Just watched hustle ,where they painted a white horse to look chestnut , does anyone know what they would have used and i'm assuming it used to happen, if so when did start/stop?
It's always been done, and for any reason you can think up, nefarious or otherwise!
I remember once a circus that came to town. One act featured a grey horse with (natural) dark stripes. It got loose and disappeared for about three days, so they had to take another grey horse and paint dark stripes on it so as not to disappoint the audiences!
I once took my horse into a carnival parade and he was painted with arrows and patterns like an indian pony, and we used windowlene which dries white then brushes out.
Another time he went with it on marked out like joints of meat like you see on the posters in butchers shops. I think he was a little unnerved by that one!
I've seen people with show ponies dye manes & tails with regular hair dye. One groom I talked to told me she had looked after the horse used for Lloyds Bank and that they used to dye his coat as he was atcually very dark brown not black. Chalk is often used to accentuate white markings.