Four-legged Eskimo played the starring role in a Make-A-Wish Australia spectacle on Thursday night, delighting five-year-old Adelaide girl Scarlett by dressing as a unicorn. 

Scarlett, who is battling a rare heart condition, told organisers she wanted to “see a unicorn fly through the sky and taste its rainbow horn”.

While many might call the wish an impossibility, staff were determined to realise her dream, calling in Susan Pintos from animal hire service Animals 2 U.

Ms Pintos, who has worked with the charity before, accepted the challenge, airbrushing the pint-sized pony’s hooves purple and mane green.  

Eskimo was also fitted with an edible, rainbow horn. 

Scarlett and her family travelled to Melbourne last Thursday for the big reveal, where animators projected film of a flying equine onto the sides of city buildings.

The little girl then rode Eskimo and got a taste of his sugary headgear. 

Ms Pintos described the evening as “very emotional for everyone involved”.

“Scarlett was very surprised,” she said.

“She was a little wary at first, but quickly warmed to the idea.”

Eskimo, 13, is no stranger to the big stage.

He starred in the 2014 Fox Sports advertising campaign and reared his head during this year’s Australia’s Got Talent auditions. 

He was good-natured during the entire process and performed an array of tricks for Scarlett, Ms Pintos said.

“He was nodding, and smiling,” the horse’s owner said.

Make-A-Wish chief executive officer Gerard Menses said he was grateful for the support his foundation’s received from businesses like Animals 2 U.

“The community of people that have come together to make Scarlett’s wish a reality is vast,” he said. 

“We rely on the support of the volunteers, donors, business partners and the general public to make wishes come true fro very sick kids all over Australia.”

The night of horsing around was held on the anniversary of the foundation’s first wish, granted in the US state of Arizona in April, 1980.