Best Horse Costumes and Fancy Dress Ideas:

Not everyone has a horse that will calmly tolerate being costumed, but for those that do, the results can be stunning. Here are some of my favorites. I will update the list as I find more wonderful costumed horses. Please let me know if you have some favorites of your own!

The most bizarre costumes are novelty fancy dress, such as for Halloween or a costume contest. here are some of my favorites.

My topic pick being the skeleton shown right as it does not require any awkward material and is very effective! But then I discovered it's a whole sub-genre of horse costume! You can see a similar cloth-based skeleton costume here, a skele-donkey here, white skele-horse, and finally a skele-horse with matching rider here!

But there are other costume ideas just as great; here are a few more that I really love:

• Dragon--This seems to be another quite popular costume idea.
• Harry Potter
• Bavarian Dress --There is just something adorable about a horse in human clothing. Also great is this Raggedy Ann.
• Bo Beep's Sheep--Oh look, here's another one, and one that lacks a little in the execution.
• Clifford
• Ghost--another simple costume that can be really effective.
• Elephant.
  

Horse costumes are great fun, but remember to keep them safe. The horse must be of a suitable, calm disposition--and be gradually habituated to the costume so that it does not become startled or stress.Not every horse will tolerate ungainly or heavy costuming.

If your horse won't put up with anything more than a horse-blanket you can still make a costume just with that. For example the horse blanket can be decked up as a hula skirt or crayon box.

Costumes should not bind or restrict movement, by uncomfortable or too hot. If the costume is large or complex, it should not be worn for extended periods.

Elaborate costumes, like this amazing rocking horse costume [bottom of page], should be made to break apart if placed under stress to avoid the animal becoming trapped or injured if it should startle, bolt or fall.And it is equally important that the rider can easily dismount without becoming entangled.

For more information this articles:How to Make a Safe Horse Costume

Many cultures with an equestrian tradition have methods for dressing them up for special occasions such as ceremonies, festivals and religious processions.Most of these traditional costumes, tack or harness are not unwieldy and not subject to the same precautions as less practical costumes.

For example the horse shown right is dress for a bridegrooms procession to a traditional wedding in some areas of India and Pakistan.The patterns vary but this costume is always in the colors of red, white and gold.

Other wonderful traditional tack includes:

• British Draft Horse--The most ornate draft tack you are likely to see in the United States is on the Budweiser Clydesdales, but this is actually quite a basic draft harness and I am somewhat distressed that they show their horses with surgically docked tails--which is, IMHO, so unnecessary.
  
• Czech Festival Costume--How many different colors can you get on one costume?
  
• Afghanistan Cart Horse
  
• Victorian carriage hearse
  

Many costumes can be commercially purchased. If you are going to make your own, it is a good idea to acquire a commercially purchased horse blanket, hood or other foundation garment to use as a stable base.

Many people enjoy reenacting costumes and scenes for history--including decking out their horses.

My current favorite is the set of Full Scale Armor (shown right). In fact I could do a whole page just on horse armor from different cultures such as this quilted armor from the Sudan.

But I also recommending looking at these examples:

• Italian Renaissance
• Japanese Samurai
• Medieval--There are a few more ready-made option in this area, such as the Baroque Horse Store. And for full embroidered blanket covers there is Outfit4Events.
• There are also modern makers who draw inspiration from native American designs, such as Plateau Horse Gear.
  

And there is always a temptation to try and bring to life equids of myth. For example:

• Hippocamp (merhorse)
• Hypogriff--Not a pegasus, note the eagle's beak and from hoof covers.
• Pegasus (black), Pegasus (white)--NB: You can actually buy a ready made pegasus costume for a pony from Wish Pony. But my favorite is probably these amazing ten foot wide red bat wings.
• Unicorn--From the Arabian Nights stage show.

No Trojan horses that I can find. I would have thought that would be an obvious option?

It may not be quite as difficult to costume a miniature horse, but the results are extra-adorable. Also they lend themselves to being dressed up as smaller animals like a chicken or kitty cat

But I think this SpongeBob and Gary the snail costume (shown right) is just amazing! And also this little horse genie.

Horses are also an important part of purely invented cultures portrayed on the large or small screen, such as:

• The Riders of Rohan (Lord of the Rings)--see also RingWraith.
• Ben Hur chariot
  

For equine performers, wearing a costume can be a daily activity.

Circus horse costumes tend to be light with little cloth but an abundance of bright plumes attached to the head and shoulders.

Sumedang Dancing Horses are another group of performing animals which wear ornate costumes.--Many other cultures (e.g. Egypt) also have dancing horse shows.  But they often wear beautiful tack but not full costumes.

And other horses wore a mask for function not fashion--a WW2 horse gas mask.

In Indian history horse were sometimes dressed up as elephants so that the enemy's elephants would refuse to attack them.

Or, of course, you could keep it simple by using a non-toxic paint to produce:

• Yellow, Green, Blue
• Pink (and again, again, again, and one with an Elvis rider)--I guess pink is a popular color for ponies.
• Spots, spots, and more spots.
  
• ...And the ever popular zebra stripes--including this version inspired by the movie "Racing Stripes".
• Other animal patterns like: giraffe or cow.
  

On a related note, here are some other animals and objects dressed up as horses:

• Bicycle
• Dog
• Poodle