The leaves are beginning to turn bright, stunning colors, and the temperatures are getting lower, which means Halloween is quickly approaching!
Now is the perfect time to plan some fun, Halloween-themed activities with your horse. And of course, some healthy Halloween horse bribery treats for when you dress them up in that adorable costume. Here are a few ideas to help you plan Halloween fun with your horse this year!
If horse shows are your thing, no matter what discipline you ride, there is bound to be a local Halloween-themed horse show. Many of these shows also boast a costume contest and are sure to have festive, Halloween-themed show grounds.
Hunter paces are another fun option, and a bit lower-key, if horse showing isn’t for you. They’re perfect for a wide range of horse and rider disciplines and skill levels too. In October, many also have a Halloween hunter pace. Horse and rider teams dress in costume and ride through trail courses decorated with Halloween-themed décor and jumps.
If you can’t find a local Halloween hunter pace, you can still plan a costume trail ride with friends when the leaves are at their most colorful.
You can also set up a trick-or-treat trail ride for young riders by hanging buckets filled with candy on branches along the path. It doubles as a bit of a horseback scavenger hunt, too!
If you don’t want to take your horse off-property, there are still fun things you can do at your home barn.
Decorating your stalls and arenas, or even planning a barn-wide costume contest, is a great way to celebrate Halloween without leaving home. You can even incorporate games with your barn friends, like racing across the arena on horseback before bobbing for apples—both riders and the horses! Or, “spooky spoons” is a Halloween twist on the classic horseback egg and spoon race game, made more challenging while in costume.
While dressing your horse up in a cute Halloween costume is always fun, don’t forget you can also get creative with body clipping designs. For example, a spider web pattern clipped into their hip and shoulder coat hair.
Just remember when planning your horses’ Halloween costume to ensure there aren’t any pieces that could get underfoot or tangled around them. Never leave your horse alone in costume to avoid it getting stuck on something in their stall or paddock.
People aren’t the only ones who enjoy special Halloween-themed treats!
For an easy and healthy homemade horse treat option, there are several recipes you can look up that contain ingredients you might have at home already. Ingredients like oatmeal, flour, apples, sugar-free molasses, and apple sauce are common for simple homemade Halloween horse treats.
Check out your local apple orchard, since many have large bags (usually around 10 lbs.) of animal-grade apples that sell for much less than the human-grade ones.
You can slice up a couple of those apples and drizzle them in sugar-free molasses for a quick, healthy Halloween horse treat.
A few hours before you head to the barn, slice some apples into thin rounds and sprinkle them lightly with cinnamon. Bake them for 1 – 2 hours at 200 degrees for an easy cinnamon apple chip horse treat!
You can also cut sweet potatoes into thin slices, sprinkle them with cinnamon, and bake them with your apple chips to make spooky sweet potato chips.
If you have some leftover pumpkins after Halloween, these can make a great healthy treat for your horse too.
Pumpkins contain mostly water, and are a low-calorie, high-fiber treat. Pumpkins also have some essential nutrients, like magnesium, and vitamins C and E, making them the perfect healthy fall snack for horses!
