Happy New Year 2026: Year of the Horse, Denver Broncos, and Umamusume
2026 is the Year of the Horse, and the Denver Broncos are fighting to win their fourth Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Umamusume: Pretty Derby fans have jumped on the Broncos bandwagon.
Happy New Year 2026, Denver Broncos fans, it's the Year of the Horse! That seems like a great sign considering your favorite football team is merely four wins away from winning their fourth Vince Lombardi Trophy.
That is, of course, if the Broncos lock up the No. 1 seed by beating the resting LA Chargers on Sunday, which they're heavily favored to do. Many NFL playoff scenarios will play out this weekend, and we'll know where every team in both conference is seeded soon.
And speaking of Year of the Horse, a new set of fans have joined Broncos Country lately—fans of the Japanese video game Umamusume.
2026 is Year of the Horse, Denver Broncos, and Umamusume
The Year of the Horse (Chinese), the Denver Broncos (American), and Umamusume (Japanese) have all intersected the intermingled, like a beautiful melting pot. Or salad bowl. Or mosaic.
It's not just the Year of the Horse, but of the Fire Horse. From Style Magazine:
The fiery energy of the year can help you take leaps forward, but only if you know where you are going! 2026 arrives with hooves pounding and hearts racing. It doesn’t enter gently; it will burst into our lives demanding you to move quickly, not away from something but towards yourself.
While Feb. 4 2026 marks the first day on the astrological calendar, Feb. 17 2026 is Chinese New Year, which means it technically won't be the Year of the Horse until after Super Bowl LX (Feb. 8). Keep in mind the Broncos played the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, which was…The Year of the Horse. Maybe it's a good thing the Chinese New Year doesn’t change over til after this year‘s Super Bowl; the Year of the Wood Snake has been very good to the Broncos.
No matter, the Denver Broncos don't need a Chinese zodiac sign to ring in their next championship, they have Japanese horse girls rooting them on.
What is Umamusume?
Umamusume is a Japanese computer game, that came out in 2021 but was introduced on mobile in June 2025, which has also spawned three seasons of an anime series Uma Musume: Pretty Derby and a movie.
While I have a lifetime of experience when it comes to Denver Broncos fandom, Umamusume (literally translated as "horse girl") is new to me, so bear with me.
According to this fantastic interview by PC Gamer, Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a game that's skyrocketed in popularity recently, where you are a trainer of horse girls.
The girls, which are based on real racing horses, must be trained relentlessly and strategically to win races. You feed them, train them in a variety of ways, and make sure to rest them, too. And when you win races, you earn boosts, but according to Mollie Taylor, those boosts are never exactly what you're looking for.
Umamusume is a gatcha game, which loosely means it's a gambling game. It comes from the Japanese arcades when you can try to win collectables from machines (fellow millennials, think those collectable NFL helmets from the vending machines). Like many other mobile games that are free to play, they try to get users to spend real money on upgrades. Taylor explains if you want to face others online, you'll need to fork over some real money.
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby was so well received it won Best Mobile Game of the Year.
Why are Umamusume fans rooting for the Broncos?
Simply, since Umamusume is a horse racing game, where the girls are horses, fans of the game were immediately attracted to the Denver Broncos of the NFL. Apparently for the Colts, not so much.
Some of the crossovers between the game and football are there, too. Training, competing to be the best, running. The irony isn't lost on me.
This dude, grizzon13th, can explain it better than I can.
If you have TikTok, there are apparently tons of these videos, but I left the platform in late 2024, so I'm stuck with whatever finds its way to Instagram.
Like these two videos from cosplayer dr. despair_.
@kyonatix BRONCOS WON BABY! I went to the game for my birthday :3 (my bday is this week) and I wore gold ship!!! Got some great content! #golsship#broncos#umamusume#goldshipcosplay#umamusumecosplay
♬ original sound - YiruMind - YiruMind
Speaking of TikTok, here's one that loads without having a membership.
And here’s some fun crossover art from melodyangel113 on Reddit.
Go Broncos!!🧡🐎🏈
byu/melodyangel113 inUmaMusume
From what I can gather on Reddit and Instagram, Broncos Country has been very welcoming to Umamusume fans who have joined in Broncos fandom.
Which is fantastic.
My experience with anime is limited—Cowboy Bebop, Samuri Champloo, Ghost in the Shell—to the "beginner" series. I'm also a fan of video games, and have played some of those gatcha style games, but like PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor, resisted ever buying upgrades and worked to painstakingly earn them.
But when you look at any of these hobbies—video games, anime, the NFL—they're all just different types of fandom.
Football fans may look at anime cosplayers as weird, but we do the same thing!
Broncos fans buy the jersey of their favorite player, or many jerseys of many players. We buy matching hats and shirts, jackets and hoodies. We buy posters, football cards, autographed footballs and pictures, mini helmets and large ones alike.
Yeah, I love the Broncos orange and blue. But even the most die-hard Broncos fan knows he or she looks kinda crazy walking around the world in bright orange and blue merchandise.
The point is: A fisherman recognizes another fisherman from afar.
We're all just big nerds who love one hobby over another.
So, to that I say: Welcome Umamusume (Uma Musume?) fans, to Broncos Country! There's plenty of room on the bandwagon.
Hopefully our Denver Broncos can win the race and become champions of Super Bowl LX in five weeks.
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