My little man is still very much into his western heritage - only fueled by the trip to Texas around Thanksgiving. And well it hadn't occured to me, but in the middle of playing good guy (him) vs. bank robber (me) he made a good point. How can he be a real cowboy without a real horse. Good point, Wyatt. So off we went to see what we could find online. And truth be told, it is slim pickings. What we found either involved power tools or supplies we did not have on hand. And to be honest, this cowboy could not wait another minute. The whole history of the west was in jeopardy and someone needed to do something. So, here is what we came up with.
EASY STICK HORSE
Supplies:
- one lonely sock
- yarn for the mane and to tie the sock at the bottom
- yarn needle
- felt for ears
- needle
- stuffing
- a stick around three feet long
- two buttons for the eyes
- embroidery needle and thread
- file (optional)
- sandpaper (optional)
Instructions:
- If your broom handle is not smooth, you will want to sand it down so little cowpokes will not hurt themselves. Measure 12 inches down the broom handle from the blunt end of the stick and make a mark. Then use the file (or anything else you can think of that would do the same thing) to make a notch all the way around the broom handle. (see below)
2. Stuff the sock half way with the stuffing. Stuff it as full as you can get it, otherwise your horse head will be floppy...and cowboys don't like horses with floppy heads.
3. Cut four triangle shaped pieces ou of your felt. Triangles should be around 5 inches tall and at least 5 inches wide at the base. Pair them up and using your embroidery needle, sew two pieces together. You should have two ears now.
4. Hand sew the ears onto your half stuffed sock just to the left and right of where the heal would be on the sock.
5. Cut many, many (how many is up to you) 10 inch lengths of yarn. We cut 50 and had to cut more. I had help with this, so I can't say exactly how many we ended up with.
6. Thread each of the yarn pieces through the yarn needle and sew the horse's mane. Secure each piece of yarn with a knot. The mane should begin about three inches in front of the front of the ears and end about half way down the sock. The more yarn you use making your mane, the better he will look.
7. Using your embroidery needle and thread, sew the buttons in front of the ears to make the eyes.
8. Now you are ready to insert the stick into the horse's head and fill the rest of the sock with the stuffing.
9. Pull the sock down on the stick and secure the sock with a short length of yarn right at the notch you made. This is the key to keeping your horse's head on. Without it...well, its not a pretty sight.
10. Ride em' cowboy (or cowgirl)!
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Other horses:
- a horse made out of an old pair of jeans from Family Fun Magazine
- Average Jane Crafter's pinkalicious polka dot horse
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I'll try to get a better shot of Trigger in action tomorrow in the day light. But tonight I have a date with Thomas Jefferson. Yes, I know. I'm a dork.
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OK, I just popped over to honeyflake and low and behold Living Crafts has a horse similar to ours featured on their cover. Although they call it a hobby horse and it is much fancier than ours. Maybe if I had searched for "hobby horse" instead of "stick horse" I would have saved myself a bunch of time. So glad to know about the magazine, it looks like it has some great projects.