Costume Contests and Parade

• Girls will have fun coming up with costume ideas for their horses.Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
  
  Costume contests are great for Halloween but can be fun any time of year, even for horse play-day events or other low-key horse schooling shows. The contests can be designed to choose an outright "best" costume, or, for a bit more variety, have a "look-alike contest," selecting the horse and rider/owner who look the most like each other. You can also do "famous couples," such as Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, or Superman and Lois Lane. A parade of the costumes is a great way for parents and family to take priceless photos and videos and appropriate for beginner riders.
  
  

Costumed Parade with Simon Says and Follow the Leader

• Have more fun with the costumes and incorporate games into your costume parade. "Simon Says" offers a great way to keep the challenges to the level of the horse and rider; for a beginner rider, the caller can say, "Simon says walk two steps forward and halt." Then for more advanced riders, the call can be, "Simon says walk to the center line, halt, side-pass three steps, then back 2 steps and halt." Follow the leader can be especially fun for more advanced riders, incorporating small jumps, cones or simple obstacle courses, walking across tarps or through hanging streamers.
  
  

Painted "My Little Pony"

• Very young girls can enjoy a painted horse game.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Costumes do not have to be frills and ruffles; they can also be done with water-soluble finger paints! This is another activity that beginner riders might enjoy, who may be just learning basic horsemanship skills but are not yet doing much in the saddle. They can lavish colorful finger paints on their horses to "dress" them up, and then have a contest for categories: "Most colorful," "most original" and "scariest" are just a few examples.
  
  

Online Games

• The Internet can bring horse dress-up games to young girls.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  Not all horse-crazy girls are fortunate enough to have their own horse or can be around them, or maybe they can only go visit the horse on weekends. The power of the Internet can feed the horse and dress-up cravings at the same time. Sites such as Girlsgogames.com and Azdressup.com offer chances for online horse dress-up dreams.