There are several occasions in the equestrian world when you might need horse and rider costumes. Check out the fun ideas below for costumes! These horse and rider costumes would work great for a Halloween costume class or party, hunt teams classes, costume trail classes and more. All of the costumes focus on horse/rider themes, including a few from different movies!
Costume Classes at Horse Shows
There is no shortage of ideas out there for great Halloween costumes. If you have never participated in a horse show costume class with horses and are entering in one, you are in for a real treat! These classes are a lot of fun. They do, however, take some time to plan and put together.
Most of the costume classes that my daughter has participated in have been during October horse shows.
Another opportunity for costumes came during a hunt teams horse show where each team had to choose a costume theme for horses and riders.
Tips for Horse Show Costume Classes
Here are some tips to keep in mind as you prepare for your own costume class experience!
Themes are popular. Think of you and your horse as a team (chances are good that you probably already DO think this way!). Costumes that have a partner theme are a really fun way to enter a horse show costume class. Pop culture, history and entertainment are great places to look for inspiration.
How spook-able is your horse? Before you plan a whole costume, consider your horse’s tolerance. Will he spook at a sheet or headpiece? Are there elements on your costume that might scare him? Riding a freaked out horse at a show is no fun for anyone. Try out different costume elements on your horse and see how a trial run goes before you commit to your costume choices.
Take a trial ride at home. Piggybacking on the above point, I highly recommend doing a full costumed trial ride at home before the show. Make sure you and your horse can see and move around without obstruction. Safety first!
Save money by DIYing costumes. One year we spent a small fortune on a costume for a Halloween horse show. After that experience, we got a lot better at raiding the dress-up bins, asking friends and family for accessories to borrow, even sewing some of our own costume elements. We kept our eyes open when Halloween clearance sales were happening and grabbed things very very cheap to use another year.
Horse and Rider Costume Ideas
We had a lot of fun pulling some pictures from our past for this post. Over the years we have participated in a bunch of costume classes at shows! Check out the ideas below and both horse and rider costumes and see if you are inspired to recreate one!
- Airplane with Pilot and Cloudy Sky (Top Gun)
- Pirates
- Disney’s Frozen (Elsa, Sven, Kristoff, and Olaf)
- Disney’s Toy Story (Woody and Jessie)
- Superman
- The Greatest Showman
- Disney’s Finding Nemo (Nemo and Dory)
- Doctors and Patients
- Star Wars (Yoda and Princess Leia)
- Disney’s The Lion King (Simba, Pumba and Raffiki)
- 1950’s Theme (Poodle and Rider in Poodle Skirt)
Top Gun Airplane and Pilot Theme
This costume set was partially DIY’d and store bought. We bought the Top Gun aviator costume at a Halloween store. The plane was made from foam board and we added a scarf, jacket and ski goggles. The pony had a blue saddle pad with big tufts of cotton stuffing for clouds. If our pony was more tolerant, I would have put more costuming on her!
Pirates Theme
We raided our dress up bin for most of these costume pieces. After several Disney Cruises (and pirate night on each sailing) we have a lot of pirate accessories! We spray painted a cardboard box black for the “treasure box” and then bought gold sparkly door streamers which we cut apart and used to decorate the treasure box and horse.
Disney’s Frozen Theme
This was a fun one! Our rider wore her Elsa dress and tiara and wig and dad dressed up as Hans. (His outfit was totally DIY’d from other clothes he already had, plus a blond wig that we bought.) He carried Olaf around in a baby carrier for extra smiles. We turned the pony into Sven the reindeer by adding some antlers and a homemade medal. For the final touches, we added a big bunch of carrots and they carried a small bluetooth speaker that played “Let It Go.”
Disney’s Toy Story
From Toy Story 2, this costume trio had Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. The Jessie costume was store bought, while the Woody outfit was put together from clothes we had. We bought the cow print fabric and cut a vest out of it. Bullseye the pony sported a western saddle for the occasion.
Superman Theme
Up, up and away! Horse and rider wore red capes and the horse also sported some blue polo wraps to complete the red/blue theme.
The Greatest Showman Theme
This theme is right from The Big Top! Riders in this hunt team duo wore red “showman” coats and tiny black top hats with black leggings. Each pony had a “circus tent” themed red and white striped saddle pad cover.
Disney’s Finding Nemo
If I recall correctly, this costume was handmade by the rider’s mom… and boy, it was impressive! The rider wore blue leggings, socks and a sweatshirt underneath her adorable Dory costume. The pony had a Nemo costume complete with Squirt the turtle on top.
Doctors and Patients Theme
Another fun and relatively easy theme is a medical team. For this theme, the ponies became the patients. They were covered in polo wrap “bandages” and gauze rolls and vet wrap. They had masks across their nosebands and OR-style caps. We added red vinyl “Red Cross” crosses to white saddle pads. The riders wore scrub tops over their riding clothes and OR caps over their helmets.
Star Wars Theme
There are so many different characters you could choose from if you decide on a Star Wars horse and rider costume theme! For this example, the rider was Princess Leia and the pony was dressed up to be Yoda.
Disney’s The Lion King Theme
We saw this one at a Halloween show and it was adorable. The pony was dressed up as Simba, the lion in The Lion King. The leadline rider was Pumba and the leader was Rafiki.
1950’s Poodle Skirt Theme
This cute theme was a great choice for the horse and rider team. The pony turned into a poodle while the rider wore an iconic 1950s outfit – including a poodle skirt, white blouse (actually her show shirt) and a low ponytail tied with a pink ribbon.
We hope that these horse and rider costumes give you some inspiration as you plan your own Halloween horse costumes! If you choose an idea from the list above, let us know what you picked! If you have an idea that isn’t on our list, we’d love to hear it! Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
