Start to Finish

Our rocking horse kit came from The Ringinglow Rocking Horse Company, whose website is at http://www.dapplegrey.co.uk/. They make traditional wooden rocking horses for sale direct to the public, and also through well-known retailers such as Harrods, Hamleys, Fenwicks & John Lewis. However, they're very expensive, around £1,500 (US$2,500) which was a little out of our reach.

 What caught my eye was that Ringinglow also sell their horses in kit form (see here); I enjoy working with wood and have made a few toys and some basic furniture for our daughters, so the idea of making the horse myself from a kit, and saving some money into the bargain, was too good to ignore.

 We contacted Harry at Ringinglow who was very supportive, giving me the confidence to go ahead and place the order.  In October 2013 I received this box of parts:

Some hardware isn't shown here, but the box contains everything you need to build, assemble and finish the horse and its stand, including a real leather saddle and other tack, and real horse hair for the forelock, mane and tail.

 Just over two months later, this is what emerged from the garage to greet our daughters on Christmas morning:

In the next post, I'll show all the parts and hardware that comprise the kit and go into some more detail on how the horse and stand are assembled. I'll also detail the tools you'll need. If you're considering building one of these kits yourself, I hope this will be useful and also help you avoid some of the mistakes I made.

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Finishing Touches

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