What type of paint can you safely use on a horse for body painting? We are going to do it at camp this year and I was wondering what others used.
Likes/dislikes?
We’ve used colored hair spray in the past. Stock paint is safe, but it takes forever to wear off. Tempera paint would be ok — or finger paint. Some colors might slightly stain a white or light colored horse, though, but it’s temporary.
I’ve been trying to find a way to glitter paint my horse for a kids birthday party. I was thinking glitter + vaseline for the hooves, and maybe gliter + shampoo or glitter+ cornstarch and food coloring for “paint”. Don’t worry it will be washed off imediately. I’m also curious about suggests that are non toxic for horses and kids.
I’ve used kids crayola finger paints before and they worked fine- I figure if they are safe enough for kid to eat, they’re probably okay on the horse.
A word of advice- DO NOT use the stock paint “crayons”! They take forever (like as in more than a month) to come off. My WB gelding had pink breast cancer ribbons on his butt for a very long time after a benefit trail ride we did.
Our barn uses tempera. Egg crates work well for giving them different colors. They use the Native American symbols, among other things. If you wash them soon after they have been painted most of it will come off. Otherwise it will fade away quickly enough. My Paint gelding walked around with lavendar legs for a while, and a yellow lightening bolt down his face.
We just finished our camps - had great success with face paint. Hours after it dried I had no problems washing it off any of the horses.
Poster paints or finger paints are the easiest to wash off, although dark colors will remain on white horses for several days/weeks! We stenciled blue and red stars on the butt of our white Welsh pony for the July 4th parade, and he wore those stars for about a week, including a horse show! We also painted his hooves blue with poster paint and that didn’t come off either…
I use the crayola washable paints, it comes in 10 colors where as fingerpaints only usually have 5. Anything that is washable is fine. I let my daughter and niece paint all the time, also works way better on a light colored horse. They always have a ball.
Check your local craft store. Ours (Ben Franklin) had face paint in every color imaginable, in 2 ounce sizes. They’re made by Palmer.
You can also use wet sidewalk chalk (dunk the pieces of chalk in a little water before using). Works really well for making “nail polish” on hooves, and the kids even had some success getting glitter to stick to the wet chalk before it dried. If you’re really determined you can use it on a wet mane to make colored braids.
Don’t use glitter glue unless you want it to stay on for a long time… pony had bits of glitter from his Halloween costume at Christmastime!
Yup have always used washable paints from wal-mart, the kids love it!
I’ve used non-toxic Crayola paint and it works great, it takes soap and water to wash off, though. As far as glitter goes, mix it in with hair gel and paint/rub on. This also takes soap and water to remove. Both will lightly stain white/gray horses however.
My BO uses theatrical paint on her pony party horses. It’s the same paint used by humans. And safe f or horses and ponies.
Twinkle Toes makes glitter hoof polish.
We use poultice colored with food coloring.
The glitter stuff that is sold for horses is basically hair gel with glitter in it. That’s what I would try. At least it brushes out. We use colored hair spray too.
We used a combination of cold cream, corn starch, and food dye to paint our horses like Indian ponies. The cream and starch is thick enough to stick to them really good and not run, and is very vibrant!
I recommend you check out Discount School Supply they have great paints including washable tempera paint. To check out their arts and crafts offerings go here. http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/community/landing.aspx?campaignid=8200&src=categorynavigation
Second the wet chalk as a good coloring agent. The 4-H kids use it for fun night at the Fair to decorate their horses colorfully for the games. Doesn’t rub off either. DD had to shampoo wash her horse to get him completely clean for showing the next day. Came right off with the bit of soap on him.
