Whether you’re an avid horse lover or are in need of a unique and thoughtful gift for one, a horse themed calendar is a perfect choice. Horse calendars are a great way to add a touch of horse to your home or office while also helping you to stay organized and motivated throughout the year. There are many different types of horse calendars available for purchase, but which ones are the best? We require our horse calendars to have NO halters and no riders, unless of course it’s a riding discipline based calendar. Here are our top five horse calendars for 2023:
Spirit Horses 2023 Wall Calendar by Tony Stromberg
Our favorite 2023 horse calendar is Spirit Horses by Tony Stromberg. Actually, Tony Stromberg’s horse calendars are our favorite every year. They all feature exquisite photography capturing horses in motion that are both domestic and wild.
The black and white portraits of horses captured in this Horse Portraits Calendar are stunning. This 16 month calendar is truly a work of art perfect for elevating the look of your office for the new year. Another great feature of this calendar is that it comes with 180 reminder stickers, to better assist you in your organization.
This RED EMBER World of Horses Calendar features beautiful horse photography with each month showcasing a different horse in a variety of settings like snow covered fields, beaches and meadows full of wildflowers.
We definitely recommend checking out the MICASA World of Horses Calendar. It’s another great calendar also featuring amazing professional horse photography.
This Horse 2023 Calendar by Bright Day Calendars is another excellent choice for incorporating more horse into your daily life by offering glimpses of horses in beautiful scenery.
Horse themed blankets and throws make for perfect additions to your home decor and can even make excellent gifts for your horse loving friends and family. As horse crazy girls, we love to curl up on the couch on cold nights, with our favorite horse themed blankets.
In this post, we have shared our favorite horse themed blankets available on the market. The blankets cover a range of styles from cute and floral to western. Some of the blankets can even be personalized, making them extra special!
Horse jumping Christmas ornaments are a unique and beautiful addition to a horse lover’s Christmas tree. They can also make a perfect and thoughtful gift for horse lovers. Our favorite ornaments are those that can be personalized with a name and the year; making for a perfect memory keepsake to look at during the holiday season year after year.
Personalized Horse Jumping Christmas Ornaments
These beautiful horse jumping Christmas ornaments are ceramic and are made of white porcelain with a design printed on both sides of the ornament. What makes these horse jumping Christmas ornaments so special is that the back can easily be personalized with both a name and the year! Another special feature of these ornaments is that there is an option available to add a velvet gift pouch making them perfect for gifting!
The best way, for horse lovers, to countdown to the Christmas holiday is most certainly with a horse themed advent calendar. Luckily, there are styles available for horse lovers of all ages and even for horses and ponies too. Take a look below to find your favorites.
These fun Christmas advent calendars also make excellent gifts for horse lovers hosting your Thanksgiving holiday.
Advent Calendars Filled with Horse Themed Toys
The following calendars by Breyer, Schleich and Playmobil are each filled with at least 24 adorable horse themed toys. Each day you will find a special horse, a rider, a piece of tack or barn supplies.
This advent calendar by Breyer features Minnie Whinnies and some of their accessories. 40 of these special toys are included in this calendar including seven horses, two foals, one unicorn, three people and an assortment of other related accessories which appear to include jumps, fencing, barrels, a trophy and ribbons and hay bales.
This is the 2022 advent calendar release from Schleich! It is, yet again, absolutely amazing. It includes a horse and a foal, a dog, two chicks and a squirrel, a rider with bendable legs and 17 accessories to include English tack for the horse, a halter, blanket and grooming brushes. We love this new advent calendar!
This is the 2021 advent calendar from Schleich. However, it is good for use any year! Schleich’s advent calendars are timeless. It comes with 24 toys which include one horse, two foals, a rider, a dog, a cat, a chick and many great accessories including English tack and grooming brushes.
This is the 2020 advent calendar release from Schleich. It is another timeless Christmas countdown packed with amazing toys and accessories. The theme of this calendar is veterinary. Its 24 toys include a horse, a foal, a cat, a kitten, a bunny rabbit and a squirrel. It also includes a vet and tons of cool accessories like vet wrap that actually can slide onto the legs of the horse and foal, other veterinary tools, a halter, horse blanket and treats for the horses and small animals.
The Playmobil Horse Farm includes 24 super cute toys for one advent calendar. In addition to the calendar filled with toys, the child initially receives a horse farm backdrop for playing with the toys in the calendar. Some of these toys include three people figures, one horse, two foals, two ponies, cats, a wheelbarrow, fencing, a tree, hay, hedgehogs, a bucket. The rest of the calendar includes, of course, tons of other amazing accessories.
Fill Your Own Horse Toy Advent Calendar
Love to do a special advent calendar for your child or children annually? And also love to save money? You may want to consider purchasing an advent calendar and filling it yourself.
If each year you purchased one of the toy filled advent calendars we have shared you would end up spending, on average, $38 dollars a year which is about $192 over five years. A hanging advent calendar like this Andees Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar Reusable Wall Hanging is only $18.98 with large pockets for some seriously amazing toy gifting! If the horses you include in the set are something like this 18 Piece Horse Figure Toy Set for $15.99 or 16 Pieces Horse Figurines for $8.49 (filling the rest of the days with some candy) you would spend a total of only $34.97 or even $27.47 for the first year! After that, you only spend the amount of money for a toy set each year after. Going with the $15.99 set, you save an average of $3 dollars the first year and $22.01 each year after. As opposed to spending an approximate $192 dollars over five years, you would spend only about $98.93 over the five years saving you a total of $93.07! Another great benefit is that you will never run out of options for creating a great horse themed advent calendar, each year it can be filled with new, unique gifts.
While this advent calendar doesn’t include daily gifts or surprises, it is still a beautiful way to countdown to the Christmas holiday. This horse is absolutely stunning.
This paper advent calendar is horse themed featuring a beautiful scene with lots and lots of horses. Looking at all of the activity in this horse barn never gets old.
The ponies in this paper advent calendar are just too cute. While not exclusively horse or pony themed, this Christmas countdown is perfect for pony lovers.
The scene in this advent calendar is a perfect combination of fun and beautiful. It is full of chocolates individually wrapped as Christmas presents. In addition to a chocolate, each day in the calendar you will find a verse from ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Advent Calendars for Horses and Ponies Too…
Countdown to Christmas with your favorite horse or pony. This advent calendar is filled with yummy equine treats…
If you love horses, adding some horse themed Christmas outdoor decorations into your holiday season could be the perfect way to make your holiday more wonderful. In this post, we have divided the decor into seven different sections: inflatable or blow ups, wooden lawn decor, lighted wireframes, door wreaths, door covers, doormats and garden flags.
Horse Christmas Outdoor Blow Up Inflatable Decorations
The inflatable horse Christmas decorations are first on our list because they are just so unique and impressive. We absolutely love the absolutely enormous blow up Clydesdale. Both of these fabulous horse Christmas blow up yard decorations light up, so they will be equally charming in both the day and the night.
These horse Christmas lawn decorations are stunning and abundant in rustic charm. Both of the decorations featured are handcraft from wood and have UV protective coating enabling them to remain outdoors during inclement weather. They also have stabilizing stands for support in use outdoors.
Lighted wireframe Christmas horse decorations are a classic and beautiful way to add more horse to your holiday season. Available this year is a Victorian styled horse and a Victorian styled horse and sleigh set. They are created from steel and each piece features over 350 LED lights.
These beautiful Christmas horse head door wreaths are crafted from greenery, wood and feature Christmas accents of lights, bows and ornaments. Each of the wreaths we have featured are truly stunning. If we had to choose just one horse Christmas decoration to adorn our home, our choice would definitely be one of these wreaths.
Door covers are an easy way to add extra festivity into the holidays. These horse Christmas door covers are perfect for any door, not just a front door. They come in four different sizes: 30”x80”, 32”x80”, 36”x80” and 36”x96”.
A doormat is the perfect, simple decoration to easily add a touch of festivity to outside your home. These are our favorite horse themed Christmas doormats…
We love garden flags. They are perfect for easily decorating the outside of your home year-round. These horse garden flags are themed for not just Christmas, but many of the options are perfect for the entire winter season.
Horse themed Halloween coloring pages are perfect for both everyday autumn activities and Halloween parties. They are such a fun Halloween activity for little horse lovers and adults alike. There are horses with pumpkins, spooky scenes, headless horsemen, My Little Pony, and more.
The best part? All of the horse Halloween coloring pages we have featured in this post are free. To access a full-size coloring page ready for printing simply click the coloring page links below. We hope you enjoy them!
These coloring pages are headless horseman themed and, of course, all feature a wonderful ghost horse. Want to know more about these horses? Check out our post The Ghost Horses of the Headless Horseman.
Who are the Ghost Horses of the Headless Horsemen?
Horses and Men, that’s plural. How many Headless Horsemen are there? Well, there are Headless Horsemen haunting Ireland, Scotland, the United States and more. So, beneath every Headless Horseman there must be a horse. Who are these ghost horses and what do they want?
All the Ghost Horses and all the Headless Men
could not seem to find happiness again…
This is really the story behind all great Headless Horsemen. What about their restless horses? They seem to be very devoted to their headless riders. What breed, how big and what color are they? Read on to find the answers to these questions and more…
Ireland
The Dullahan and His Horses
Ireland’s Headless Horseman is referred to as The Dullahan. There are many stories about this Headless Horseman, some of which involve different horses. The Dullahan often appeared as an omen of death. Some say he drove a carriage pulled by many black horses. Others have seen him riding a magnificent black stallion across the countryside. However, Charley Culnane, of County Cork, saw a different Ghost Horse.
One evening, while Charley was riding his own horse, he saw the head of a white horse, with short cropped ears, large open nostrils and immense eyes. This horse’s head, at first, seemed to have no connection with a body, legs or rider. The detached head proceeding through the air did not seem to have a body until it was suddenly close at his side. Charley turned to examine this horse only to find a figure, whose height that he guessed to be at least eight feet, seated on the body and legs of a white horse of a full eighteen hands and a half high. Who are these horses?
The Ghost Horses of Ireland’s Headless Horseman
This Irish Headless Horseman seems to have an entire barn full of horses. Some black, at least one stallion and this white beast that Charley Culnane, of County Cork, experienced. Charley Culnane ended up challenging this Headless Horseman to a race. The Headless Horseman enjoyed himself so much that he helped, in spirit, Charley and his mare win another horse race. Is it the case that when this Headless Horseman of Ireland is not riding about being an omen of death he rides a white horse? So, what breeds of ghost horses does he keep at his barn?
First, one should assume that this Irish Horseman would have his country’s finest horses. That makes this much easier. His carriage horses are most likely of the type Irish Draught. This would be a great looking, dependable carriage horse. While this horse is a very attractive breed and good for many riding disciplines, I do not think he would be caught dead riding one. His black stallion is never seen with much feathering to his legs. That rules out an Irish Cob. So, what’s left? His two riding horses might have been of the type Irish Sport Horse, where the horse is an average height of 16 – 17 hands, has great speed due to being a Thoroughbred cross and can be of both colors black and white. This is a fine collection of ghost horses.
Who is Ewen of the Little Head? According to Scottish Folklore and Legends, Ewen of the Little Head is a ghost horseman, without his head. Ewen wanted land from his father. His desire for more land caused a feud that was resolved on the battlefield in 1538. Father and son met for a battle that ended with one of his father’s clansmen decapitating Ewen. Ewen’s horse thundered off with the headless body still in the saddle, eventually stopping some miles from the battle site. The body fell to the ground and was eventually carried to its final resting place, in Iona, by Ewen’s clansmen.
The horse Ewen was riding was his favorite for years before the battle. It was a small, but active, pony that was dun or mouse-colored. They were soon to return as a Headless Horseman and Ghost Horse pair. They haunt many people and whenever a member of the Chief’s family is about to die, the ghostly vision of Ewen makes an appearance. The prints of the ponies shoes are often seen and the rattling of its curb can be heard in the darkest night. So what breed is this pony?
This pony sounds like a dream. Not some big black angry monster horse. Could it be an old version of the Highland Pony? The Highland Pony resembles horses depicted millions of years ago, on cave walls, in France.
Cave Painting at Lascaux, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
They were ponies in northern Scotland and the Scottish islands after the Ice Age. Ewen’s pony seems to be a result of numerous out-crosses from this ancient origin, as is the Highland Pony. The breeding of these horses was first recorded in the 1500’s. They were a type of Percheron cross with native stock. The old Highland breeders also introduced oriental horses in the 1500’s. Any of these types could have produced a strong rugged pony that was dun in color, like the Highland Pony shown below.
The U.S. has at least two headless horsemen. However, the most famous is the headless horseman from Washington Irving’s story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
This headless horseman was an existing legend that was borrowed for Irvin’s story. The man who became this Headless Horseman was a Hessian mercenary hired by the British Army to assist British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. He ended up being killed in a battle near Sleepy Hollow, New York, when his head was blown off by a cannonball. This man returned as the Headless Horseman, but who was his horse?
Some say his horse is Daredevil, the horse of Brom Bones. This is a true statement if talking about Irving’s story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. However, the original Headless Horseman tale precedes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. No matter the legend, the horse is always shown as black with lots of mane and tail but not much feathering. There are some that believe the horse was a dressage horse, since the horseman was German. Could it have been an Andalusian? It was a popular horse during the Revolutionary War. The Andalusian Stallion shown below seems to be a great match.
Well, that’s an easy question to answer. He would be a Headless Man. We need to know more about these ghost horses that put up with these headless men. So many go unnamed and what credit are they given. This site has given only a small amount of recognition to a few. There are many others.
Bavarian folklore has tales of Headless Horsemen who patrol the forests. In India, a character called the Dune rides about headless. The Green Knight of medieval legend was beheaded and now rides headless. These are just a few other Ghost Horses and their Headless Horsemen. If you know of others or have any additional information about these ghost horses please leave a comment and have a very Horsey Halloween!
Some ghost stories can be a little too scary or sad for children. The books featured below are neither. We are a mother and daughter team here at Sage and MI, and years ago we loved a good ghost horse book that didn’t make us sleep with the lights on or cry for hours.
Horse Ghost books are great for horse crazy kids any time of the year, but the Halloween holiday season is an especially perfect time of year for these spooky stories. Holiday themed books are an excellent way to get younger children interested in reading.
The collection we have shared in this post includes books for a few different recommended age ranges, including ages 6 – 12 years. They are definitely some of our favorite ghost horse books for kids. We hope you enjoy these books just as much as we have.
Colt in the Cave is our all time favorite. We re-read this book a few times a year, and other books in the Animal Ark series as well. Colt in the Cave is definitely one of the books that sold us on the opinion that ghost horses are not just for Halloween. The recommended age range is 9 – 12 years.
Brave Horse was a gift for Halloween. The story takes place on a ranch in the Colorado Rocky Mountains highlighting a phantom horse named Diablo. The recommended age range is 8 – 12 years.
Ghost Horse was another Halloween holiday book purchase. We loved this story but never did read any of the other books in this series. I’m not sure how many precisely but there are a few other horse books available in this collection. The recommended age range is 6 – 9 years.
Ghost Horse is another of our favorite Halloween horse books. If you love this story, there are additional books in the series! The recommended age range is 8 – 12 years.
We never read this book, but The Great Pumpkin Ride looks like another amazing horse ghost book for kids. The reviews are excellent and it seems quite humorous, with neither a scary or sad description. “A humorous Halloween adventure story for kids.”.
This post contains the cutest collection of infant and toddler, horse and pony costumes and accessories. These costumes are a perfect choice for Halloween but are also fun for any horse themed party, dress up and play.
This collection of costumes has something for all young horse lovers and this first costume has been one of our favorites for years…
These cute costumes are a perfect addition to the ride-on-horses above or you can just add a stick horse show below. There are costume sets for English and Western riding disciplines and a horse racing jockey costume as well.
In terms of costumes, options for horses come down to two primary options: ride-a horse costumes and stick horses. Both are amazing options and provide ample opportunities for play. For Halloween, a ride-horse costume could be slightly better because the child can have both hands free for trick-or-treating and play.
A stick horse is a must have Halloween costume accessory for any child who dresses up as an equestrian. You can purchase one already made or do it yourself and make one as a fun kid-friendly craft! We have shared some of the best stick horse options below as well as a tutorial video on how to create one.
We are sharing two DIY tutorials for making a stick horse. The first is the post Making Mops Into Stick Horses. Our favorite thing about Mop Stick Horses is that the stick is already connected.
The second is a video tutorial on how to make sock stick horses. Our favorite thing about Sock Stick Horses is you can easily create different horse colors. Take a look…
Horse enthusiasts who love jumping absolutely need to incorporate Horse Jumping Coloring Pages into their life. All of the coloring pages featured within this post are 100% free!
Horse Jumping Coloring Pages are a great activity for kids and adults of all ages. Use them as fun everyday activities, in coloring contests and even for birthday parties and other celebrations.
We have featured a wide variety of pages so everyone will be sure to find one perfect for them. To access a coloring page, just click on the link to access a full-size printable page.
Horse themed school supplies are the best way for horse crazy kids to enjoy the school year. There are so many awesome options for supplies to include binders, backpacks and lunch bags. You will certainly find at least one item that will enhance your style and enjoyment of school.
Now is the perfect time to get supplies for this upcoming school season. In this post, we are sharing with you the year’s best horse themed school supplies for kids. The items featured apply to a variety of student ages.
Our favorite back to school accessory has got to be backpacks. Not only are they functional, they are a fabulous wearable accessory. A horse themed backpack would add a bold horse theme to your personal style all school year long. There are many great options to choose from.
Lunch is the perfect time to regroup in your day and is a great time to have some fun. A horse themed lunch bag or lunch box is refreshing and will bring extra joy to lunch time.
Make organizing school work fun with horse themed notebooks, folders and binders.
Notebooks
There are a great selection of horse notebooks to choose from to include composition style and spiral. A few can be personalized with a name or other text.
Expandable folders are a must for organizing assignments and notes by class. They are just one more great reason to add some more horses into your day.
These horse themed binders are super unique and can be personalized with a name or custom text. You can find styles for many riding disciplines and types of horses.
Horse themed pencil cases are stylish and functional. They are perfect for those who love to have a variety of pens, pencils, and highlighters. Store all of the writing supplies you want without making your backpack a mess.
The American Flag is a symbol of freedom, patriotism and liberty. Patriotic American Flag horse themed gear is the perfect way to express these American ideals and love of horses. With this in mind, we have selected and shared our favorite horse themed American Flag apparel and accessories.
Each item is perfect for any patriotic holiday or everyday occasion. Many of the items can also make great gifts for your horse-lovin’ friends and family. There are even options for that special horse in your life.
American Flag Horse Themed Apparel
These t-shirts and tank tops are well suited for many different types of horse enthusiasts, featuring various breeds of horses and riding disciplines.
Choosing an American Flag horse iPhone case for yourself or as a gift is probably one of the best ways to incorporate a little more of both themes into everyday life. Our phones are certainly something most of us look at often throughout the day.
Horse owners can find everything they need to celebrate their love for America in this section. From American Flag halters to reins, these items are perfect to express patriotic spirit at any time of year.
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