Horse Tack and Plaiting for Barbie's Best Friend

Above is Barbie's horse with simple plaiting techniques for it's mane and tail. 
You can also make simple craft accessories for this toy horse: a barrel used in
racing and cavaletti or trot poles to help train her walk/trot with.

       There are so many things you can do to play and craft with Barbie's horse. This one was made in 1991. Below I give a link list to many other horses Barbie has had at different times in the past. 

I braided only a section from this horse mane and then tied it to the rest of
the hair to hang down gracefully about the right side of her neck.
You will need tiny rubber bands to hold the braided ponytail
 and extra locks in position.

       To curl the horses tail you will need a couple of soft, sponge rollers that can still be purchased from some dollar stores. Twist the hair around the sponge and snap it into place inside of it's plastic clip. Carefully pour very hot water over the tail section only. Be careful not to get any other part of the horse wet if it is a mechanical one like ours. Let the tail dry in place overnight in the rollers. Remove the rollers once the tail is dry to reveal silky curls.

• The proper way to braid a horse's hair...

Left, are the old-fashioned sponge rollers. The types that women used to wear to bed
 while their curls dried overnight. Right, here you can see how we used these
curlers to fix Barbie's horse up for a parade or performance.

Left, are the skewers wrapped in newsprint and on the right, are the finished trot poles.

       To make these two horse tack accessories you will need the following supplies: wooden skewers, news print, white school glue, decorative papers, an empty salt container and scissors.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. The barrel seen on this post was made using a recycled salt container. This can is the perfect size for a standard 11 1/2 inch doll like Barbie. If you were going to make a barrel for a 6 inch doll you could use a recycled toilet paper roll. If you were needing one for an 18 inch doll, you could recycle and cover a large oats can. 
2. After pulling the old paper off of the salt can, cover it with colorful construction papers like the green, yellow and orange one seen in the photos of our own version. You could use any combination of colors you prefer. White school glue should suffice for both of these simple projects.
3. To make the trot poles, simply roll wooden skewers in newsprint to make these larger. Once the glue has been applied to the last of the roll, let it dry and roll the poles again in white paper.
4. Cut strips of any color you like to space a few inches apart evenly down the pole. Make as many poles as you like and space them evenly apart across the ground for your pony to practice pacing it's gait, trot or walk.

The horse posing with both the salt container "barrel" and the
skewer "trotting poles" or cavaletti

• A horse using trot poles - Include wooden blocks to prop these up as the horse starts to practice jumping
• A horse and it's human barrel racing - You may wish to make more than one of these.

Learn More About Barbie's Early Horses:

• Barbie Saddle 'N Ride Horse from Mattel
• Unboxing: Western Stampin' Barbie & Western Star Horse from 1993
• Barbie Saddle 'N Ride Horse Review
• Western Stampin' Barbie & Western Star Horse Ad (1993)
• Barbie Walking Tawny Horse (2006) renovation
• Barbie Walking Tawny and stable and 1991 Snowdance Horse
• Barbie prancing horse from 1994 came with carriage - hair replacement