A Mane, Ears and Bridle for a Vintage Rocking Horse

 In my post "Just in time for Christmas" one of the projects mentioned was a vintage rocking horse I refurbished and refinished for a friend of mine who wanted to give it to her grand daughter that Christmas. One of the things I mentioned was that I really felt it needed a mane. And for Christmas 2020 that's what I did as well as modified and added leather ears, a bridle, and modified the rockers. And that is what I'll cover in this post for those that want to do the same. I'll be going over the modifications and how I did things in hopes it may help you with your project. So lets get started...

To give those that haven't been here before or read the previous post which included the rocking horse project let take a look at what it looked like for Christmas 2019. As you can see below the last thing I did was add the removable "saddle". Which I made from a standard dining room chair pad.

And the grand child loved it as it was... rode the heck out of it. She has one speed on this rocking horse and that is at full gallop! Which brings me to the first modification I did.

Rocker Modification

Given it was still at the Grandmothers house I got a chance to see her ride it a couple times and noticed that when riding it would walk across the floor. This I felt was due to the front rounded part on the bottom of the rockers. The round looks great and would probably serve well on rockers that had a greater curve to them. But the rockers on this rocking horse are mild compared to some and those rounds acted as bumpers/stops and when she rocked it, especially as hard as she rocked it, it would clunk and walk the whole rocking horse. So I decided to cut the underside of the round end off flush with the rest of the rocker. You can see more clearly in the below before and after pic what I'm talking about.

Having had the chance to see her ride it since this modification, this modification was the ticket it called for and worked out beautifly. She can rock it full gallop as she does and it doesn't have that abrupt stopping or clunking. Nor does it walk the rocking horse across the floor. It's a much smother ride.

The Mane and Ears

I'm including the mane and ears together as one dictated the other.

The original rocking horse had wooden ears. And they where fine I suppose but I really didn't like the head as a whole. I felt it was too small for the body of the rocking horse. And secondly I felt as soon as she gets brave enough she's going to stand up on it rocking it like crazy and could possibly smack her head and split her head open on those wooden ears and I would never hear the end of it. So... i decided it was best to cut them off and replace them with leather ears. So first up was cutting off the wooden ears and shaping the head as best I could without loosing too much more size.

Below is the before and after of the mod. You can see the point or wood ears I wanted to remove and did so.

The mane itself was a challenge in that I wasn't sure what to make it out of or how to attach it. I scoured the web to see how others made them and how they went about attaching the mane. I looked at a bunch of things to use for a mane. From synthetic feather dusters, to fringe, to yarn and even real horse hair and I finally settled on what I thought they used way back and that was a mop head. 

It took two mop heads to make up the length of the mane length for this rocking horse was about 15 inches long including the point of brow.

I believe I picked these up made by Rubbermaid at Lowes since it was close by. Something like $7 dollars for the two. They were the number #16 economy cotton mop refill you see below.

The 16 I take is is the length of the strands. I cut the strands back to 12 inches in length to start. Then cut the one lowest on the neck to 10 inches in the end after dry fitting it. And the upper section I cut it at an angle from 10 to 8 inches. The 8 inches being closest to the top of the head.

Once dry fitting the mane in how I came up with to attach it, which I'll get into in just a short bit, I noticed it was much too full. At least to my liking. What I did to thin it out was to spread it out flat so each side of the center seam where it is sewn together was spread flat. Then I took every third strand or so on one side and cut it back to the center seam. I did the same to the other side making sure I didn't cut the same strand I had on the opposite side. I also started 2 inches back from what would be the top of the head as I wanted those strands for the brow. That thinned it out enough so that it looked good if it lay to both sides or was put all over to one side. You kinda just have to dry fit it and cut some and see as you go along. If it needs more thinning remove it and thin a tad more. Just don't cut the same strand on both sides. And don't cut it past down into the seam. You need that thickness if attaching it as I did.

Attaching the mane was actually pretty easy. I happened upon a site that some guy was making one of those really nice expensive hand carved rocking horses with the real horse hair mains. And he showed how he cut a groove down the back of the neck to insert the horse hair mane he made or bought... He used a router to cut the groove. Which I would have too but, though I have a couple old routers and even picked up a new Ryobi Cordless Trim router recently... I don't own any router bits yet.  Yeah I know... but in my defense I'm still doing the research so I don't waste what money do have and can find a decent router bit set within my budget. Anyway... so I couldn't use a router but I do have Forstner bits. And a drill. 

I used a 5/8 inch forstner bit to drill a series of 3/4 deep holes down the back of the neck over lapping each hole slightly. Then used the bit kinda like a router to clean and make one long groove. Not as pretty as could have been done with a router but... it's worked just fine.  And actually I liked it better I think as hind sight being 20/20 I would have overlapped them more and left it as it. It would have had a scalloped look. But I didn't have the hind sight till it was over. It still came out fine.

Here's the result of drilling the holes...

Not perfect but once the mane is put it, it looks great.

To install the mane you need to squeeze the mop head right at the sewn seam folding it in half. Just like it would be on a mop handle. Just fold that seam in two and push it into the slot or groove down the back of the neck. Keep in mind when drilling the groove or routing it. Each mop head is 6 inches long. The inside length is shorter than the outside length depending on the curve of your rocking horse neck.

So measure twice, cut once.

I used Titebond III which is a waterproof glue and screwed each mop head in with #10 SS pan head screws. Three screws per mop head. One at each end and one in the middle. You need to make sure you push it in all the way all along as you go before putting a screw in.  I also found it easier if you start each screw in the mop head before inserting it into the groove. That way you know each screw is in the center of the mop head seam.

And as you can see below... it really does look nice doing it this way.

And you can see once installed, you can't see the mop seam and it looks like it's mane is growing out of the neck. It has a more natural look I suppose one could say.

For the ears I took from a horse costume pattern to start with and modified it from there. I cut and tested variants from paper, then cardboard to get an approximate size before cutting the leather as I only had so much I didn't want to risk wasting it with a wrong cut. The leather I picked up from Michaels Arts and Crafts. They have it in Black and Brown and other colors. Not a huge selection of leather but you might find what you need there. It was thick enough and stiff enough to hold it's shape once cut and folded. 

Here's a final pattern I came up with you can use but as mentioned even after cutting them with leather I modified it further. The leather does act differently. But print it out on a full sheet of paper. It should get you started and you can down size or make whatever adjustments you need to from there.

Originally and with the paper versions I was going to try something a little fancier in attaching them and folding them. What I found was as stated, the leather didn't act in the same manner as the cardboard or paper mock up of the ears so I ended up just doing a simple single fold down the middle and cutting a curve on the lower part of the ear where they attach to the horse head. I used carpet cut nails or tacks. I can't remember which size tacks but I think they were #10 or #12's.

Here they are attached...

Once you get the ears attached you can then cut the brow to length. Which was around 6 inches on the upper most 2 inches of mane. I started just past the back of the ear, taking that part of the mane and using it for the brow.

The Bridle

The bridle was a last minute decision to add. I made it from the left over leather I made the ears from. I cut 1/2 inch strips and tacked the ends with the same carpet tacks I used to attach the ears with. For conchos I used upholstery tacks. All together I think it was a fine addition and finished the rocking horse off nicely.

 

All together it made for a nice looking rocking horse.

Now how much of a difference can the mane on a rocking horse make? Well I'm here to tell you as I told the grand mother - IT NEEDS A MANE! It's a little girl they like that stuff. 

The reaction she had when she was given the horse last Christmas pales in comparison to her reaction she had when she saw it this Christmas. And I was privy to be there when she first saw it this Christmas Eve (it's too big to hide.) which was nice to be a part of.  Oh she loved it last year and smiled brightly.. rode the heck out it every time she came over since.. but this year. 

She ran over, jumped on it and hugged it and exclaimed to her mother, "Now I have a horse just like... (some characters name) in Frozen!" and hugged it's neck some more.

I received praise from my friend, (the grandmother) and her parents which is nice and welcomed... but seeing that two year old little girl hug that horse and the gleam in her eyes... now that... that my friends was priceless to me.

Her grandmother was nice enough to take a picture and send it to me... I think you'll agree... the mane made the difference.

And the over the next couple days the rocking horse was loaded up and off to this little girls home so she could enjoy it fully year round thanks to another family friend...

And so ends this post and project...

Again, Happy Holidays all.

Stay creative, Stay Happy....

cheers...