Stampede Costume Ideas

Historical Characters

• A historical costume should draw on famous horses or horse riders from the past. You could dress yourself as a medieval knight and drape your horse with fabric with a regal crest.

  You can paint hand prints, circles, dots and stripes on the horse's body and then tie feathers onto its mane to wear with your own Native American costume.

  To achieve a Roman chariot look, the rider should wear gladiator sandals, a broom hat, tunic, gold breastplate and a long cape. The horse pulls the chariot, wearing reigns and bridles decorated with red and gold embellishments.

Fictional Characters

• A fictional character costume ensemble lets participants be as creative as they please. A person could wear green makeup, a tan tunic shirt and brown pants, paired with a gray horse with black mane and tale to look like the cartoon characters Shrek and Donkey.

  A Lone Ranger and Trigger costume can be pulled off with a black saddle and bridle gear on the horse and black western wear, a black cowboy hat and a black mask.

  To appear as the Headless Horseman, ride a black horse and wear a long black trench coat and cape. Tie the cape around the rider's forehead and paint the face black so it looks like he doesn't have a head. Complete the costume by carrying a large hollowed pumpkin in one hand.

Other Animals

• Many contestants at stampedes enter horses dressed as other animals. Some black-and-white stripes and a spiky black mane will make the horse look like a zebra.

  You can give the horse yellow-and-black painted stripes to look like a bee, and the rider can dress like a beekeeper.

  Cover a full-body horse blanket and horse socks with cotton balls and tie a bow around the horse's neck. When led by a rider in a prairie dress, large bonnet and a staff, you'll have a Little Bo Peep costume.

  Paint a white horse with large black spots and put a pair of horns on its head to make a dairy cow costume.

Inanimate Objects

• Inanimate object costumes will get a lot of laughs in the stampede contest. You can dress the horse in a horse blanket with multiple colors and then glue bits of colored paper to a horse hood to make your horse look like a giant piñata.

  Make a hot dog costume by attaching two beige-colored pieces of fabric to each side of the saddle to create the bun. Add some red, yellow and green strips of fabric down the length of the saddle to resemble streaks of ketchup, mustard and relish. Complete the costume with two human presenters dressed as ketchup and mustard bottles.

  My Little Pony is a popular toy and cartoon character. To achieve this costume, spray the mane and tail with bright blue, green or pink colored hairspray and then paint a heart in the same color above the horse's hind legs.