The medicine horses are replicas of Northern Plains effigies that were hung in the lodge door to honor and protect the tribe's horses. Each effigy is made from tanned buckskin and the beading is traditional Northern Plains geometric designs, common to the Crow, Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho Tribes. The hair of the manes and tails comes from wild horses at Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary, and the large beads on the feet and hanging loops are the antique crow beads made in Venice, Italy and which were common during the fur trade era of the Rocky Mountains.