Building a Kit Rocking Horse

The only things left now are to fit the forelock, mane and tail, fit the saddlery, and attach the horse to the stand. The rocking horse kit comes complete with a section of a real horse's mane, still attached to the hide. There was more than enough to make the forelock, mane and tail for my horse, but it was pretty dirty and the hide was very dry, making it extremely stiff and hard to work with. The first job, then, is to soak the hide in water overnight to soften up the hide and loosen any dirt stuck to the hairs. Once soaked, the hide becomes very pliable. I washed and rinsed the whole thing several times, using detergent to clean everything up. I did this in the bath in our house, which made things fairly easy, but you might prefer to do it outdoors if you're at all concerned about what might be in the 'dirt'! Once clean, I allowed the hide and hair to dry for a few hours and then took it back out to the garage/workshop. It will take the hide several days to dr

I described in an earlier post how I made sockets for the supplied glass eyes using a 22mm spade bit: The right eye socket, before the horse was dyed a darker brown. The instructions that came with the kit suggested attaching the eyes using wood filler as glue. I didn't feel confident that this would work, having never tried it before, so I decided to use epoxy instead. Having checked that the eyes were going to fit ok and that everything was clean and dry, I mixed up some quick-setting (five minute) epoxy and spread some on the back of each eye, then used some tape to hold them in place while the glue cured. This worked very well. You made a believer, out of me. The only things left at this stage were to fit the (real horse hair!) mane, forelock and tail, saddle 'er up, and mount her to the stand. But she looked so good, I couldn't resist mounting her straight away (stop sniggering at the back, Jenkins!): Very cool. The combined horse and stand are

The next step is to apply a couple of coats of varnish to the stand and the horse, and then assemble the stand. Things are really starting to come together! There's not much to say about the varnishing. I used Ronseal's Ultra Tough Satincoat clear varnish. I didn't want a really glossy finish, hence the Satincoat, and I expected the horse and stand to get a few knocks from my three daughters, hence the Ultra Tough. I brushed on three coats, sanding lightly between each coat with fine (240 grit) pap er. My biggest problem with the varni shing was that I was doing this in an unheated detached garage in the UK in mid-December, so the temperature was barely 5°C (40°F): too cold for the varnish. It gets quite treacly at those temperatures, resulting in a pretty thick coat each time. That's why (I think) the finish ended up quite glossy, despite using a satin varnish. I did try warming up the tin of varnish with a fan heater, but that didn't make a lot of difference

Now that all the sanding and other prep is finally complete, you can move on to the finishing.  I dyed mine (her name is 'Rosehip', by the way) using Colron Wood Dye in Indian Rosewood; many rocking horses are painted, either in the classic 'dapple grey' pattern or in more individual style, but I can't offer any advice on how to do that. I got dye on this chap's sleeve, sorry dude. I was quite nervous about starting this phase because I'd never dyed wood before and I really didn't want to ruin all the hard work I'd put in up to this point. However, having watched a few videos on YouTube, I dived in and it turned out to be very easy. The most important tip is to really flood the surface of the wood with dye, using a rag that is completely saturated. Spread it out evenly to leave a glistening, even layer, and then leave it! Don't be tempted to go back and touch up a small area, because any extra dye you add after the first coat has dried