It’s late October when our minds turn away from pumpkin lattes and towards the spooky season and our annual Horsey Halloween costume social media roundup! We’ve scoured Instagram and found some truly creative and frightening costume ideas for you and your horse or pony.
Here are some tips if you are planning on decking yourself out for All Hallows’ Eve.
Safety First
Have fun with your horse and riding friends. Brainstorm ideas and have a costume party at the barn with treats, tricks and even prizes. But be respectful of others and their horses; you might be itching to dress yourself and your pony up as Batman, but if a blowing cape will cause your bestie’s pony to bolt, have a rethink.
Work with the temperament of your equine. If you are using items that horses normally find terrifying – a sheet, for instance – make sure you introduce it to your mount in advance and even practice how you are using it to ensure everyone is safe.
Make sure your costume is helmet-friendly! This is not the time to forego proper safety equipment to get a certain ‘look’ or social media snap. Also make sure things such as body paint or glitter are of the non-toxic variety.
For other Halloween safety tips, read this blog courtesy of the US Pony Club.
Out-of-This-World Halloween Ideas for Horses
Danish equestrian influencer and Friesian lover @wm_equestrian posted a spooky look from two years ago,
writing “It was our skeleton debut, and it’s still one of our favorites! 👻 Stay tuned for what’s next—it’s gonna be even creepier!”
And she was right! Check out this gorgeous yet scary video of her as the Headless Horsewoman!
“We’re back… and this time, there’s nowhere to hide. Tonight’s the night when shadows come to life, and if you hear the galloping hooves… it’s already too late. Run fast, because once we’re on your trail, no one is safe.😰💀🎃”
She adds for those followers who might take issue with her skills: “Nope, it’s not paint — just some good old cooling clay for horses, so no need to freak out! 👻 And yes, we know the skeleton isn’t anatomically perfect, but honestly, we were going for spooky, not a biology lesson.💀”
We love the sheer variety of great ideas from the team at Poway Valley Riders Association :
They took a safari theme with the giraffe, lion, and elephant (what a calm horse!) while other barnmates went sporty with a football and baseball costume.
This pony gets a best-behaved award for tolerating this inventive but truly terrifying (to most equines) Breyer model horse box outfit. Check out the @shopcorro post here:
Meanwhile this horse in a post from @crcmhippo was having “nun” of it:
Oh sheet! We assume there was some serious anti-spook training going on prior to these ghostly photoshoots from @agueda.dressage
and @shopcorro:
Why did the chicken horse cross the road? We don’t know the answer to that, but @amandapluckerphoto.equine used Halloween costuming as a way to get her horse over its chicken phobia. As she explained in her post, “When your horse is scared of chickens… you make him a chicken for Halloween! 😂🐔
Absolutely LOVE this costume that Cara made for Bongo for our barn’s costume event! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 🎃👻🦇”
Turns out she wasn’t the only one with a ‘chicken’ horse; check out this post from @triplecrownfeed which ran a costume contest back in 2022:
While horses can be afraid of chickens, many humans are downright terrified of spiders. Which is why arachnophobes will need to look away from @eagleexplores and the Shedfield Riding-School’s post:
We assume “Scary Mary” is the little girl mounted on the adorable black pony, but it’s the horrifying spider costume complete with eight legs and eyes that will have you run screaming.
We can’t resist a costume pun, like this one from @roany.pony.farm which shows a miniature horse wearing a Mini Mouse outfit! The post caption reads, “This is my Minnie Horse Costume! The obvious choice, right?!”
Right! Too cute ‒ and wow, the pony is in their living room!
In other pony costume news, we also had a good laugh at this one from @koonella. The image is of a grey pony wearing a sign “Pony 4 Sale – Great with Kids!” next to a boy sporting a black eye and missing tooth, not to mention a leg cast and arm brace.
A zebra makes a great choice if you happen to own a grey horse or pony, as @valentinacowgirl does. Although, as she says in her post, “Not gonna lie, it was A LOT of work 😅 but it was so worth it❤️.”
No horse? No problem! Don’t leave your canine friends behind ‒ check out what the folks at @i_love_horse_co did with their very game Great Dane. Not every day you see a dog gussied up as a racehorse complete with real-life jockey:
That’s a wrap on great costumes 2024 with this mummy and horse from @cheshire_horse:
(Photo: @tamara.harbalis)
Happy Halloween from your friends at Horse Canada!
