Rocking Horse

For Christmas this year, I decided to make the kids their Christmas present. I wanted to make them a rocking horse based loosely on one at the kids doctor's office. I had a picture in my head and decided to go for it.

The first part of the plan was asking for a jigsaw for my birthday. (Thanks Dad, aka, Grandpa) But instead of buying a normal jigsaw, I got a really cool Ridged Multi-Max tool that came with a free jigsaw attachment. The jigsaw attachment is not quite as good as a normal jigsaw but the tool can do so much more. (I've already used it on another project I'll blog about later.)

The next step was to draw the horse head and body parts out onto paper. I then made paper cutouts, traced them onto 2x10s, and then used my new tool to cut the wood.
I ended up with about a dozen pieces on the lines of this.
I hollowed out the ones that could be hollowed out and then attached them together with glue and screws. None of the screws are visible except the last ones on the horse butt.

Here I am attaching the pieces together to create the basic horse.
I then sanded the horse and painted numerous coats on with spray paint. The paint ended up being by far the most expensive part of the project. After a basic brown coat on the horse and a white coat on the base, I pained the horse face, spots, and hoofs by hand. I then gave the entire horse a couple coats of spray gloss.
The finishing touches included a tail and mane I tied together out of dark brown yarn. I then attached some red reigns (which were originally purposed for curtains) with a couple screws and clips.
Here is a close up of the finished face.
Of course, I needed to test it out to make sure it was safe enough for the twins...
It passed.

When the time came, we put the finished product by the Christmas tree and let the kids find it.
They kids very excited when they first saw it. Caroline got the first ride of course.
At this moment, I realized I made it a little bit too tall. :) Oh, well. It still works and the kids can grow into it. Caroline holds on to the reigns or ears (which was planned) and wraps her legs around the body (which was not planned).

Caden got a turn to try it out. While he was riding, Caroline got a closer look at the rest of the horse.
Caroline and Caden often give the other "rides" by pulling on the reigns to make the horse rock while the other is on the horse. Here is the first time they did that.As you can see, Michael Jordan was having a lot of fun.
I hope the twins enjoy the the horse for many years. They ride it almost daily and tell almost everyone that comes over that I made it for them. That makes the whole building experience worthwhile. That and my new Ridgid Multi-Max.