The twelve Animal Signs

for Men

Horse man
His love behavior

The Horse man may be said to be fickle in love. But his is a special brand of fickleness, which has nothing in common with, say, that of the Snake man. Any of his instances of infidelity can be traced back to a perfectly understandable feeling of insecurity or dissatisfaction. He is no inveterate philanderer and does not allow his eye to wander as a matter of compulsive propensity. It is why he is a specialist of short-lived liaisons.

If he is strongly attracted to glamorous women and if married women have a special appeal to him, it is because he feels an involvement with them can help him gain emotional stability - despite all his outward self-confidence he rather lacks self-assurance when it comes to love matters. On the other hand, as he places a high value on personal freedom and mutual trust between him and his spouse, any failure on her part to uphold his requirements is apt to drive him into another female's arms.

His candor is sometimes utterly disarming. He readily confesses to his legitimate mate all his flirtations and infidelities, giving out as many details as she may be curious to know. But she had better try to find out the reason for his promiscuity and act accordingly instead of losing her temper, for her outbursts of jealousy would receive little sympathy, compassion, or understanding from him.

Concerning his family life, this individual's comportment resembles that of the male Buffalo. He imposes his authority on all people living under his roof, regardless of their ages or ranks. He means to be obeyed and respected, and it never comes to his mind that his rule could be challenged. To him, there is nothing effeminate or degrading in helping around the home. His willingness to build a large family is ever apparent, and he likes to be surrounded when he is at home. He can always be relied upon to satisfy his children's all material and educational needs.

But the Horse male differs from his Buffalo counterpart on an important point: Whereas the latter considers marriage to be a perfect, natural institution, the Horse only views it as a necessary, inescapable evil, an obstacle to "true" Love. It is impossible to resign himself to give up his personal freedom and love of change completely; he must, at least, retain the illusion of remaining as unattached as air. Despite all his sincere love for his family, he gets bored with it easily and prefers spending much of his time away from it. The singles bar of the quarter or a sport club are often his watering holes. In addition, he is ever on the lookout for various pretexts to go on trips; he will not forget, however, to write or phone home passionately and bring back wonderful presents for his wife and children. He also likes to lead a more or less secret life - "a life of my own," as he would say. Every now and then he does suffer from pangs of guilt over his lack of total loyalty and devotion to his family; but it is rare he gets beyond this stage of pious conscience.

While he does not have the Snake male 's finesse in love, the Horse man is nevertheless eternally a sentimental and romanticist despite all the appearance to the contrary. Love is to him a distinctive handicap - not a stimulus - to success on other fronts, for it blinds him to everything else. When he loves, he loves without reserve of any kind and is too ready to give up everything for the sake of his loved one. He then allows himself to be completely besieged by the object of his love, to live only for her, to react to her every look, gesture, and wish. He is capable of being very loyal to a female if he really loves her and if she is clever enough to help him preserve the fiction of his desirability, independence, and personal freedom. No one can make a more enthusiastic mate than a well-loved and trusted Horse. But when he has decided to love no more for one reason or another, there is nothing his woman could do to make him change his mind, or rather, his heart. From now on he will be moved only by a vague feeling of pity, and what he will do for her will be strictly prompted by his sense of duty. All entreaties or vituperations will leave him completely unruffled.

What kind of woman does he seek in life? For reasons invoked before, he has a pronounced weakness for beautiful, sexy, glamorous, and aggressive partners, and looks down on those who play clinging vines or decorative objects. He needs a woman who constantly reinforces his highest opinion of himself, who believes in all his dreams, and who challenges him with her own independence. His nature will reach its highest level when he is involved with such a companion. To put it differently, what he wants in a female is a complete understanding of his aspirations and emotional needs. But he proves an impossible lover or husband for a professional termagant, for he can be ten times as vicious as she.

Unless he is severely perverted, this man can be as clever in the bedroom as he is in his import-export office. He looks for a high quality in his physical relations. His approach to sex is generally airy, tinged with much sensuality, affection, delicacy, and, surprisingly enough, a good dose of modesty. Perfectly able to switch off problems instantaneously once in bed, he makes love with gusto and does not bear coolness or coquetry. Sex games may interest him to some extent, but if they are too involved he will end up confused and frustrated. He needs plenty of sexual activity to keep himself happy and can display considerable sexual endurance. Although he firmly believes in equality within a relationship, he cannot help from time to time feeling somewhat domineering and sadistic when making love; but in general his partners are hardly aware of it.