Identifying language choices

The reindeer were about the size of Shetland ponies and their hair was so white that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them; their branching horns were gilded and shone like something on fire when the sunrise caught them. Their harness was of scarlet leather and covered with bells.

C.S. Lewis: from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (HarperCollins Children's Books, 2009)