I’ve been enjoying the descriptions of creative costumes in the “what is the dumbest…” thread. Pictures would be great too.
I was never much into costume class. This came up on my Pinterest feed today though. http://www.brit.co/horse-costumes/?utm_campaign=pinbutton_hover
A few of the girls at my barn have gotten really into costume class. I’ve seen a horse dressed as a tractor, Humpty Dumpty and the brick wall, hula horses and riders, bumble bees and flowers, but the best was a horse dressed as a giant cupcake and the girl was a baker. The horse had giant sprinkles all over him, and measuring cups, spoons, spatulas, etc. hanging off his bridle and chest. So cute.
Not exactly costume class, but my daughter and her mini in a parade as the cowardly lion and Dorothy, complete with ruby red cowgirl boots and Dorothy braids tied into her helmet.
Someone posted this one a while back, scary:
My sister and I used to go crazy with costume class when our kids were little. We typically used a pony and cart so we could get all the kids in.
Banana split: big cardboard bananas mounted along the shafts/side of cart, three kids in ice cream scoop costumes (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry with maraschino cherry hats) sitting in the cart surrounded by mountains of quilt batting whipped cream, one kid wearing ice cream shop employee uniform leading pony, one kid in ice cream shop employee uniform walking behind carrying giant spoon.
Firemen: same kind of thing but pony cart made into fire wagon, kids dressed as firemen in cart, kid in dalmatian costume, kid wearing cardboard flames walking in front
Angels and devil: Pony wearing angel wings (later repurposed as flying monkey wings), cart made into a cloud with quilt batting, kids dressed as angels sitting on “cloud,” kid dressed as devil walking behind
Pony as flying monkey (complete with wings) from Wizard of Oz, kid dressed as Dorothy carrying Toto in a basket
Pony wearing dinosaur suit, kids dressed as cavemen
We had a kind and tolerant pony. :lol:
Well now! I already described our family’s Vakyrie effort in the “stupidest thing” thread. I would like to clarify that in our efforts to win we didn’t consider the effect on the other entrants!
We had an unbroken winning streak, including the gypsy family pony cart with cove:, grubby, cork-moustached father with curtain ring earrings driving, pots, pans, half-cured coon skin (don’t ask), baskets, traps etc hanging off the cart and with various unkempt looking children following in gypsy costumes.
Edwardian family with governess in pony cart- Kids all in sailor suits, father in tail coat and Edwardian side whiskers on another horse.
The KKK family (I CRINGE now, but this was politically incorrect 1950s Ontario) including labrador as a blood hound and my brother with a bull whip. No escaped slave, I am relieved to say.
Pioneer family with a covered wagon, my brother and sister tied to the back of the cart in a cow costume.
The hardest one was the “Don’t put the cart before the gift horse of another colour or look him in the mouth”. We painted our long-suffering pony with various coloured poster paints and tied a big bow around his considerable tummy.We then harnessed him BACKWARDS in the shafts so he had to push the cart. I sat in the cart in a frilly party dress trying to look in his mouth with a giant magnifying glass. My sister did have to lead the pony, but he took to the whole set-up with a resigned sigh.
Sadly no entertaining stories (aside from the spookier-than-planned costume I wrote about in the other thread that thankfully didn’t cause chaos), but I’ve had fun over the years in costume classes (sadly I can’t find any photos).
The barn that I leased a horse from for a year did an excellent job of organizing a schooling show for every holiday, complete with a costume class. Our first one was Halloween, and since my lease horse had a lightning bolt-shaped star, I decided to dress him up as Harry Potter. I made him glasses from black Bristol board, a bib made up like a white dress shirt/vest and Gryffindor tie, I used pony-sized black rainsheet over his bum as a cloak, and I made him a giant Gryffindor scarf to wear around his neck.
For Christmas I dressed him up as the Nutcracker. Sadly he didn’t like the hat I made him, but he happily wore the top, which was like a giant shoulder guard all made up in a nutcracker design, and the pants, which went on his front legs and velcroed to the “jacket”, complete with gold tassels dangling at his knees.
Valentine’s Day was a group event, with the costume class part musical ride, part obstacle course relay. We chose “James and the Bond girls” as our theme, and my horse was dressed up as James Bond with a tuxedo bib (he was very dark bay), shirt cuffs around his pasterns, a foil-covered cardboard watch, and then a foil-covered cardboard gun hanging from one side of the saddle, and a plastic martini glass from the other. The Bond girls were all taller geldings who wore very large stuffed bikini tops (very bouncy) and skirts over their bums. We riders all wore short skirts and skimpy tops over our riding clothes.
And here are the photos of the “crazy” jumper dressed as a dragon complete with “whoosh-whoosh” wings as described in the other thread:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1383246_10101365123418657_20616804_n.jpg?oh=9eb97cbafbbcf07f0acd7d216e903e6c&oe=55BCAB25&gda=1434595265_93edf19181279009b1a62bc13f9c481e
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/v/t1.0-9/564488_10101365110614317_1703904782_n.jpg?oh=973d92fb730515f2ef63a43307d6c71b&oe=55906F3A&gda=1433607031_894885803d4bb5e075e55471529ee27e
And the original hairdo before the hours and hours of waiting got to it: https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/v/t1.0-9/994636_10101365108847857_2120530429_n.jpg?oh=1e44e80135be9acc770f06f9f3b31b4f&oe=5574A3EA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kSLZy-yI0
This was us at the 2008 AMHR Nationals. I am the one leading the mammoth-mare, the mare’s owner is the blonde crazy cavewoman. The two dogs are mine. Plus a bunch of friends. We had a BLAST and the mare was awesome for a 3yo who had no clue what was happening… 
A couple of posts on my blog full of great costumes:
http://fillysbestfriend.blogspot.ca/2014/10/happy-halloween-awesome-fun-from-our.html
http://fillysbestfriend.blogspot.ca/2013/10/22-horse-halloween-costumes-that-will.html
These are great! Thanks for posting.
