Building a Kit Rocking Horse

The Rivelin rocking horse kit was delivered in three parts: one large cardboard box, strapped to a pallet, contained all the wooden parts, the hardware, the leather parts (saddle and tack) and the grooming kit. Around the same time, a shoe-box-sized delivery arrived containing the horse hair, some wood dye, some varnish and some sandpaper (Harry had included the sandpaper, very coarse 40-grit, to get me started on the substantial amount of sanding required... but more on that later). Finally, a Jiffy bag containing our custom-engraved brass plaque arrived about a week later - this is sent directly from the engraver, though it was ordered via Harry/Ringinglow - we never dealt with the engraver directly. Here's how the large box was packed: And here are the components for the stand laid out: There are actually two small foot blocks as well - I forgot to pose them in this photo. The next post in this series will show the assembly of the stand; it goes together very easily. T...

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 ...

This blog will document the process of building a Rivelin rocking horse kit.  I bought the kit from The Ringinglow Rocking Horse Company Ltd (see http://dapplegrey.co.uk/pages/toys2.html ) in late October 2013 with the intention of getting it built in time for Christmas as a present for my three daughters. As I'm writing this, the horse is not quite finished but there are still two weeks to go, so I should be OK. This blog will describe the process of building the horse from start to finish, with photos at each stage.  I hope this will be useful to anyone else who plans to build one.