Halloween Costume Ideas for Your Horse and Yourself

For the horse lover, horses can add an extra bit of fun to the Halloween season. If you are fortunate enough to own or lease your own horse, then you can dress your horse in a costume for Halloween (and yourself in a coordinating costume) and really make a big impact on everyone at the barn or show. With any luck, you can even win a prize for best costume. One of the first things to do once you've decided to dress your horse in a costume for Halloween is to think of a theme. What are you going to dress your horse AND yourself as? It is best to think of you and your horse as a team so you can decide on coordinating costumes for the biggest impact and the most fun. But before you even think of a theme, think safety first!

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #1: Safety

One of the first horses that comes to mind at Halloween time is the horse belonging to the "Headless Horseman," a colonial Hessian soldier who lost his head in the Revolutionary War and doesn't want anyone else to have a head either so he and his black horse race through Sleepy Hollow chasing anyone unwise enough to be on the roads at night. The story by Washington Irving (Legend of Sleepy Hollow) has become legend as it tells about the fiery ghost horse and the headless horseman as they chase Ichabod Crane for his head. Unfortunately, dressing a real live horse as a ghostly apparition who races through the night with glowing red eyes and blowing smoke and then dressing yourself in a costume with no head is not a safe idea! It is best to think safety first whenever you are around horses because horses are large animals and sometimes people can get hurt. You know your horses' temperament best so think of a costume with no floppy parts so that you will not scare or startle your horse in any way. Then make sure he or she gets used to it before you dress up to attend either the barn Halloween party or class at the show you are attending to maximize your safety. You never want to put a costume on a horse that's never seen one before and then expect that your horse will behave. It rarely happens and you or your horse could be seriously hurt. So think safety first!

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #2: Will You Be Riding or Walking Beside Your Horse?

The costume you choose for both your horse and yourself depends upon whether you will be riding your horse or if you will be walking beside him/her and leading them. You don't want to dress up in a costume that restricts your movements if you will be riding your horse because you won't have enough control and could get hurt. But you can probably get away with a costume that slightly restricts your movements IF you will just be walking beside your horse and leading him/her. Once you've decided if you are riding or walking your horse; it's time to choose a theme.

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #3: Come Up With a Theme

When you're thinking about the different themes, keep in mind that whatever costume you dress your horse in; you will need to dress in a costume that coordinates with it or at least accents it somehow. There are different famous pair ideas that work the best as pairs such as Antony and Cleopatra; peanut butter and jelly; Romeo and Juliet; Sonny and Cher; fish and water, etc. The problem with most of these ideas is that they don't translate well into a costume for a horse and then a person too. But what about dressing up as Gumby and Pokey; or Batman and Robin; or Superman and Lois Lane? Or how about dressing your horse in a fire truck costume and yourself as a fireman/fire person; or your horse as a police car and yourself as a policeman/person; or your horse as an ambulance and yourself as an EMT or doctor? Other horse costume ideas are sea horse and mermaid; box of crayons; zebra; giraffe; leopard; tiger; cow; reindeer; Dalmatian dog; Budweiser horse; hippy/flower child from the 1960's; taxi cab; Renaissance horse; King or Queen (royalty); Phantom of the Opera; pirate; bumble bee; Raggedy Ann and Andy's Hobby Horse; Rainbow Brite's horse Starlite; Lone Ranger's horse Silver; Tonto's horse Scout; Zorro's horse Tornado; Shadowfax from Lord of the Rings; angel; devil; Native American Indian; Hawaiian hula dancers; ballerina; spider; scarecrow; clowns. If these sound like some wild ideas, let me tell you that they are not only possible, some of them are not even all that difficult to make or at least put together.

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #4: Come Up with a Budget

Now that you've decided on a theme for both you and your horse, you will need to decide on a budget. Do you have plenty of money to spend on a costume? Because depending on your budget, you can take almost any different costume idea and have someone (a company) make it for you. If you can think it and explain it to a seamstress or a company that designs horse costumes, then they can turn it into a reality. Of course you will pay dearly for a fancy custom-made costume but you would have one awesome costume that will last you for years to come. The downside to that is that you may not always WANT to dress in the same costume each and every Halloween for years to come!

One option to consider is buying a horse costume from one of the companies that sell them. One company that offers different horse costumes for sale is The Horse Tailor website. They have different categories of horse costumes: Fairy Tale; Movie Themes; Animals; and other. Some of their horse costumes are fairy princess ($110.00); medieval knight ($143.00 or $236.50 for both the horse knight costume and the rider knight costume); Puff the Magic Dragon ($174.90); magic unicorn ($110.00); Scooby Doo ($120.00); Harry Potter ($125.00); Never Never Land ($125.00); Batman ($130.00); Peter Pan ($120.00); lion ($120.00); bull (for your horse) and bull fighter/matador (for you) is $203.50 for both costumes. This is just a few of the costumes they have to offer. Check out their website for even more costume choices and pictures. If you are going to order your costumes from The Horse Tailor, the time to order is NOW, especially with Halloween coming up so fast. The Horse Tailor does custom costumes as well.

Another website with fabulous (and costly costumes) is ArabHorseStore.com. They are based in Jordan and offer authentic Arabian merchandise such as Arabian saddle sets (primarily for native costume classes at Arabian horse shows) starting at $459.00 and Bedouin costumes. The ArabHorseStore.com merchandise is gorgeous so check out the pictures at their website.

If your budget is small, then you may have to get creative and put together a costume for your horse yourself. If you are lucky, maybe you already know someone who can help you out, perhaps with a little sewing or painting.

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #5: Make A Costume for Your Horse

Let's make a comic book super hero out of your horse (and you). The easiest way to make your horse a super hero is to purchase a horse sleazy hood and body suit. A horse sleazy is sleepwear for horses that is generally made with a spandex product so it stretches and fits snugly on your horse. There are horse sleazy hoods, stretch horse sheets (body suits), leg wraps and tail wraps. Different companies sell them in a huge assortment of colors. The basic use for the sleazy line of products is to keep your horse clean and to keep his show braids and mane tidy and ready to show. Fortunately for our Halloween costume ideas, the sleazy is the perfect product to help in making a costume for your horse. One website where you can find a large selection of horse sleazy products is Sleezy Barb Horsewear. The color and pattern selection is amazing.

Superman horse costume

To turn your horse into Superman, the materials that you will need are: one blue hood sleazy, the type that covers your horses' head (with eye holes) and neck. The basic horse size sleazy hood in royal blue is about $40.00 from Sleazy Barb Horsewear. Then you will need a red piece of fabric, about two yards, to use as a red cape. This piece of fabric doesn't need to be expensive, but it does need to be a bright vibrant red. You can find fabric at your local fabric store, some Wal-Mart stores or even a thrift store. You will need two small pieces of fabric to make your Superman "S" logo. I recommend felt because it holds its shape without needing to be hemmed and you can paint on it. You can buy felt either by the yard (you will only need a small amount, approximately one half or less of a yard should be plenty) or buy the felt by the square (get two squares, one for you and one for your horse). You will need red and possibly yellow fabric paint (depending on the color of your felt), small paint brushes, scissors, needle and thread.

Make your Superman "S" logo. You need to make two of them, one for your horses' costume and one for yours. Cut the felt into a triangle. You can Google Superman pictures if you aren't sure what your Superman logo should look like. If your felt is yellow, all you need to do is paint the big red "S" on each piece and outline it in red. If your felt is white, you will need to paint it yellow first, let it dry completely, then paint the red "S" on it. One "S" logo will need to be sewn to the front of the blue sleazy hood on the chest area (try it on your horse before you sew it on to make sure where it will look the best). The other "S" logo will need to be sewn to YOUR blue shirt.

The red fabric for your horses' costume doesn't need to be hemmed or sewn unless you choose to do so. You can drape it from under your saddle so it is across your horses' rump. You will need to attach it to the saddle or blanket so it doesn't fall off while you are riding.

For your own costume you will need a blue t-shirt that either matches or coordinates with your horses' blue sleazy hood and a red cape which you will wear when you are riding your Superman horse. You can just wear your helmet, boots, and jodhpurs as long as you have the blue t-shirt and red cape and your horse is dressed in his/her costume, people will know who you both are. This is the most basic and easiest Superman horse costume. Optional items could be blue and red leg wraps on your horse and blue tights and red boots for you.

Native American Indian horse costume

To turn your horse into a Native American Indian horse, you will need non-toxic tempera paint in the color red (mix it with half tempera paint and half dish soap detergent so that it will be easy to remove), paint brushes and foam shapes to apply the tempera paint; several white feathers with a black tip (craft supply stores such as Michael's sell them), leather shoe laces (or leather by the yard, also available at craft stores), several rubber bands, saddle blanket with a Native American Indian design and colors, brown rope halter and lead rope (or if your horse is hard to ride and handle without a bridle, go ahead and use your regular bit and headstall). If you aren't sure what Native American Indian design to paint on your horse, you can Google it and find a design that way. The easy way is to paint a red circle carefully around your horses eyes (be very careful not to get the paint/soap mix too close to their eyes) and then paint a zig zag red line down your horses front legs, put the red paint mix on your hand and then press it on your horses rump and shoulder or neck areas. Add a few red dots together in one area and you're done with the painting. Take the feathers and the rubber bands and attach two or three feathers together with the rubber band at the top of the feathers. Now take the leather and cut pieces that are long enough to tie to the tops of the feathers and tie them along a couple of areas of your horses mane, tie one feather bunch to your horses halter/bridle cheek piece and anywhere else you want. That's the easy way to make your horse into a Native American Indian horse. Your saddle is optional. For your costume, you will need to dress as a Native American Indian.

Zebra horse costume

The zebra horse costume idea will work best if you have a white or black horse. All you need is black tempera paint for a white horse and white tempera paint for a black horse. Find a picture of a zebra to give you an idea of where and how many stripes to paint on your horse and turn him or her into a zebra. For your costume, you could wear a safari camouflage outfit and a pith helmet. If you wanted to be somewhat scary (and maybe even a little gross), you could dress as a lion and pretend that you are on the "zebra" because you plan for it to be your next meal.

Rainbow Brite's horse Starlite costume

This costume idea will only work if you have a white or gray horse. All you will need is tempera paint in a rainbow of different colors such as red, green, blue, yellow, purple, orange. And then you take different strands of your horses' mane and tail and color it until you have a rainbow mane and tail. The next step is to paint a big yellow star shape on your horses' forehead and then paint his hooves yellow. Now your horse is Starlite, from Rainbow Brite. For your costume, you will need to dress as Rainbow Brite. You can Google to find pictures of both Rainbow Brite and Starlite.

I did find a website that sells temporary hair color in eight colors for people but I don't know if it would work for horses. If you want to contact the company and ask them, they are at Streekers.com.

Horse Sleazy Costume Tips and Ideas

The horse sleazy can be the basis for most of the horse costume ideas I mentioned earlier in the article. To make Gumby's horse Pokey costume, all you need is a horse sleazy hood and stretch horse sheet (body suit) in bright orange, then add black yarn to the sleazy and body suit for the mane, forelock and tail. For you, find a Gumby costume to wear.

To turn your horse into a fire truck, buy a red sleazy hood and stretch horse sheet (body suit), make a fire engine emblem and attach a small ladder to one side and a fabric hose (or a real hose) to the other side. For your costume, you can dress as a fireman. It's the same idea to turn your horse into a police car, ambulance or taxi. Buy the sleazy hood and stretch horse sheet (body suit) in the necessary color, black for police car, white for ambulance, yellow for the taxi and add the corresponding emblems (police badge, red cross, taxi sign), and then dress yourself as a police officer, doctor or taxi cab driver.

The ideas for costumes for your horse are only limited by your imagination and with the help of the horse sleazy hoods and stretch horse sheet (body suit), many of the costume ideas in this article are relatively easy to create.

Thinking of a Costume for Your Horse for Halloween #6: Go Out for Some Halloween Horse Fun

Halloween is fun and Halloween with horses is even more fun! Since you and your horse are all dressed up in costume and ready for Halloween, what now? Will you be attending a local barn Halloween party and parade with your horse? Or will you be attending a horse show with a Halloween costume class? Any of these are sure to be fun but how about attending a big Halloween with Horses event?

If you are fortunate enough to live near Parker Colorado, then you can attend the yearly Halloween with Horses held at the Colorado Horse Park on October 18th, 2008 from 10AM to 6PM. There will be a horse costume contest with cash prizes, a Stable of Terror (haunted stable), a safe trick or treat barn, a pumpkin patch, horse and pony rides, puppet show, petting zoo, entertainment, music and more. Ticket price is $9.00 and parking is free. Check out their website for more information, directions and pictures.

Halloween with Horses at the Colorado Horse Park
7522 South Pinery Dr.
Parker, Colorado 80134
(303)841-5550 Ext. 110
www.halloweenwithhorses.org/

Or, if you are in the Las Vegas Nevada area, there is the "HOLLOWEEN PARTY at Sagebrush Ranch" on October 31. The Headless Horseman makes an appearance and for two and a half hours there are horseback rides, pony rides, wagon rides plus plenty of food and Halloween candy and campfires with marshmallows to roast. This special Halloween event is $25.00 per person with children three and under free. Visit their website for more information.

Sagebrush-Ranch
Ranch and Info Phone (702)645-9422
Tour Reservations (702)641-5536
www.sagebrush-ranch.com/

Halloween can be a fun and exciting time of year and when you are lucky enough to have a horse in your life, well, it's even more fun! And if you just happen to win a ribbon for your horses' costume, then that is the best fun of all.

Resources:
ArabHorseStore.com.
Equestrian Network Magazine. "Halloween Costumes for Horses" by Martha McNiel.
Sleezy Barb Horsewear.
The Horse Tailor.