The Chinese Zodiac follows the Chinese calendar rather than the Gregorian one, and hence the animal will change over Chinese New Year rather than January 1.
Therefore for 1990:
from Jan 1 to Jan 26, the zodiac was the snake;
from Jan 27 (CNY 1990) to Dec 31, the zodiac was the horse.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1990 was the horse.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1967 is the sheep.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1965 was the snake.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1947 was the pig.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1975 was the rabbit.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1990 was the horse.
1990 was the Chinese Year of the Horse. Actually, it depends on birthday. Chinese people use Lunar calendar to judge the animal. Before Feb 4th, 1990, it was snake. And after that was Horse. For me, even though I was born in 1991, I was born in horse year. PS: I'm Chinese. If you want to know more about that, I'd like to tell you more. It's really interesting. Today is the New Year. Happy new year!!
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1981 was the rooster.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1966 was the horse.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1940 was the dragon.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1967 is the sheep.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1991 was the sheep.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1954 was the horse.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1992 was the monkey.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 2003 was the sheep.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1971 was the pig.
The animal that represented the Chinese New Year in 1962 was the tiger.