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Travelling Horse Star in BaZi: How to Find Yours

By Data Saju · Published November 5, 2026

Your Travelling Horse (also spelled Traveling Horse) is the Tiger if your animal is Monkey, Rat or Dragon; the Monkey for Tiger, Horse and Dog; the Pig for Snake, Rooster and Ox; and the Snake for Pig, Rabbit and Goat. In 30,240 charts we calculated, 36.3% carry it. Enter your birth date below to see yours, and use the 2027 table to find the month it lands on your calendar. It's for fun and light reference, not a verdict.

How do I find my Travelling Horse?

The Travelling Horse (驛馬, Yi Ma, literally the relay-station horse) is one of the symbolic stars and stands for movement: relocating, business travel, job changes, living abroad. Look it up in two steps. First, find which of four animal groups your Year Branch (your zodiac animal) or your Day Branch belongs to. Then read off that group's Travelling Horse animal. If that animal appears anywhere among your Year, Month, Day or Hour Branches, your chart has the star.

The Travelling Horse animal is always the Tiger, Monkey, Snake or Pig, the four animals that open a season. It is also the animal that clashes with the first animal of your group (Monkey for Tiger, Tiger for Monkey, Pig for Snake, Snake for Pig), which is why movement and friction often show up together. Our home and property report uses exactly this rule, with the Day Branch and the Year Branch both as starting points. Some schools also use a separate star called the Sky Horse (天馬); this article covers the Travelling Horse only.

In BaZi your zodiac animal changes at Lichun (around February 4), not at Lunar New Year. If you were born in January or early February, check which side of Lichun you fall on. The Day Branch needs no such check.

Does my chart have it?

Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Without a birth time, only the Year, Month and Day Branches are checked.

A worked example: August 15, 1995 at noon

The pillars are 乙亥 甲申 戊寅 戊午, so the four branches are Pig 亥, Monkey 申, Tiger 寅, Horse 午 (Year, Month, Day, Hour). The Year Branch, Pig, is in the Pig–Rabbit–Goat group, so its Travelling Horse is the Snake. The Day Branch, Tiger, is in the Tiger–Horse–Dog group, so its Travelling Horse is the Monkey. A Monkey sits in the Month pillar, so the chart carries the star once. The same chart also has a Monkey–Tiger Clash between its Month and Day Branches, a pairing that shows up often alongside this star (next section).

How common is the Travelling Horse?

We counted 30,240 charts: every other day from 1980 to 2009, six two-hour birth times, with the rule above.

About one chart in three has it, and 8.1% have two or more. Common, but not universal.

Which pillar does it usually sit in?

Among charts that have the star, here is how often it lands in each pillar. A chart can have it in two places, so the shares add to more than 100%.

The Year and Day shares are lower because a Year Branch can only hold a Travelling Horse found from the Day Branch, and the other way around: no animal is its own Travelling Horse.

Does the Travelling Horse really go with moving? The clash link

This star is usually paired with a clash on the Day or Month Branch when readers talk about relocating. We counted charts with a clash that involves the Day Branch or Month Branch, using the same rule as our home and property report:

With the star, the chance of such a clash rises from 29.3% to 45.8%. That is partly built in: the Tiger–Monkey and Snake–Pig pairs, which are the Travelling Horse animals, clash with each other. Our home and property report counts the star and these clashes together to call a chart a "mover" or a "settler". Having both is a signal of a chart that moves more easily, not a promise that you will.

Does your Day Branch change the odds?

Yes. A Tiger, Monkey, Snake or Pig Day Branch is itself a Travelling Horse animal for one of the groups, so it lights up as soon as the Year Branch is in the right group. The share of charts with the star, by Day Branch:

The Tiger (46.4%) and Monkey (45.1%) days are the highest, and the Goat days (27.1%) the lowest. Of the 60 day pillars, 20 have a Tiger, Monkey, Snake or Pig on the Day Branch.

In which years does the Travelling Horse arrive?

Even a chart without the star can meet it in luck. The simplest rule is a year whose animal equals your Travelling Horse animal:

Only four of these twelve years are Travelling Horse years for anyone. 2026 (Fire Horse) and 2027 (Fire Goat) are not, and the first is 2028, the Monkey year, for the Tiger–Horse–Dog group. The 2027 Goat year clashes with the Ox, so charts with an Ox on the Day or Month Branch can still feel a move that year without the star. A full reading also weighs combinations and clashes, which the home and property report does for your own chart.

Which month in 2027 is my Travelling Horse month?

The star also arrives by month. BaZi months change at the solar terms rather than on the 1st, and each month has an animal branch. The month whose animal matches your Travelling Horse animal is your "Travelling Horse month". Here is 2027, in US Eastern time (the engine's astronomical calculation, converted from universal time):

A Travelling Horse month does not mean you will move. If a move, a long trip or a job change is already on the calendar, it is a month the chart is said to support it. The Tiger month starts at Lichun, the traditional start of the BaZi year, so for Monkey, Rat and Dragon charts the star opens the year.

Is the Travelling Horse good or bad?

Neither. Older texts worried that it meant leaving home and drifting, but it is mostly read today as movement as a strength: logistics, travel, sales, international work, any job where change is part of the day. If you have it and sit still too long, restlessness is the classic complaint. A regular trip, a new project or a change of scenery is the usual advice. For when a job change might land, see the career report; for how it works next to Peach Blossom, see the Peach Blossom guide.

How this site calculates it

The checker uses the same lookup as our home and property and love reports: the Travelling Horse animal for the Day Branch and the Year Branch is searched for among the Year, Month, Day and Hour Branches (three if the birth time is unknown). The group table comes from classics.js and the star logic from analysis.js. The percentages came from the same engine. The year table compares each year's animal with the group's Travelling Horse animal and ignores combinations and clashes. The 2027 month dates are the solar-term times from the engine's astronomical calculation.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find my Travelling Horse star? Find the animal group of your zodiac animal or Day Branch. Monkey, Rat and Dragon give Tiger; Tiger, Horse and Dog give Monkey; Snake, Rooster and Ox give Pig; Pig, Rabbit and Goat give Snake. If that animal appears in your chart, you have it.

How many people have the Travelling Horse? In 30,240 calculated charts, 36.3% had at least one, and 8.1% had two or more.

Does the Travelling Horse mean I will move a lot? Not necessarily. It marks a chart that moves easily. Among charts with the star, 45.8% also have a clash on the Day or Month Branch, which our home and property report treats as a second signal for moving.

Is 2027 a Travelling Horse year? No. 2027 (Fire Goat) is not a Travelling Horse year for any group. The next ones are 2028 (Monkey), 2031 (Pig), 2034 (Tiger) and 2037 (Snake). Within 2027, each group has a Travelling Horse month, listed above with dates.

Is it the same as the Sky Horse? No. The Sky Horse (天馬) is a separate star in some schools. The Travelling Horse here is the one used by Korean saju and most BaZi software.

Is my zodiac animal the same in BaZi and the Lunar New Year calendar? Not always. BaZi switches animals at Lichun (around February 4), so January and early February births can differ.

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