Little Rocking Horse
千里馬
Always moving,
always arriving.
In Chinese culture, the horse has long carried ideas of movement, distance, strength, and aspiration. Horses connected cities, carried armies and travelers, and became recurring figures in art and literature. Among the most enduring images is the Qianli Ma (千里馬) — the extraordinary horse capable of traveling a thousand miles.
Little Rocking Horse began with the memory of the wooden rocking horses that once stood inside old photo studios — familiar childhood objects made for sitting still while pretending to travel.
I had wanted to give the zodiac horse a rocking frame for years. When a curved wooden base finally became possible, it solved more than a structural problem: instead of forcing four soft legs to stand perfectly, the rocker turned instability into movement.
That small shift changed the character of the whole piece. The horse no longer needed to look as though it were running. It could stay in one place and still feel ready to go.
The surface of the horse carries several visual memories from Chinese art. Cloud motifs on the saddle came from Tang dynasty winged horses, the spotted markings were borrowed from painted ceramic horse figurines, and the eyes and brows still retain traces of folk paper-cut horses.
At first, the horse was given the grand name Qianli Ma (千里馬) — the Thousand-Mile Horse. But once the rocking frame was finished, the name suddenly became a little humorous: a horse meant to travel a thousand miles, rocking gently without leaving its place.
That contrast became part of the piece. Little Rocking Horse (千里馬) holds both ideas at once — childhood play and distant ambition, moving in its own rhythm while still looking toward somewhere far away.
Made by Hand
Original patterns are screen-printed onto fabric, then each piece is cut, sewn, filled, and finished by hand. Small variations are part of the process, making every zodiac companion slightly different.
Zodiac Years
People born in the Year of the Horse include:
1930 · 1942 · 1954 · 1966 · 1978 · 1990 · 2002 · 2014 · 2026
Your zodiac year returns every twelve years.
For those born in the Year of the Horse, 2026 is one of those special years.
