” watches whose name sounds a little like “horse” but is in fact derived from a small brook, the Orisbach, near company headquarters, is selling a special Year of the Fire Horse model in a limited edition of 88. (Why 88? Glad you asked.) The company “has decided to have some fun and added two pink horses to indicate the remaining power reserve in the mainspring. The galloping horse at the top indicates a full 10-day tank, while the horse resting below indicates the watch needs winding.” It sells for 6,650 Swiss francs (about US$8,500).

Oris Year of the Fire Horse Limited Edition

Here’s a little horse story from my own branding experience.

I was Banana Republic’s editorial director in the glory days of hand-illustrated paper catalogs and wildlife soundtracks in stores. In the beginning, the company had sold military surplus from around the world, but when supplies ran short it got into the design-and-manufacture business. We sold a polo shirt that was originally called the No-Alligator Shirt, “our commentary on encroaching logoization.” A year later the name was changed to No-Polo “in homage to a certain designer [cough Ralph Lauren cough] who trotted countless ponies across countless chests.” Alas: “His attorneys were not amused. We debated renaming it the No-Lawsuit Shirt, but thought that might leave a few of you scratching your heads at the joke. So we’ll stick to the facts: no horse. And no monkey business: just 100% two-ply cotton piqué knit with horn buttons and a pleasing selection of low-key colors. And that’s no bull.”

The No-Horse Shirt was introduced in Fall 1986. I can’t remember who wrote that copy — could it have been me? Via Abandoned Republic, a tribute site that was acquired by Banana Republic in September 2025.

Fun fact: According to Jonathon GREEN’s Green’s Dictionary of Slang, the first print usage of horseshit as a synonym for “nonsense” (as opposed to “equine excrement”) is in a 1925 letter that Ernest Hemingway wrote to Ezra Pound: “I have a low middle class upbringing that makes me feel uncomfortable addressing such remarks as horse shit to a lady.”

There are many horsey idioms in English — see Green’s Dictionary of Slang and The Free Dictionary for long lists.8 I’ll limit myself here to two examples whose meanings I learned recently:

“The British proverb ‘horses for courses’ derives from the world of racing where different equines perform better when the course conditions suit their bloodline, training and physicality.” In general use, it means “people should be chosen for jobs that suit their skills and experience.” (Source)
Last month I learned a new equine idiom thanks to Heather Cox Richardson. To not know whether one is “afoot or on horseback” means “to be so totally and utterly confused as to be unaware of one’s actions.”

I’ll give you one guess as to who “he” is.

Fritinancy

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