Birthday Horse #10

My wife JoAnn, and I are enjoying our granddaughter, Zoey, as she matures.  She and her family live only 25 minutes from our house.  From the day she was born we have been a part of her life.  When her mom and dad wanted to go out for the evening, guess who were the babysitters.  We were present at all birthdays and holidays as well.  Zoey is now a junior in high school, six foot tall and soon to be sixteen years old.  The baby sitting days are over, but there are lively conversations about school and classmates at our traditional Sunday dinners.

I want to start this post back when Zoey was turning three years old.  We were told that at that age she could have a horse;  that's a rocking-horse of course.  We wanted to make one for her that would be special and she would value later in life.  After thumbing through books and magazines we found a book with all of the answers.  "The Rocking-Horse maker" by Anthony Dew.   The book covers nine easy-to-follow projects with the easier ones well within the scope of anyone with a basic tool kit and modest skills.  This is a British author and publisher, which made me wonder about availability of metal parts here in the United States.  A California source was cited for the few metal parts we would need for our chosen model.  I have metalworking skills so decided to make the parts.  Anyone with skills in this area or a friends that will do the metal work for  you can proceed like we did.  If you strike out on both options, you will have to order the parts from California.  The book is still available at Amazon.

We decided to build the mid size three-dimensional carved horse and use Mahogany as our wood choice.  Final dimensions are 4'h x 5'l x 18"w.  We liked the rich red color of the wood when finished and we didn't choose to paint on any details.  Regular horsehair was used for the main and tail, and eyes were purchased from a taxidermy store.  Leather was purchased for our saddle and halter.  A decorative blanket was constructed by JoAnn on her sewing machine.  We  were both enjoying the project and excitement grew as the horses shape began to emerge from the blocks of wood.  We built in a surprise that may never be found.  A time capsule was placed in the hollow body section before the final blocks were glued.  We composed a letter to Zoey expressing our love for her and wishing  her a full and exciting life ahead.  When we presented her with the horse, we told her folks of the time capsule and as of today, thirteen years later it is still intact. 

We probably spent several hundred dollars on construction supplies and it took a bit of poking around town to locate them.  We were floored when Zoey's mom showed us a page from the FAO online New York catalogue.  There was our rocking-horse in Mahogany and a proud little Brit in the saddle.  The Stevenson Bros. of England were marketing it as .."made by the world's finest rocking horse makers".  Only 300 were created each year with European royal families at the head of the list.  It was characterised as an heirloom-quality gift to be treasured for generations and priced at $5,400.

The purpose of this post is to start you thinking about the things you can do with a good plan, a few tools and a desire to create.  In this example, look at the value we created.  You can too.

Zoey and her Birthday Horse