When I perform with my horse the first thing that everyone notices is all the GLITTER! I particularly love to make Douwe's or Rovandio's hooves gold, silver, or copper, whatever matches our costume. Everyone asks how I get the glitter to stay on so here is my SUPER EASY secret to getting your own "cheap" version of Twinkle Toes!

Douwe's silver hooves at the 2014 Baroque Horse Show where we performed. Photo taken by Karen Lendvay.

What You Need:

Hoof Polish: I prefer black because it makes the hooves really stand out, but clear will work fine as well.
GLITTER: You can get glitter in many colors at any craft store, JoAnn Fabric, ACMoore, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart. You can just get the regular craft glitter. The fine glitter works really well for the mane and coat but I like to use the larger glitter for hooves.
Hairspray: Can of Super Hold hairspray- you can buy this at WalMart, Walgreens, etc...
Latex Gloves: If you don't want to get the hoof polish on your hands, wear gloves!
Block of Wood/Broom/Canvas: Something to help keep the area clear of shavings and to protect the floor from being stained by hoof polish.

How to Apply Glitter to the Hooves:

Clean the hoof and leg- just brushing it off will do! Don’t wash the hoof - keep it dry!
Sweep the area and/or place the hoof on a piece of wood/cloth if you would like to keep shavings/dirt away from the drying polish.
Apply the hoof polish to one hoof at a time.
Sprinkle on the glitter immediately after you apply the hoof polish while it is still wet.
Wait until the polish dries, it doesn't take very long, maybe 10 minutes and you are ready to ride!

Stand on a flat, clean surface for best results. put something underneath the hoof if you are not allowed to get polish on the floor.

apply the glitter when the hoof polish is still wet.

How to Apply Glitter to the Mane/Tail/Coat:

Groom your horse first! Do Not use Show Sheen or the glitter will not stick.
Have someone hold your horse while you spray, some horses don't like the sound of the hairspray, be careful!
Spray and Sprinkle - With the glitter in one hand and the hairspray in the other, spray a section of the horse and then sprinkle on the glitter.
Repeat! I usually spray, sprinkle, and then spray again over the glitter to get it to stay.
Re-apply as Needed -The horse may shake his head after you are done, that is why we put on a lot of glitter! We usually keep in mind that half of it will fall off once the horse shakes or the skirts rub it off.

Having way too much fun at the Equine Affaire! Elisha Harvey and Hannah French were my assistants/grooms for the event and they made a great glitter team! Here you can see how much glitter they put in Douwe's mane!

Elisha Harvey is one of Douwe's glitter grooms! Here she is adding more hairspray to his tail to help hold the glitter in....you can also see that she put glitter on his feathers!

And you are done!

I would love to see photos of your horse all sparkly! You can email them to me at beginthedance@gmail.com or tag me on Facebook or Instagram. Have fun!