How to Draw a Horse Easily in 9 Steps

Want to learn how to draw a horse, cartoon style? Then, you’ve come to the right place! With my detailed step-by-step tutorial, you’ll find that creating a cute horse has never been easier.

When it comes to drawing different animals, people seem to shy away from horses. And for a good reason. Getting the proportions and the horse’s specific features right can be tricky, that’s for sure.

But if you follow my 9 simple steps on how to draw a horse, I promise, you’ll be amazed by the final result.

This drawing tutorial is suitable for both adults and children. Hence, you can enjoy it together as a family if you like doing crafts with your kids.

So, let’s not wait a minute longer and start by gathering your materials.

Table of Contents

1 Materials You Need to Draw a Horse
2 How to Draw a Horse in 9 Steps (with Video)
3 How to Draw a Horse: The Recap

Materials You Need to Draw a Horse

The supplies required to draw a sweet cartoon horse are cheap and easily accessible. Here’s what you need:

Pencil (or mechanical pencil)
Rubber
Ruler
Marker pen
Medium-weight drawing paper

I advise using lightly textured art paper (120 gsm) and a medium-soft pencil, such as 2B.

How to Draw a Horse in 9 Steps (with Video)

Once you’ve got your materials together, pick a nice well-lit spot and sit in a comfortable chair. Then, have a look at this animated video of the whole process, from outlining the body of the horse to doing the final touches with your marker pen.

It’s easy, right? Now, let’s begin by breaking down my easy How-to-Draw-a-Horse tutorial into the following 9 steps:

1. Outline the Body of the Horse

Fig. 1

Draw a rectangle in the middle of the page that is about 3.5 cm long and 2 cm wide. Then, draw a circle towards the right side of the rectangle. (See Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

2. Drawing the Neck of Your Horse

Fig. 3

Draw a 3 cm long line upwards (diagonally) from the bottom left corner of the rectangle.

Fig. 4

Then, you’ll need to draw another line from the top of the rectangle. Make sure that you start your second line just a bit off the top left corner. (See Fig. 4). The line should be about 3cm long.

Finally, with the help of your ruler, extend the top of the rectangle to the left with a dotted or dashed line, as seen below in Fig. 5. This will help you have an easier time with the next step.

Fig. 5

3. How to Draw a Horse’s Head

Fig. 6

Now, draw a 1 cm long line on the dotted line, not too close to the rectangle.

Then, draw two diagonal and parallel lines, upwards, starting from the small line you’ve just made. (See Fig. 7 & 8).

Fig. 7

The longer line should meet with the outward line of the horse’s neck. The geometrical shape, you’ll end up with, is a trapezoid. This will be the head of your horse.

Fig. 8

As seen above in Fig. 8., your trapezoid looks as if it’s been rotated to one side.

Now, draw 3 very short tilted lines from the bottom of the rectangle, which will, then, form the front and hind legs of the animal.

For the hind leg, try to imagine the circle as being a clock. So, the first short diagonal line should start from the 5 o’clock position, with the second line being parallel to it. (See Fig. 9 below).

Fig. 9

4. Drawing the Front and Hind Legs of the Horse

Fig. 10

To create the front leg of your horse, draw a 2 cm long line (downwards) from the bottom of the rectangle. Then, draw a parallel line in front of it, as an extension of the short line you made in the previous step.

Fig. 11

Refer to Fig. 11 above and draw two diagonal and parallel lines, starting from the short tilted lines, you’ve already made. The horse’s rear leg should be as long as the front one.

You can draw a straight dotted line from the front one if needed to make sure that the legs are of the same length.

Fig. 12

Now, you need to make the “hidden” front and hind legs visible, too. So, draw a line 2 mm away from each of the legs but make them slightly shorter. This will create perspective. (See Fig. 12).

5. Outline the Eye, Ear, and Forelock of Your Horse

Fig. 13

To create the eye of the horse, draw a greater-than sign (>) in the middle of the trapezoid, towards the top of the head, and fill it in.

For the ear, just draw two curved lines from the top corner of the head. The two lines should meet at the top.

Finally, draw the forelock of the horse (the short hair to the left of the ear, as you can see above in Fig. 13).

6. Drawing the Horse’s Mane and Tail

Fig. 14

To draw the mane of the horse, get creative and do the same as you did with the forelock. But this time, start from the right side of the horse’s ear and just cover the long line that links the head and the rectangle. Check out Fig. 14 above.

Fig. 15

Now draw the tail, starting from the 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions of the imaginary clock I mentioned before. Don’t worry if the mane and tail don’t look exactly the same, as shown in Fig. 15.

7. Finishing Touches of the Horse’s Body

What’s left to do is to make the body of the horse more realistic by adding two curved lines at the top and bottom of the rectangle. One should connect the neck and the circle, and the other one should connect both legs. See Fig. 16. below.

Fig. 16

8. Draw the Horse’s Muzzle, Jaw, and Nostril

Fig. 17

Your horse is almost ready. Now, you need to draw the muzzle and jaw around the bottom of the titled trapezoid so that the head of the horse is no longer looking so rectangular.

Fig. 18

And for the nostril, add a small curved line on the muzzle of the horse. Your horse is looking cute, right?

9. Outline Your Horse with a Marker Pen

Finally, grab a marker pen, and use it to outline the horse you’ve just created with your pencil.

Fig. 19

Of course, don’t forget to carefully erase all the pencil marks with the rubber. Now, you can show off your cute horse.

And no one will guess that you didn’t just spontaneously draw it without the help of a ruler and a pencil or drawing geometric shapes first.

How to Draw a Horse: The Recap

Did you enjoy drawing your very first horse successfully? It wasn’t hard, right? The main tip to remember is to resort to the good old ruler in order to make straight lines that you can measure when needed. As you’ve learned from my tutorial, creating simple geometrical shapes, first, is key.

Last but not least, the most important piece of advice I can give you is to have fun while drawing or sketching, no matter what you’re trying to create on your blank piece of paper.

Stay tuned for more of my drawing tutorials coming soon.