Wooden Rocking Horse Designed For Safety

Here’s a rocking horse project that makes it easy to craft a handmade gift for a special child.

Any do-it-yourselfer with common tools and a little patience can complete it.

Moreover, parents will be happy to know that this rocking horse was designed with safety and durability in mind. The limited motion of the rockers makes the horse difficult to tip, and all edges are rounded smooth, eliminating sharp points and corners.

The project calls for one 10-foot piece of 1-by-12 clear pine, dowels, wood screws, glue, sandpaper, stain and paint, along with a small piece of leather or felt for the ears and yarn or rope for the tail. It uses only eight different cuts and 17 pieces in total, all traced from full-size patterns.

After sawing, just assemble with screws and glue, then sand, stain and paint.

The facial features also can be traced from patterns and then painted, but do-it-yourselfers who want to be creative can design their own.

The finished rocking horse is 32 inches long by 26 inches tall by 12 inches wide.

The Rocking Horse plan, No. 56, is $6.50 and includes complete step-bystep directions, full-size traceable patterns and a shopping list and cutting schedule. The plan has alternate traceable patterns for the head and feet that transform the project into a rocking elephant.

A package of four plans for rockin’ kids’ projects, No. C73, is $18.95 and includes this rocking horse and another one, plus a rocking dinosaur and a rocking airplane. A catalog picturing hundreds of do-it-yourself projects is $3.95. Prices include postage and handling (for first-class mail, add $1 per item up to $3 maximum).

MEMO: To order by mail, clip this article and send it with a check or money order to U-Bild Features, c/o The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2383, Van Nuys, CA 91409-2383. To order by credit card, call (800) 828-2453. Please specify plan numbers.