You probably won’t be taking your horse trick-or-treating with you, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t dress up for Halloween, too! Of course, the most important part of putting your horse in costume is making sure that you are being safe and respectful. Check out Horse Costumes 101 for some tips on how to responsibly put a costume on your horse. With that in mind, here are some fun ideas for spooky season that are sure to wow the judges at your barn’s costume contest!
Super Mario
What You’ll Need:
Navy/blue polo wraps, like these
A red or green ear bonnet (depending on whether you want your horse to be Mario or Luigi)
Glue that will work on fabric
Construction paper
A red or green square pad
How To:
Starting with your bonnet, you’ll want to put the initials of whichever brother you chose. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll use Mario as our example here. Take white construction paper and a round stencil to make a circle that will fit nicely in the center of your bonnet. Cut out your circle and either trace and cut out an “M” with red construction paper, or use a red marker to draw a neat M in the center of your circle. Then, use your glue to stick your initials on the front of your bonnet. You might want to try your bonnet on your horse with their bridle to see where the brow band hits it, so you can avoid putting your initials there. For Luigi, use green and replace the “M” with an “L”.
Once your bonnet is dry, you can put this costume on your horse along with their normal tack! The blue polo wraps will resemble the legs of Mario’s overalls, the saddle pad will be like his shirt, and of course, the bonnet will mimic his famous hat! If you want to dress in theme with your horse, maybe consider a Princess Peach costume, or you could dress like Toad!
Bumble Bee
What You’ll Need:
Black pipe cleaners about 8-10 inches long (the thicker you can find, the better)
2” craft pom poms in black
Glue
A black bonnet, like this one
A yellow saddle pad
Black fabric paint and paint brushes
A black bareback pad
Costume bee or fairy wings
Yellow polo wraps
*Optional: fake flowers
How To:
First, you’ll want to start with the antennas. Take out 4 pipe cleaners and 2 black pom poms as well as your glue. You’ll want to take 2 pipe cleaners and twist them together, to make one thicker, spiraled antenna. Repeat with the remaining two pipe cleaners. Using your glue, stick one black pom pom at one end of each of your pipe cleaner twists. Next, you’ll need your saddle pad and fabric paint. Open up your saddle pad and lay it out flat on your workspace. You’ll want to paint black stripes (about 4” wide) across both sides of the saddle pad. Once everything is dry, you can put this costume on your horse!
Put on your bonnet with your horse’s bridle. Then, you’ll want to attach the antennas you’ve made to the crown piece of the bridle behind your horse’s ears. The pipe cleaners are bendable, so you can use the end that doesn’t have the pom pom to wrap around the bridle and secure it so that it will stand up. Note if your horse is sensitive with their ears, you might want to skip this part of the costume.
Next, you can put on your striped saddle pad and top it with your black bareback pad to hold it in place. Take your costume wings, and using the straps that are meant to go around a person’s arms, you can tie your wings to the handle at the front of the saddle pad that sits above your horse’s withers.
Then, you’ll want to put your yellow polos on your horse’s legs to tie it all together! If you want to add an extra touch, you can braid your horse’s mane and tie a variety of fake flowers into your braids. Your adorable bee will look like they were busy pollinating before the Halloween party!
A similarly cute look could be achieved by swapping out the yellow for red and making spots instead of stripes on the pad to mimic a ladybug!
Animals with Spots and Stripes
What You’ll Need:
Nontoxic, washable paint (safe for your horse)
Paint brushes
How To:
This idea requires very few supplies, but you will need some patience. Use the color of your horse for inspiration here.
Cow: gray or cremello
Giraffe: bay, chestnut, palomino
Zebra: gray or black
Tiger: chestnut
For a cow, you will need black fabric paint. Using the paint, make large spots all over your horse’s body in all kinds of shapes. If you want to add some more detail, you could use a string to hang a bell around your horse’s neck. Wear your jeans and cowboy hat to show your “cow” off and join in on the costume!
For a bay or chestnut giraffe, it’s all about the negative space. You’ll want to use white, creme, or pale yellow paint to outline the shapes of the giraffe markings all over their body. If you’re working with a palomino, you’ll want brown paint to make the shapes of all the giraffe spots everywhere. If you want to be a part of this costume, find an awesome zookeeper look and pose next to your masterpiece!
You’ll want black stripes on the gray horse or white stripes on the black horse depending on what you’re working with. This one is simple! Rock a safari hat and some cargo pants alongside your striped friend to pull everything together.
Similar to the zebra concept, paint stripes all over your chestnut using black paint to make them look like a tiger. Bonus points if you can find a tiger-striped tail bag! For this one you could dress like a safari traveler or a zookeeper, or you could give your barn friends a laugh by dressing up like Joe Exotic…
The possibilities are endless when it comes to Halloween costumes. However, if you’re the kind of person who wants to participate, but doesn’t want anything too complicated, these are the looks for you. Make sure that if you do decide to dress your horse up, you spare the tricks and are sure to give them plenty of TREATS for being so so good!
