Halloween Costume Contest

[Stern]

Costume Class

Course

* No pictures - Please describe your costumes! We will be judging both based on the costume, and how well it is described.
* Any horse with a suitable temperament may participate.
* Students may participate without a horse should they wish to.
* This class will run as a in-hand class, with all students entering the arena in a line, then standing down the centerline facing the bleachers. The judges will walk down the line and make their choices after considering each costume.

[Maeve McKenna]

Maeve had been working toward this day, since she had heard about it really, and now that the day was finally here, she was a nervous as Persephone must be at the end of summer and she was about to return to the Underworld! Drawing in a calming breath, she grabbed the things she would need, that were safely stored in garment bags, and made her way down to the equine clinic, where Narcissus was waiting for her.

She greeted the Grade Horse with pats and kisses and after giving him a thorough groom, she set to work with his part of the costume. Not to completely overwhelm the nervous horse, she decided to go simple and she slipped a brand new, tan coloured, head collar over his nose, flicked the poll strap over his head and buckled it. She then moved the fringe, to looked like a lion's mane, so that it was sitting nicely and sticking out properly, she adjusted the wire in the pieces of brown felt so that it looked a little more wind-blown and she offered the gelding a handful of licorice as a reward before she quickly shimmied out of the tracksuit she was wearing and pulled on a blue and white gingham dress. She didn't have any ruby slippers, but she had found a nice pair of white cowgirl boots when she had gone to get the head collar, so those would do.

Making sure to keep her own energy positive and calm, she led the gelding over to where they needed to be, giving the horse all the time he needed to get used to the atmosphere. She had worried about this part the most, but the gelding seemed in his element now that they were lining up to enter the arena, his neck arched, ears pricked forward, tail held high.

She confidently entered the arena, walked down the centreline and turned to face the bleachers, a bright smile on her face. Her lion didn't appear to be so cowardly after all.

[Kallistos Rolleston]

Having a black horse kind of limited what he could do for Halloween, but with the help of his moms, Kall managed to get everything his needed - well, they did draw the line at sending him an actual scythe, so he took a broom apart, created the blade out of cardboard and covered it with foil.

He had been up at dawn, getting the horse ready, which had really been a mission in itself, as Jett wasn't the most patient of horses when it came to standing still. With the chalk paint (which was safe to use on horses) and stencils his mothers had sent him, it wasn't long before the horse would do well in an anatomy class, as all the bones were painted in place, and a green tinge to the paint gave it an added ghouly appearance.

With the horse ready, and in cross-ties as Kall didn't trust the Hanoverian not to roll, the boy went to the tack room where his own costume was waiting; black jodhpurs, sports jacket, white shirt with a ruffled collar and a black cape to finish it off. Grabbing his face paint, he worked on the skull image he had seen online. His paint was glow-in-the-dark, so hopefully it would glow green when he had the hood of his cape pulled up.

When they were both ready, Kall led the gelding out of the barn and down to the arena they would be using, doing his best to keep Jett cool, calm and collected as they walked along and then lined up. Entering the arena, he followed the horse in front of them down the centre line and turned to face the bleachers, laughing as Jett picked this time to rear up.

[Victoria Greco]

Halloween was always a fun time, and while she was never a big fan of the whole trick or treating thing, Tori never gave up the excuse to play make-believe and involve her horses in it too. Ok, more often it was Poe, because the gelding was so laid-back and happy to do whatever was asked of him, but she enjoyed it anyway.

It would come as no surprise to anyone that she was doing a Disney Fairies theme this year, it was kind of her thing, but this year she had steered away from Tinkerbell. She looked at the brown three-quarter pants she hand hanging up in her tack room locker, and the orange tunic dress that would go over the top, and ran her fingers over the shimmering wings that would finish off her half of the costume.

With a grin, she grabbed Poe's costume, and headed out to where she had left the gelding in the cross-ties. "Just remember that I love you." She said with a laugh as she held up the black stretch hood that she had been working on for the gelding. She laughed harder as the Quarter Horse lifted his head into the air, as far as the ties would allow, and kept moving out of her reach. "I know, it smells a little different, but it will feel exactly the same." Once she had come up with her idea, she'd been working on the gelding becoming comfortable with the hood, and then she had added the grey fake fur to it to give him a fluffy look, and she assumed that it was the smell of the glue that Poe was objecting to. "See? Same thing." She offered him the hood and smiled as he lowered his head to inspect it and then offered no more resistance to her slipping it over his head, being careful to make sure his ears went into the slots in the hood. "Oh, you look perfect Gruff!" She squealed as she clapped her hands, the horse jutted his bottom lip, not at all looking impressed.

With the horse ready to go, she grabbed her own outfit and quickly went to change, leaving the wings in the locker until the last moment and then when they were both ready, she led him out to the arena. She grinned as she waited in line and strode forward when it was their turn, laughing as the gelding dragged his hairy paws, and then they turned from their place on the centre-line to face the seats. If nothing else, she was please with how well her horse's costume had turned out, even if no one else knew what a Neverbeast was supposed to look like.

[Caspian Collins]

There were always perks to starting a school late-ish in the year, especially when it was shortly before Halloween. Now, Cass has a dark a humour as the next person, and when he found out there was a costume contest, he was all over that!

Now, getting his supplies down to the barn and not giving the whole things away too early wasn't the easiest thing, though he managed and it was in the tackroom that he put together Slick's side of costume - using the ladder-back of a chair cut in half diagonally to give him the structure for the base of it and then crepe-paper to create the feathers and then a little craft wire and paper to create a comb that would attach to the pollstrap of the halter and then tie into the mane.

It didn't take long to get the horse ready, and his custom-made saddle made it easy to attach things to it, so the wings stood out nicely, and the wooden base for the wings gave them stability, while the thin paper allowed them to move in the breeze. He then went into the tackroom to put on the last of his outfit.

He opened his locker with a grin and pulled out the peg-leg. When he'd first asked for one, his parents had told him that he had a perfectly good prosthetic and didn't need to lower himself to that level, then he'd told them to live a little and he'd only bring it out for special occasions; birthdays, banquet dinners, funerals. He'd got what he wanted in the end. Sitting down, and listening carefully to make sure he wasn't likely to get company, he rolled up the right pant leg and removed his prosthetic leg, replacing it with the wooden one. He then rolled the pant leg back half way down, so that the wooden leg was very visible; and so that he wouldn't end up tripping over the bottom of his pants. He used some pins to fasten the fabric to make sure it wasn't going to slip.

Pushing himself up, she took a tentative step forward, finding his balance on the stick he was now walking on, and with a nod placed the prosthetic carefully in the locker and closed the door. "Just don't trample me if I fall." He said to slick as he walked back out to the horse and removed the cross-ties, before attaching the comb to the top of the gelding's head, placing his hat on his head and led the horse out to where they were supposed to be. "Would have killed the look, but I probably should have brought my cane." He muttered as they arrived at the arena, his legs already tiring and he followed the others into the arena, doing his best not to lean on the horse too much.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes thanked his mare repeatedly with treats, knowing his much she was about to be put through. Eira had begged to help him with his costume and had already been waiting for him with her variety of colors before he had gotten a chance to brush the paint. As much as he wanted to tease her and say no, there was so much to do before the contest started that he knew he needed her help.

Each of them took a side, carefully adding more white and black spots to the mares back legs and hindquarters. Since the mare had never really taken a liking to clothing, other than a nice blanket in the winter, they had to finish painting on jean shorts and a white shirt. Wes put her in boots that he had colored yellow and added red swirls to the top of, then stepped back, allowing the mare to relax and enjoy a few more treats. As far as he was concerned, the painting was the easy part.

Dressing himself didn't take too long. He had slipped into a dark pair of jeans, held up by a belt with a ridiculously sized buckle, a yellow long sleeved shirt, and a bright red bandana tied around his neck. He could help but grin as he pulled on a cowhide-like vest that had matched the designs on Iggy's legs and butt. Finally, he grabbed two hats, one brown and one bright red, and a wig for his horse.

Both kids had anticipated the head accessories being a bit more difficult to dress the mare in, so Wes took it slow. Iggy sniffed and snorted at the red things in his hands as he held them up to her. Whenever she got more comfortable around them, he brushed them up higher to her ears, not wanting to scare her. She took it in stride though, most likely remembering that it wasn't the first time they had put something on her head that didn't quite belong. "See, you look beautiful. It wasn't that bad, huh?" Wes smiled and kept a soft hand on her neck as they walked to the arena. Once in line, he dropped his hand to his hip where he had rope coiled.