Thread: Rocking Horse

When my Grand-daughter came along, I made a couple of Rocking Horses; one for her Parents’ house and one for ours. They were a very common design, but I extended the rockers after an experience when my son was small and he tipped the horse, that I made for him, over backwards.

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When she was old enough to ride the horse, we found that it was too high. I attached a frame that screwed to the legs, and she has happily played on it since she could walk.

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Now that she is 22 months old, and tall for her age, further modification was needed. I took off the first frame and attached a platform as per photo. My Grand-daughter can easily mount the horse and her feet just touch the platform. Obviously, when she gets taller, I will remove this section and put both frames away for the next Grand-child (when and if).

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Incidentally, when I made the Rocking Horse for my own sons, the plans called for a short length of Jute rope for the tail. I haven’t seen any new rope made from Jute for years. For the latest Rocking Horses, I bought a black Curtain Tie-back cord from Spotlight which had a tassel at each end. The tassel is wound around a hollow tube, about 16mm diameter (I’m working from memory here). I cut the rope off, used a spade bit to drill a hole in the horse’s bum and glued the tassel in. My Grand-daughter managed to break the tube in the tail, so I have now cut a piece of 9.5mm dowel and glued it inside the tube with epoxy. If I make a new Rocking Horse in the future, I would strengthen the tube in manufacture.

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