Unicorn. Three of my four horses have been white, so naturally I go for the unicorn look, with a braided-and-hair-sprayed forelock as the “horn.” I even included wings once!

Credit: Illustration by Navah Rae Adams

Sarah LeGear, British Columbia, Canada

Little Bo Peep. The cutest costume I ever saw was online. It was a photo of a little girl dressed as Bo Peep, leading a pony completely covered in what looked like enormous cotton balls. Just too funny for words.

Barbara Alexander, Oregon

Cow and dairyman. I affixed “horns” to my black-and-white tobiano mare. I wore denim overalls and carried a milk bucket. Easy-peasy and everyone “got” it.

Misti Engebretson, Montana

Seeing-eye dog. I outfit my miniature donkey Joe in a guide-dog harness. I dress as a blind person, with dark glasses and a cane. Sometimes I put huge eyeglass frames (with lenses removed) on Joe, too, so it’s “the blind leading the blind.”

Evelyn Furbee-McCallister, West Virginia

Racehorse. My gelding is an 8-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred, so I concocted a racehorse costume consisting of a numbered saddle pad for him and a patterned shirt for me.

Kendal Stokes, North Carolina

Paint project. I put a “Wet Paint” sign on my Paint gelding. I was the contractor with paint splattered all over me.

Evelyn Gilbreath, Missouri

Reverse Bo Peep. I switched things around, outfitting my Quarter Horse gelding in bonnet and curls, and making myself up as his black-faced sheep. It wasn’t scary, but we got noticed—and won the blue ribbon.

Marilyn Long, Massachusetts

Headless horseman. If you had a black horse, you could paint a white skeleton on him, then dress yourself as that ghoul from Sleepy Hollow.

Alissa Altadonna, Pennsylvania

Spa-goers. I put my hair in curlers and covered my face in green facial-mask goop. My mare had pink sponge rollers in her mane, tail, and forelock…and green gunk on her face, too.

Lindsay Carty, Idaho

Zorro. I have a black Friesian gelding, so naturally I don a mask and cape and go as that nobleman of yore…complete with a plastic sword.

Steve Wirth, Michigan

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