How to put xmas lights on a horse?

[Eye_in_the_Sky]

[QUOTE=LLDM;5163143]
I am I only one who thinks that putting anything electrical on a horse is begging for a bad outcome?

One small short that your horse can’t get away from is not going to be pretty.

Call me jaded, but it seems every year the idiots on my little town have an accident with one of the horses in the parade. Horses get hurt, people get hurt and still, year after year people want to ride their horses in the parade. :rolleyes:

Maybe I have it wrong and your horses are professional parade horses. But even a pro horse would freak if it could not get away from an electrical short on its body.

Please be careful - for everyone’s sake.

SCFarm[/QUOTE]

THIS ^ X’s 5000!!!

[Pennyhill]

UPDATE!!!

well, no one was electrocuted by a “AA” battery! all 7 horses behaved perfectly. not even the littlest spook, heck we had 20 mph winds tonight & plastic bags were blowing everywhere, & they could have cared less. no problems whatsoever. We actually used very few lights, dressing the horses with sparkly accessories worked really well.
Gotta love my girls & thier ponies. Its pretty cool watching a couple of thoroughbred show horses walk down main street in the dark, in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, as calm & quiet as they could be. Kinda makes me think I trained them right : )

[Alagirl]

we are waiting for pictures!

[M.K.Smith]

[QUOTE=Pennyhill;5233693]
well, no one was electrocuted by a “AA” battery! all 7 horses behaved perfectly. not even the littlest spook, heck we had 20 mph winds tonight & plastic bags were blowing everywhere, & they could have cared less. no problems whatsoever. We actually used very few lights, dressing the horses with sparkly accessories worked really well.
Gotta love my girls & thier ponies. Its pretty cool watching a couple of thoroughbred show horses walk down main street in the dark, in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, as calm & quiet as they could be. Kinda makes me think I trained them right : )[/QUOTE]

I hope you can share pics… I’d LOVE to see them!

@Equibrit;5163094

Battery operated LED string lights; http://www.littlebrightlights.com/site/1435548/page/920994

Thanks for the site! Sadly, I want them for cemetery lights instead of horse decorating. My husband’s father loved Christmas and after he died his family always made sure he had a Christmas tree on his grave for Christmas Eve. Before his mom died she asked us to promise that we take care of it. Now, it’s my job and I have two plots to decorate. I’m thinking the LED lights would be even better and I haven’t seen them locally yet.

[LLDM]

I am so glad to hear that all turned out well! I think it is very cool that the sparkly stuff worked well too!

SCFarm

[yankeeclipper]

Watch the Electric Cowboy with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda for some ideas. The horse and rider were lit up like a Christmas Tree. Oops just noticed that you already did the event.

[coloredcowhorse]

Have done this with my old cutting stallion (a brilliant gold palomino, shoulder length mane, street length tail, 3 stockings and long forelock…and a ham in parades). Used LED lights rather than the dollar store ones…brighter and last longer and could be programmed for sequental on/off, fast/slow etc. Duct taped battery pack to the cantle of my cutting saddle and used electricians tape on the wires and wove the lights into his tail. Same thing on his mane…taped battery pack to the cinch keeper on the front of my saddle, ran wires up through the gullet and wove into his mane. Did red/green/gold sparkles on his feet and lightly dusted on his butt (used spray adhesive lightly and then dusted). Biggest problem for him… about half the floats had lots of lights covered by lots of balloons…neither lights nor balloons usually bothered him at all but together the balloons glowed…he wasn’t sure that was OK at all until he sniffed a few of them and discovered they were his old friends from sacking out (I tie everything under the sun onto youngsters when sacking out…balloons, crepe paper stringers, tarps, walmart bags, those foam noodles the kids use at the pool in the summer…you name it I’ve probably used it…nothing phazes these kids when done!). Santa hat with ear holes and the one silver loaded headstall I had. He was such a show off…hammed it up by dancing sidepasses, doing pivots, bows, offered to “shake hands” with one of the clowns…this horse loved a parade!

PS…nurses routinely check for good battery charge by touching to tongue…barely a tingle is a good battery.

[JollyBadger]

I go to the horse-drawn Christmas parade in Lebanon, OH every year (they hold one during the afternoon and another one at night, with the carriages lit up). Some of the participants are local, others are “commercial” wagons. Everything from single to 8-horse hitches, miniature horses and donkeys, “average” sized horses, gaited horses, and drafts.

This video was apparently taken facing the grandstand, which makes it hard to see the lights on the horses themselves. . .but it’s fairly common for the participants to light up the horses as well as the carriages.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfWQK_sVSag

[FloridaCreek]

I have ridden my horse in night time x mas parades for several years and he is not bomb proof but does well with decorations and floats. I use the battery pack mini lights and have never had a problem with them. I use a saddle horn small saddle bag to put the battery packs in. For the mane I either braid it and attach each light to a rubber band or to save work as his mane is long I just use the tiny mane bands for small loose sections of mane and attach to a bulb all along the top of his neck then string the rest of the strand around the base of my saddle. I use thin ribbon or yarn to tie the lights to various parts of the saddle near the bottom edge around the back and the battery pack is just ready to put in pummel bag. I have used pom poms in mane, french braided tail and put fiber optic tail clips hooked to the braid to light up his tail. I have had red x mas bows in his tail or on the breast collar, he has worn an elf hat during one parade and I made a matching saddle cloth and serape draped over his flank. I have sprayed his rump and hooves with hair spray and sprinkled colored glitter on it before it dries, washes off but lasts through a 4 hour long parade. I don’t have any good night time pictures as by the time it is dark i am in the parade with no one to take any photos. Most I have are just before lineup.

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Gotta love a parade!

[Engage]

http://poorwomanshowing.blogspot.co.za/2016/12/christmas-comes-to-visit.html

She dressed her boy up like Christmas! (P.S. Love this blog)

[trubandloki]

Wow, old thread.

Love the parade outfits.

[Alagirl]

@trubandloki

Wow, old thread.

Love the parade outfits.

well, we got better christmas lights now!

there are those LCD lights now, with a battery pack, that last for nearly ever.
I have a string of snowflake lights in my hallway, the batteries have - as far as I know - been in there since Christmas, and often burned through the night.

[Engage]

@trubandloki

Wow, old thread.

Love the parade outfits.

:lol: Only saw the initial date now! Just replied to the other new posts.