Centaur Accessories

Question

What kind of bags and jewellery could be worn on the horse part of a centaur?

Keep in mind that their clothing is similar in style to horse barding and the centaurs need to be able to put them on without assistance, meaning accessories on the back legs are out of the picture. they will mostly be made of leather, cloth, and precious stones. bonus points if you can find something that doesn't attach like a saddle, as it would be pretty difficult for them to put something on or retrieve something from their back.

Edit: It's perfectly alright if it has human influences, as they tend to live amongst each other.

Answer 1

According to social status and age

I imagine centaur kids with plenty of accessories, decorations, bows, flowers and lots of things because their parents dress them, so they don´t care if they can´t reach their hind legs. Daddy or Mommy takes care.

Adults have a different situation: Centaurs cannot easily reach their legs (specially the hind legs). So, accesories in the legs (bracelets, jewerly, wristbands... or the equivalent) show to the world they have a servant to dress them. And the more complicated the decoration, higher the social status of the Centaur. OR could even be simple but difficult (for example these socks and hoof covers in the picture). Centaurs with no servants will decorate only the front and upper part of their bodies (decorated belts around their wrist, for example).

And regarding the bags and backpacks, I suppose they will be able to carry standard horse bags (two bags that hang in the sides of the horse) but attached to the waist. They could put them on by themselves (please forgive my low-budget picture edition. It is just to communicate the idea).

Answer 2

Quite obviously, they can wear regular human tops.

Maybe. There are certainly studies in centaur anatomy that suggest otherwise, at least for the lower torso. In any case, many historical/fictional depictions of centaurs suggest that even if they could wear human clothes, they wouldn't because of cultural differences. This is relevant to the rest of my answer.

I'm going to go big and bold here and talk about excrement. Humans, for various reasons, clean their behinds well and also tend to cover them up with clothes. Partly this is probably because of the smell, partly for hygene reasons (keep away flies etc., which for a centaur is probably a must since the 'human' bits will not cope well with horseflies), probably loads of other reasons as well.

The point is, centaurs would likely want to do this but have a hard job to do so - their arms can't reach their rump, and their bodies don't really bend in the middle like ours do. They'd need a servant or family member to do that for them, or access to a lake or something they can bathe in.

This leads to a few possible answers to your question, depending on how your centaur culture works:

• Nothing, because they want society to see how well-washed and groomed their coat (and especially their behind) is. Cleanliness is a proxy for social status.
• Medieval-style garlands and scented baskets, to mask the look and smell of dung (and keep away flies).
• A complete covering for the rear half, possibly also scented.

Answer 3

Centaurs may not be able to reach all parts of their bodies but other centaurs certainly could. Put one centaur up on a platform (design it with a ramp) and another centaur can reach easily. Also, if they live side by side with humans, the humans can do things too.

Some real-life human decorations are such that you can not do them yourself. Or they are possible but very difficult and tiring, and hard to do well. Think: hair extensions, weaves, fancy hair braiding/styling (including with bells and such), hair cuts (including fancy shaves), hair dye, fancy nail care (think jewels and polish designs), piercings, tattoos, henna art, and much more.

In human societies, a lot of the above things are valued such that even people of low to moderate income still budget to pay someone for these tasks (like hair braiding every 3 months that takes 6 hours to complete).

I would guess that centaurs might do all of the above. The species-different stuff could include:

Henna designs on the flank. Fancy dye jobs as well as braiding/bells/etc of the hocks and tail. Shave designs of the flank. Jewelry for tails (a bracelet for the part where the tail hits the body, or something woven in). Piercings around the lower legs. Hoof art.

Most of these things would not need to be touched for days or even weeks. Just like a lot of humans now will wear a ring for years without removing it or will leave a piercing in for weeks or get their nails done weekly.