Horse Jigsaw Puzzles
Wild horses splashing through the surf, a mare and her foal in tall grass, a row of faces looking out over red stable doors. There are ten horse pictures here to play free in your browser, at anything from 4 pieces to 1000.
All horse puzzles
Which horse puzzle should I start with?
Start with Horses at a Red Barn if you want a picture that comes together quickly. The red boards make one big warm block behind the horses, and the faces and manes over the stable doors are easy to pick out. Foal and Mare in a Meadow is a close second, with two clear animals and soft grass behind them.
For something gentler again, try Pony in an Apple Orchard. The fallen apples give you little red and green clusters to collect while the pony stands among the tree trunks. Sort that one in layers from the grass up to the leaves.
How hard is each horse picture?
Most of the difficulty comes from what surrounds the horses rather than the horses themselves. A coat or a mane is easy to recognize on a loose piece. Snow, sky and open water are not, so the pictures with the most of those take the longest to finish.
| Puzzle | Start with | Leave for last | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horses at a Red Barn | Faces and stable doors | Repeated boards | Easy |
| Foal and Mare in a Meadow | Legs and faces | Distant meadow | Easy |
| Horse and Rider on a Forest Trail | Rider and saddle | Far end of the path | Medium |
| Icelandic Horses in the Highlands | Shaggy coats | Green slopes | Medium |
| Herd at Sunset on the Prairie | Ears, legs and tails | Orange sky | Medium |
| Wild Horses Running on a Beach | Nearest horse and spray | Sea and clouds | Hard |
| Horses in the Snow | Frosted manes and eyes | Snow and pale sky | Hard |
Treat the last column as a rough guide at about 150 pieces. At 36 pieces even the snowy paddock is friendly.
Why are manes and snow so tricky?
Manes break into thin strands that look much the same from piece to piece, and snow is very nearly one color. The fix for both is to hunt for the places where they meet something darker, then build outward from there.
In Horses in the Snow, the fence and the hoof marks break up the white ground, and the snow carries pale blue shadows that differ slightly from the sky. Put each of the two horses together on its own before you join them to the paddock. With the herd galloping through the shallows, keep every animal with its own mane and shadow. Wet sand reflects the sky in long bands there, and a stray leg can easily end up on the wrong horse.
Carousel Horses is the odd one out. These are painted figures with saddles and carved edges, lit by warm fairground bulbs, and the gold poles run up the picture like guide lines. Begin with the nearest figure and the pole beside it.
How many pieces should I pick for a horse puzzle?
Pick 104 pieces for a relaxed first go. That takes most people about 20 minutes and keeps each horse big enough that a face or a hoof fills a whole piece. Move up to 300 once the grass and sky start to feel like the interesting part instead of the chore.
Pony fans can try the orchard or the foal at 16 or 24 pieces. For a long evening, set Horse Grazing by a Lake to 600 or 1000. The reflected peaks and shore stones become a real test, and the chestnut horse with its curved neck is the one warm patch in a cool mountain scene. More animals wait in the Animals category, and the wild herd in the surf has company among the beach puzzles.