Becoming a Centaur: Building up a Horse Body

Previously, I went over design considerations to adjust the challenge of making the centaur costume. It is still a big challenge but now we can get into building tips for the horse body. 

Disclaimer: 

Once again, I will emphasize that as of writing this blog, I have not attempted this construction. When I do, I may come back to update a few things. I'm going off of what I would consider in the planning/design phase and how I would approach construction. You are free to try my ideas but know that these are currently UNTESTED. I am using principles from making art dolls, sculpting and pony plushie making in these experiments/hypothetical situations.

 Measuring for the Horse Half

If we look at a picture of a horse from the side and you measure from the withers to ground, you should get the horse's relative length from chest to rump.  (Life's not perfect...but it's relatively true.)

Standard Horse, Pony and Draft Horse, picture angles...

We can take this principle in measuring for our costume! If we measure from our heel to the crest of our pelvis, you can get a similar measurement. This can give you a good guideline to measure how long the body should be. 

I think something too short looks better than too long.

Something that I have run into a couple times when looking at centaur costumes was that the horse part looked stretched out too long. (I call it Limo Horse!) Now, you do get the benefit of balancing the horse hind parts by using the distance. But we can counteract and work with balance without stretching the horse. 

 Frame of Reference

When building this out we start with a frame or an armature to be more precise. This will help bear the weight of materials behind us and give us a general shape. I have seen many variations of frames that others have used in their builds. (Please see the references from the Introduction for examples). 

A key part of the frame is that it should be light-weight but sturdy material. Most builds use PVC pipe, but I have seen aluminum as well. Personally, I might experiment with mixed media as it were by combining balsa wood dowels or EVA foam dowels but reinforced with thermoplastic or paper-Mache wraps. 

I might even use 8 gauge wire and pool noodles for some things or basket wood for ribs. 

But if you want to use something tried and true, PVC is the way to go. 

Here are a couple ideas I had for frames/armatures for the body. (I'll cover the leg in its own post.)

Three styles

So, these are currently untested, so borrow at your own risk but here's my thought process.

Single Spine Frame

This one mimics a skeleton for real. Using a solid material for the spine, but wrapped in something softer because it will rest on the small of the back. It will extend out to become the tailbone. 

The ribs would be pvc pipe or wooden dowels that attach with 4-way pipe connectors to the central spine. One rib box sits directly on the human behind acting as a frame of support. The middle rib fills out the midsection of the barrel which should be the widest point. And a third rib to make a "waist line" as it were where the stomach and sides tuck in before it becomes the hips. 

The pelvis would be T-framed on by a solid dowel or pipe. It's purpose will be to mount the hind leg. 

To keep the frame on and to prevent it from drooping and putting too much weight on the hind legs, a series of straps will belt around the human body. One belt starts from the small of the back and beginning of the horse spine to go around the human waist. It will use garters or multiple belts to distribute the carrying weight. Additional belts will meet at a point over the lower abdomen. One or two will stretch from the pelvis all the way to the front attaching to the top of each rib. 

Another belt will stretch from the bottom of the middle and first rib before attaching at the central point. I will admit...it does look a bit like a body cage. The fabric design of this will require a lot of coverage. 

H-Frame/Ladder Frame

The basic concept of this is kind of like a chariot or horse-cart. Two straight sturdy FLAT pieces would run down the sides until the hip socket. The two side pieces would connect at the back with a connection piece or dowel. The width may need to be played with because the side pieces do not need to be perfectly parallel. It can make a slight A-frame if needed. Other "steps" would reinforce the distance between the two sides. One directly behind the human rear and others as needed. 

The barrel shape can be made from semi-flexible ribs. EVA, Basket wood, thermoplastic, furniture foam padding or similar materials would work. Two ribs might be enough to make the wide and thin part of the barrel. Depending on the material, I might need to reinforce the shape by using thin dowels in a + shape. 

The tail bone would need to come off the last "rung" of the ladder. 

To keep this one on, I had a couple ideas. The first version would use a nylon-webbing (or similar) spine that runs through (or wraps around) every rung and then connects to a belt worn around the waist or around the chest depending on your costume design. (Personally, I might add a mane to this part so it looks like a mane going down my spine. Belt hiding tip!)

The two side posts would have a belt go around the front and maybe use a harness around the legs. 

Alternatively, you would still need waist belt and leg harness, but instead of a spine you connect with suspenders that each connect to the first rung near the boo-tay. 

This is the idea for the shape.

You could make the suspenders out of a stiff material like aluminum or EVA + worbla to make shoulder hooks (as illustrated above). 

Build-out the Form

The framework is an armature, the next phase would be to add muscle. This needs to be close to form. 

And yes, I am purposefully not talking about the legs at the moment. But these concepts will apply to the legs. You build an armature and fill out the form, the complication comes with adding joints which is why I dedicate an entire post to JUST the legs. 

It's important to keep the form as light as possible! I have seen people stuff the form with newspapers and use duct tape in a Duct Tape Dummy method. (This blog will talk more about DTD's don't you worry.) I've seen people use expanding foam that they carve away. And I've seen the use of furniture foam padding that someone cut/carved. I think looking at how people make certain types of fur suit parts can help you get a sense of how to work with these types of foam. 

Me, I have never had success with cutting furniture foam. Nor do I have the space to carve away at expanding foam. So, my instinct would be to go with a somewhat similar approach with a duct tape dummy or art doll stuffing. Here's the plan...

Modesty's Forming Idea

So with my frame examples, the ribs are important to the forming, which is why I included them. So  I would either use something like chicken wire or mesh to quickly fill out the shape or start connecting things with strips of EVA (like weaving a basket). It's okay if things are flexible but getting that barrel shape is key. 

Then, I would use quilt batting cut into long strips and wrap around the barrel. Quilt batting sticks to itself pretty well, but I may use some hot glue reinforcement. I may even use a bit of duct tape hold things down. But the thing about quilt batting is that it can make the form look right when fabric is pulled over it and it's soft so there's some squish to the form. 

Alternatively, I could use plaster strips and do things in a sort of paper-mache way. These would be solid, but relatively light. 

To get the gist of what my plan is you can check out these art doll tutorials: LeopardCorgi Creatures.

So illustrated here is the rough form I want for the body. (The pelvic joints should be sticking out.) The hind legs will form the rest of the hips. How I plan the hind legs should help with stability and movement.  Again, that will be for another day. 

Cover up!

The final part will be adding the fur or skin. Now because I have a lot of belts to cover up, I'm planning on making the pattern of the hide with including my human half in mind. And for that, I turned to my plushie pony patterns and art dolls for guidance. 

The general idea of the pattern.

Now patterning out the horse body is no small feat. My version I know will have a lot of seams so it may not be ideal for all fabric types. 

A tip for making your own pattern based on your form: 

 Use an old bed sheet and drape it over your form. Use sewing pins  to make the sheet tight around the horse form. Then cut the sheet along the pin lines. Unpin and you should have an approximation for your pattern! 

I would also recommend checking out a few other tutorials on how other people did it. Some were able to figure it out with minimal sewing skill. 

Common fabrics I've seen used are: 

- Stretch Velvet

- Spandex

- Stretch Fleece

- Faux Fur (you can trim long faux fur to make the coat look more like a horse's short coat!)

- Minky

Now for me, I'd either use a stretch velvet or minky fabric for the coat. I prefer to use knit fabrics or fabrics with a bit of stretch to them. When making a moving horse half, it's important to have a bit of give. (I don't have the patience to figure out how to do that for woven or non-stretch fabrics.)

It's important to know that when sewing with a stretch fabric, to use a zig-zag stitch, a stretch stitch or use a serger/overlock machine. This will help preserve the stitch. 

Final Thoughts

I haven't really gone too deep into how to make markings but this is getting long, so if I feel it needs more addressing I'll get around to it. For now, this would be my approach to the project. The overall design needs tweaks here and there. As I experiment, I'll make my updates. Next time, I intend to go in depth with making the hind legs! 

Until next time!