Two examples of horse feeding bags. Left is for slow feeding on the ground and the larger hanging version may be placed on any hook inside of the toy horse's stall.
Hanging feed bags shaped from plastic trellis net.
Hanging Feed Bag:
Supply List:
plastic trellis netting (black or green)
straw looking grass
small plastic bag
a single chenille stem or wire
scrap cardboard
acrylic paint to match the woven plastic
masking tape
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut the trellis netting any size you think your doll's horse would feed comfortably from.
Roll it into a barrel shape and use narrow cuts of masking tape to hold several woven openings together. The photo on the right demonstrates what this looks like.
Bend a chenille stem together and weave this around the top of the netting to shape a large handle that will fit over a hook inside of the horse stable. Wrap more masking tape around the wire to make it sturdy.
Wrap masking tape around the open edge underneath as well, to insure that the opening at the bottom can be glued shut with a round cardboard bottom cut from scrap cardboard.
Then paint all of the masking tape holding the trellis in this shape with acrylic black paint. If your trellis netting is green, match the green color instead.
Not fill a clean, clear plastic bag with pretend hay and twist tie is firmly shut.
Stuff this plastic bag up into the 'feeding bag' and shut the opening at the bottom with a cardboard circular bottom.
Use tape and white glue to hold it firmly in place. Let dry and paint the bottom using the same matching paint color as before.
Slow Feed Bag:
Supply List:
thick rough grey or tan felt
red woven garlic bag
tan embroidery floss and embroidery needle
faux natural colored grass
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut two squares approximately 4"x4" from rustic looking felt or fabric. Cut a 2 1/2" diameter hole from the center of one square.
Using a needle and matching thread tack on netting to the backside of the square with hole in the center.
With right sides together, sew around the outside edge of both squares approximately 1/4" from the outside edge.
Leave a 2" opening at one end and turn the bag back with right sides facing out.
Stuff the bag with hay looking Easter grass of some sort.
Close of the opening with a whip stitch.
See the fake grass poking through the plastic mesh. See photos above.
Cardboard Hay Bales:
Supply List:
corrugated cardboard
Use a brush to apply glue and then press the cardboard hay bales into the sawdust.
white school glue
masking tape
sawdust
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut multiple rectangles all the same size from the corrugated cardboard.
Glue them all together into a thick stack.
Pull off the outside layers of paper to reveal the textured inside layer on both the top and bottom sides facing outward.
You may need to wrap a single layer of masking tape around your cardboard hay bale while it is drying.
Then remove the tape once the stack has dried.
Use a large brush to layer on white school glue on each side of the hay bales so that these may be pressed into sawdust to add texture.
Use twine to wrap 'pretend rope' around each bale.
Stack the crafted hay bales in a corner of your doll horses stall or up against a toy fence where their horse normally grazes.
Left see sizes of my cardboard hale bales in comparison to the 18 inch doll horse. Center, the stacks of corrugated cardboard need to be glued together. Right, the masking tape holds everything in place while drying.
Horse brush types from soft to hard require only a few materials like: scrap cardboard, a selection of wire types, white school glue, hot glue gun, yarn and twine, masking tape and acrylic paints. Needle-nose pliers and wire cutters will also come in handy when shaping these. I measured these grooming supply to fit the hands of our 18 inch dolls.
The shedding blade is cut from the serrated edge of a recycled kitchen foil box, not the metal tooth but the cardboard teeth. The metal tooth could actually scrap the plastic of the horse so don't use that side of the box. Tape on and handle and secure it with more tapes wound about the end, then paint the handle a bright color and the pretend blade a silver color.
A naturally stiff bristle brush for removing hardened, caked on mud can be shaped using small egg carton parts, masking tape and painted to look realistic with acrylic paints. These kinds of brushes are also excellent for giving a toy horse a nice massage after a good workout/run. The handles in all of these brushes were shaped using the wire covered paper used to package lettuce in food markets. (as seen in left photo above)
The stiff bristle brush made using masking tape. The bristles are tape cut with a ruffled edge and wrapped around and around themselves. Ten of these small bristles are glued side by side beneath the crafted handle. (above see painted finish)
See toothbrush and gum scrapper types, how these were cut, how handles were shaped using paper covered wire and masking tape. When shaping the handles make sure to measure the arch of the handle against the hand of the doll you wish to hold it.
This soft horse brush is made using wire and a large pom-pom. The wire is sewn into the pom pom with needle and matching navy thread. Then yarn is blanket stitched on top of the wire for added thickness about the doll's hand.
If your dolls love the 'ranch life' our family has made some special printables just for them. Below are 18 inch doll-size postcards, posters, sketches, photographs and even a page that will show you how to draw horses all by yourself!
Printables may be used for student entertainment only. Hang somethings on a dollhouse wall or inside of a stable. Cut and mount photos for framed prints or inside of doll-sized photo albums.
Progressive steps for drawing two different trotting horses by Lutz.
On the Ohio River edge of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, is a ramshackle factory which by all the rules of the business world should be dead. The Standard Vehicle Company, maker of buggies for two generations, however, refuses to die, although malnutrition has long since set in.
The world has for forty years been gradually but surely moving away from this buggy factory. Ed Knapp, owner of the company, with one foot in the present and one in the past, refuses to admit that his is an unnatural or uncomfortable position. He insists that he can bridge the gap. His small staff of multi- skilled workmen still turn out more than three hundred buggies a year for customers in all parts of the nation. His factory is the last relative of buggy plants which in 1914 included well over eight hundred competitors.
When you go to Lawrenceburg looking for the Standard Vehicle Company it is wisest to stop in town and ask directions, for a stranger would have trouble finding the factory and trouble recognizing it when he did find it.
Time has dulled the red brick walls of the rambling three-story building and smoke and soot from the railyards across the street have blackened them.
To find Ed Knapp you climb the darkened stairway to the second floor and wind your way through piles of buggy wheels and heaps of iron. Knapp will be talking over the phone to a distant manufacturer of buggy wheels, writing letters to buyers of ordered but as yet unmade buggies, or working over a stack of bills and invoices on his ancient rolltop desk. Or he may be out in the factory checking his workmen.
But he will still take time to talk. Perhaps he will let his work wait, because, as he says, "The buggy business isn't quite what it should be." He thinks the slump is only temporary. "No reason to think the buggy business is dead," he says. "Horses are more popular today than they have been for years. Why, we're getting orders from all over the country—from parts of the country we haven't had orders from in years. That's encouraging."
At sixty-five Knapp can look back on more than fifty years in the buggy business, for his father started the business and young Ed joined him at a tender age. As he sits on his desk, his feet dangling a few inches above the darkened floor, he will sketch in those years, his quiet voice stopping occasionally as he mentally places each episode in its proper sequence. Around the factory he wears a pair of gray work trousers, a blue and white striped shirt and a brown tie with somber-colored leaves falling across it. His rust-colored felt hat has a brim that time has styled into an amazing wreck.
"My father," Knapp says, "was a blacksmith until he got into the buggy business. A lot of blacksmiths went into buggy making in those days. My father started a buggy factory in Cincinnati, but it burned down. Then he came over here to Lawrenceburg and bought this factory. This place was a buggy factory at the time and before that it was a furniture factory.
"We didn't think anything of taking orders for carload lots of buggies. We could get an order for sixty- five new buggies, go to work, and have them on their way in three days. Any more, we just ship them one at a time.
"I started out working for my father as a salesman. I traveled in the South a lot. Our best market was with the Cajuns in Louisiana. I used to go down there a couple times a year. I would ride a train, then hire a buggy to take me around to the towns. One trip I visited forty towns and sold buggies in thirty-seven of them. Hardware stores used to handle them for us because everyone needed buggies then and the hardware stores were a good place to get them.
"Things have changed, though, in Louisiana.” Knapp shakes his head a little as though he has trouble understanding people who no longer want good buggies. "Those Cajun farmers don't use so many buggies any more. Cotton brings a high price in the South today and farmers buy secondhand cars.
"Well, sir, some people ask me why I don't take some trips to Louisiana and try to sell some more buggies there. But there's a reason. Just isn't any use, cotton being as high as it is. But if they start talking about gasoline rationing they'll flock in here to buy buggies. Guess I'd rather never sell another buggy than see another war though."
Business was good for Standard during the Second World War. Orders for buggies came in from all parts of the country and especially from the South. "Why, they took buggies out of here," says Knapp, "with one black wheel and three red wheels. We had more than twenty people in here building buggies." It was during the war, too, that Standard for a short time faced a shutdown order from the War Production Board. The Board was prepared to classify the buggy factory as a nonessential industry until circumstances proved that even a horse-drawn buggy can contribute to a World war. A large oil company was working in back-road country of Louisiana where cars and trucks couldn't plow through the brush and mud. The company ordered a dozen sturdy buggies from Standard and the War Production Board changed its verdict. "If we hadn't been in business," says Knapp, "where would they have found those buggies?
"The Amish and Mennonites," says Knapp, “have always been good buggy customers for us. Their religion frowns on using automobiles, so they still use buggies. They're particular customers though," he adds. "Their buggies have to be very plain, no stripes on the wheels, and no fancy stuff. They usually order them without tops. When the young people get married they make their own buggy top."
The show horse world also provides a fraction of Knapp's buggy orders. And children who get new pony carts may never know it, but the carts usually come from Lawrenceburg.
Knapp is not a man to bear a grudge and consequently has no hard feelings about the fact that it was the automobile that pushed the hard-working, hard- riding and rattling road buggy up to the edge of oblivion. He admits that he would much rather ride an automobile than a buggy, but points out that a growing number are buggy riding for pleasure.
It was shortly after the First World War that the automobile business grew big and bustling at the expense of the time-tested buggy. That was the time, too, when buggy makers all across the country were deciding whether to switch to automobile manufacture or go down heroically with the buggy. William Knapp, Ed's father, thought about the new enterprise too, but young Ed talked him into staying in the buggy business. "Lots of buggy makers went broke trying to make cars,” he recalls. “The only one that made the switch successfully was Studebaker."
The buggies turned out at Standard are all custom-made vehicles. The purchaser can take his choice of more than half a hundred models of buggies, carts, and wagons. Knapp keeps no stock models for immediate shipment. He waits until he has an order for a buggy, then puts it into production. About ten days later the buggy is ready for shipment.
During those ten days Knapp's six buggy makers have fashioned various parts of the vehicle from wood, leather, and steel. Each of them has worked on several parts of the buggy because, as Knapp says, "There isn't work enough to keep them all busy at the same jobs all the time."
The various departments are scattered over the three floors of the factory, with one or two workmen to the floor. There are stockpiles of raw materials all over the place. The floors themselves are parallel to nothing in particular, not even each other, but Knapp declares that the building is still serviceable.
One of the oldest and most popular models in Standard's line of vehicles is the Blue Grass Special, a one-seated runabout that was common on the country roads a half-century ago. Standard sells this model for $156. Knapp points out that buggy prices have not gone up in proportion to prices of other commodities. You can still buy a good buggy for slightly more than it cost a decade ago.
The hickory-spoked wheels for the Blue Grass Special are made in a wheel factory in the Pennsylvania Dutch section. The wheels are shipped to Lawrenceburg without tires and steel tires are attached to them by Elza West, the blacksmith who joined Standard the day it started operations in Lawrenceburg. The wheels are then painted to please the buyer.
The bed for the buggy is made of oak by Louis Hunter, who has been making buggies for over half a century. His is an old craft and he does his work as carefully and thoroughly today as he ever did. The buggy body, fifty-six inches long and twenty-three inches wide, is designed and built to stay together over several thousand miles of rough country road.
On either end of the body is a spring to hold the buggy above the chassis and help absorb the bounce. At the front end of the buggy is the dashboard to keep the horse in the shafts from throwing mud into the face of the driver. The driver sits on an upholstered seat wide enough for two and no softer than a buggy seat ever was. The iron work that holds the top is handmade in the blacksmith shop on the first floor of the factory. The top itself is made of leather and rubber and there is a flap that hangs down to the back of the seat behind the passengers. Then for an extra price the buggy purchaser can order side curtains to keep out the cold wind and the rain or snow. He can also get oil lamps to equip the rig for night riding. Knapp thinks all this is a bargain at $156 and he is probably right-if you happen to need a buggy.
There is no show room at the Standard Vehicle Company. Most of the orders come in by mail. Knapp makes no special effort to show potential customers how his buggies look behind a horse, and the chances are good that he would have trouble finding a horse if asked to do so. This may be due to the fact that he doesn't like horses. "No more than I care for working horses or riding in a buggy. I sometimes wonder how got into the business I'm in. Horses scare me."
In addition to building buggies, Knapp does a small business in repairing them. He recently rebuilt a stagecoach that once belonged to the old Wells Fargo line. The coach is owned by a rancher in New Mexico and the rancher hauled it to Lawrenceburg on a truck. He ordered new upholstering, and repairs in the wood and iron work on the body. When it was finished he came back to Standard and loaded his stagecoach onto his truck for the trip back to the Southwest. He still uses it to haul visitors around his ranch. The citizens of Lawrenceburg, who see nothing unusual in loading yesterday's buggies on today's freight cars, were well represented, however, when the stagecoach was pushed out of the factory and loaded on the truck.
Knapp will make a pony cart or buggy as fancy or as plain as the customer wants it. He still builds basket carts for ponies and fancy surreys for show horses. He says that he has never made dog or goat carts because he considers these somewhat out of his line. Neither does he make racing sulkies.
Knapp thinks his toughest days in the buggy busi- ness are past. He doesn't see how there could be tougher days than those he knew during the thirties. "Father," he recalls, "was a man who thought every- one was honest. He thought everyone was as honest as he was. When the depression came after the First World War, dozens of his debtors lost their money and eventually left him with a debt of $262,000. In- stead of going into bankruptcy he stayed in the struggle. Year by year we paid the debt off, but progress on it was mighty slow."
It was so slow that William Knapp died an old man a couple of years before the last of his debts were paid. He died after a hard day's work at the factory, where he spent most of his time in the blacksmith shop and not in the office. Then came the Second World War and even the buggy business prospered. Ed Knapp paid off the last of the debt after almost twenty years of nibbling.
Even though Knapp still makes a good living, the gross income of the factory is down now. "People are not buying buggies like they should," he says. "But times will get better. Why, we had an order from Iowa this week for a new buggy, the first order we've had from Iowa in years. Now, if that happened to you wouldn't you think you still had a chance?"
Knapp has one regret that clouds his life. "As I get older," he says, "I keep thinking that it's too bad I never had a son, somebody to carry on this buggy business after I'm gone. If this factory closes I don't know where people can go to buy their buggies."
I grew up right across the street from a livery stable and I remember it with nostalgia and affection. My parents' hotel, the Union, faced Mr. Oscar Hudgins' livery stable on Main Street. Each building had a long passageway running from front to rear, and we and our guests were acutely conscious of the establishment across the street. Once Mr. Oscar Hudgins was sitting on our big front porch when a citybred cousin of mine remarked that she didn't imagine our traveling men enjoyed the smell of horses very much. Mr. Hudgins replied, without rancor, that perhaps horses didn't like the smell of traveling men.
A livery stable, for the benefit of those who never heard of one, was an establishment which catered to horses. It boarded them, doctored them, and bred them, whenever any of these services were required. It also furnished “rigs”—a horse and buggy or perhaps a team-for anyone who wished to ride, rather than walk, about the town or countryside. This arrangement was about the same as the "U-Drive-It” system for automobiles nowadays. It was a popular service for traveling men who came into town on the railway train and wanted to call on customers in crossroad communities. Young swains who couldn't afford a rig themselves rented them to take their best girls for a spin in the country. Father used to hire a "surrey" or carriage, with fringe on top and two shiny black leather seats, and take us all on a picnic or to call on relatives. He always brought his own buggy whip, a resplendent article of whalebone with gilt stripes and a mother-of-pearl handle. When he placed it in the whip socket it meant we were ready to start.
The Hudgins' livery stable was conveniently located for our traveling men and other transients. I don't know whether Mr. Hudgins erected his place of business across the street from our hotel or whether we erected our hotel across the street from the livery stable. This egg-or-chicken argument between Mr. Hudgins and my father was never settled, but each establishment was a perfect adjunct to the other.
As was so often the case with people in small towns in that beautiful age, Mr. Hudgins had several sidelines. Besides being the only veterinarian for miles around, he owned and drove the only hearse in town. He also had three de luxe equipages commonly known as hacks. These were low-hung carriages with doors and plate glass windows which could be raised or lowered. The driver rode on an elevated seat behind the horses. They were used mostly for funerals and weddings.
The hearse, however, was the show piece of the stable. It was a marvelous equipage indeed. Mr. Hudgins "ordered off" and had it made in St. Louis. It had a high seat in front, from which Mr. Hudgins managed the pair of white Percherons, Dot and Dolly, which might easily have been circus horses of the type which Mr. Poodles Hanneford and his illustrious family have made famous. The hearse actually looked more like a circus wagon than a bearer of the dead. When Mr. Hudgins drove it, he wore a top hat which he had bought from a vaudeville supply house. He was a big, red-faced man with a goodly growth of mustache under his big, red nose. Sitting in a commanding position on the hearse, which was painted a bright gray, he made a funeral procession something of a parade. To add to the illusion, there were golden tassels inside the hearse, and carved cherubs at each corner. For funerals Mr. Hudgins bedecked the Percherons with harness which he had made especially for him. This special set of harness was decorated with brass "spots," red-white-and-blue rosettes, and tall rust-colored pompons between the horses' ears.
Since my father, in addition to his duties as host at the Union Hotel, was the local undertaker, the location of the livery stable across the street was very convenient. Father owned no funeral vehicles and that end of burials was given over to Mr. Hudgins for a slight commission. He was often called to other communities and made quite a nice thing out of his gay hearse and his hacks.
Lonzo Brizzalara, a local boy who joined the circus and worked his way up to general manager of the biggest show on the road, tried to hire Mr. Hudgins to be his horse-boss but Mr. Hudgins said he wouldn't work for anybody but himself. He enjoyed the sense of power and importance which his seat on the hearse gave him and he always carried himself with becoming dignity. He preserved this dignity even under trying circumstances. Once, one of Mr. Hudgins' hens made a nest on the cushions of the driver's seat, and having failed to hatch her brood by the time the next funeral came up, rode all the way to the church, to the cemetery, and back to town beside Mr. Hudgins. Not an egg was broken.
When a new traveling man alighted from the train at the S. W. & W. station on the outskirts of town, he had no trouble locating Mr. Hudgin's place of business. It had its own aroma, as unmistakable an identification as the painted sign over the doorway, and far more effective at a distance. It was a blend of manure, harness oil, old and new leather, Sloan's Liniment, and hay in all stages of ripeness; occasionally there was an overtone of wagon paint and pine shavings, which were sometimes used for bedding instead of straw.
On summer evenings when Mr. Hudgins sat out in front in a chair brought from the office, the unforgettable odor of his amazing pipe dominated all other smells. This pipe was well known in the neighborhood, and feared and respected. Once when my little sister had an earache, mother called over Mr. Hudgins who blew smoke into her ailing ear. This produced an immediate cure, and the patient started sucking her thumb and soon fell asleep.
Besides the regular help, there was always a number of loafers hanging around the stable. It was a favorite haunt of small boys, but was forbidden ground for most of them. Mothers warned their sons to give its doors a wide berth and it was generally believed that a livery stable was second only to the poolroom as a sink of iniquity. Traveling men usually gave their stories a rehearsal there before starting out on their routes and it was from the livery stable that they spread all over town by the usual grapevine. Sports and fast young men liked its informal atmosphere.
A room in front of the building was partitioned off as an office. It was furnished with a littered desk, a potbellied stove, a cuspidor, and a half-dozen wooden chairs. During the slack season in winter, the hostler slept in one of the chairs during the day. Tramps usually made the livery stable their first port of call when looking for a free bed. If they could convince Mr. Hudgins that they wouldn't smoke or make off with one of the horses, they were allowed to sleep in the haymow or on the bales in an empty stall. Some of the more respectable gentlemen of the town, it was said, bedded down there when they knew it was dangerous to go home. Mr. Hudgins had two old army blankets which he gave to his more prominent guests.
One of the important functions of a livery stable was to serve as a headquarters for horse breeding in the community. In this, Mr. Hudgins took an active interest. He rented box stalls to owners of stallions, who "stood" their animals there during the breeding season. He himself owned two jacks. Jacks are curious beasts, given to whims and vagaries. Experienced jack keepers can spend hours telling of their idiosyncrasies. For example, one will develop a dislike for running water and will neither drink it nor cross it. Another will refuse to have anything to do with still water. Some develop claustrophobia and won't enter a stall that has no windows. Unlike his highly bred cousin, the race horse, a jackass cares nothing for mascots, like bantam roosters, goats, or Shetland ponies. He lives alone and he seems to like it.
Jackasses bray when the notion strikes them. They all have this in common. Now, Mr. Hudgins' barn was made of tin, or sheet iron. There is no sound which is quite as startling as that of a jack braying in a tin barn. This is especially true when the barn is strongly built, and on a good foundation. A good barn gives good resonance, like a good horn. If the barn is full of cracks it will leak compression and won't carry the sound very far. There is danger, too, of the jack blowing his own house down.
Mr. Hudgins' two jacks were known as Little Windy and Prince Albert. The latter was named after a highly respected smoking tobacco. Little Windy came by his name because he was believed to be the windiest jackass in the state. Prince Albert was a tall, baggy-kneed Black Mammoth jack; he had a barrel chest, and was an uncommonly stout brayer. But Little Windy, a gray animal of Spanish descent and not nearly as large, had it all over Prince Albert.
Besides unbelievable volume, he had an engaging huskiness in his bray which gave it quality as well as power. When he brayed, he shut his eyes, dug his feet into the earth so he would not be carried away with his own wind, stretched out his neck and put every ounce of his body behind his effort. Besides their sporadic brayings, which occurred whenever they felt like it, Prince Albert and Little Windy were on a pretty rigid schedule. They were self-appointed town clocks, and kept the town strictly on its toes. My home town had several business establishments beside the Union Hotel and the livery stable. There were besides the stores, two lumber mills, three grain mills, and an ice plant. It was customary for the planing mill to blow its whistle at five in the morning to let the mill hands know they had an hour to get up, eat their fatback and eggs, and get on the job by six. There was also a noon whistle and one at six in the evening. The planer, being the senior business, would start its whistle first. Then the heading mill, the ice plant, and the three grain mills would follow suit— respectfully of course. When all the whistles were blowing it made a "right rousin' racket," as Mrs. Hudgins used to say.
Aside from these scheduled tootlings, it was the custom for the ice plant to serve as a fire alarm. The ice plant had to keep a man on duty all night, and when a fire alarm was phoned into the girl in the telephone office, she would call the ice plant. The fire signal was a series of long, low blasts, a mournful and ominous sound that never failed to rouse the bucket brigade as well as everyone else in town.
There was also the curfew, which the ice plant sounded at nine every night. It meant that all minors, unless with their elders, had to start for home forthwith, or be accosted by Rainey Sleight, the town marshal.
Each and every time a whistle blew, Prince Albert and Little Windy would join in with wild and complete abandon. What with six steam whistles and two jackasses going full tilt, my home town really announced itself on these special occasions.
It is well known that animals have a more precise feeling for time than humans have, and this was demonstrated when the new night man at the ice plant forgot to blow the five o'clock whistle in the morning. His embarrassment was tremendous when he heard the two jacks, nearly a mile away, start reminding him in brassy notes that he had forgotten his duties.
Prince Albert and Little Windy have long since been hauled off to some forgotten glue factory, leaving behind them a multitude of hard-working offspring.
After their demise Mr. Hudgins decided that mule breeding was falling off so much that he wouldn't replace them. A few years later his livery stable followed the jacks into oblivion. He sold it to a young fellow who wanted to start a repair shop for a new contraption called an automobile.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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
Our pony pasture is quick and simple to sew. Whether you are sewing it by hand or by machine it takes very little time and just a wee bit of creativity to patchwork a pasture for any child's barnyard toy! The fabrics I pulled from my scrap stash included one green solid, one green plaid, one green floral print ( including daisies of course), one green marbled pattern, one brown (muddy) batik, one white to straw batik and a distinct, vibrant blue batik fabric cut for ponds and streams.
The quilted pasture mat measures 45 inches by 52 inches. However, you can sew one like it in any size you wish!
Left, the horses have been let out of their stalls to roam and eat however, wherever they please; which one of the ponies will eat the daisies first? Right, this Melissa and Doug horse stable is built to last for several generations of child's play. It's a Take-Along with handle and sturdy brass latch.
This stable toy has been produced for many years. It may be purchased new or from second-hand dealers. I paid only three dollars for this used one. The horses were collected for many years by my youngest daughter.
Left, there are windows on every side of this stable toy. Right, the ponies are drinking from an applique stream bed!
The following clip art is of four paintings by Martin Stainforth. The prints are for student personal use only. If your doll loves horses, you may print and frame these samples below to hang in your dollhouse for fun...
Cowpoke clothespin dolls dressed in tan felts, trimmed with fringe.
These two cowpoke clothespin people are a bit more complicated than most... Because each doll is given a sculpted face, they take on even more unique appearances than most! Each doll has also clothing that is fashioned to cover the entire clothespin; only socks and boots are painted directly onto the clothespin. I would consider this clothespin craft better attempted by students in fifth grade and up.
These clothespin dolls have face masks.
Supply List:
wooden clothespins
tan, brown felt squares (one each)
acrylic paints: yellow, flesh, black, tan, red, white and blue
cotton balls 2 or three
red yarn for lady's hair
tan colored twine or brown bag 'twine'
chenille stems (two)
needle and thread
brown embroidery floss
hot glue gun and hot glue
oven-bake clay
face molds (optional)
wooden stands
feathers for hats
braid or ribbons for hats
decorative scrap paper for decoupaged cowpoke shirts (optional)
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Mold or sculpt your cowpoke's face using oven-bake clay. Then glue this directly onto the head of a wooden clothes pin used hot glue.
Paint 'boots' and socks onto the wooden pins at the tips of each clothespin.
Cover the chenille stem using white school glue and shredded cotton ball. Let this harden.
Twist the chenille stem arms about the neck of the clothespin and glue it into place.
Paint the armature or decoupage it with printed papers. Which ever you prefer.
Tie a kerchief around the neck of each cowpoke.
For the lady cowgirl, cut a half circle from both the tan and brown felt to twist about her waist. I used two pieces of felt for her skirt for extra thickness and to also 'show off' the fringes cut along the edge of her skirt with two colors. However, this is not necessary. You could just use one layer of felt if you prefer.
I wrapped this half circle up and around, ending at the waist to further emphasize a particular fashion. Hot glue this in place beneath the wrap to hide the glue.
Paint the hands a flesh color.
Bend the tips of her chenille stem arms into tiny 'hands' and hot glue the 'rope' twine in place.
I braided red yarn and hot glued it into place on either side of her head for a bun-like hairdo.
Then I shaped a cowboy hat using the lighter tan felt to glue permanently on top of her head.
The male cowpoke's legs are wrapped to look as though he wears chaps with a fringe extended down the back length of each leg. This was done by cutting rectangle shapes from felt and gluing them directly onto the clothespin legs.
His shirt front and back are decoupaged red and white checkered papers.
His arms were made in exactly the same way as his female companion.
He wears a vest fashioned with a darker tan felt. This began as a rectangle shape and a hold cut out of the center. Then cut down the front side only to open up the vest on one side. Glue the vest in place using hot glue and shape the collar by folding it down and off to each side of his chest.
His cowboy hat and additional details were then glued permanently on to prevent the loss of them during play.
Lady clothespin dressed in Western cowgirl fashion.
A gentleman cowboy wears a feather in his hat and chaps on his wooden legs.
Material: See general requirements. In addition, a skein of yarn in contrasting color is needed for mane and tail.
Directions for Cutting:
Body -2
Front Legs -4
Hind legs - 4
Front feet - 2
Hind feet - 2
Ears - 4
Band-1 strip, 1 1/2" x 28"
Special Directions:
Embroider the nose as indicated on the pattern
Make a tongue of red fabric or felt and sew on the center band just below the nose.
Make the mane after the horse is stuffed. The mane should extend from the top of the head to about l" above the back. With a soft pencil, draw a line between these two points on the length of the band in the center. Cut a piece of cardboard 3/4 " wide curved to hi this center line (in order to get the shape, use the head as a drawing guide). Hold the piece of cardboard on the center line drawn on band and cover the length of the cardboard with yarn sewed over the card through the fabric. Clip the yarn at the top with a sharp scissors and remove the cardboard. Thread a needle with yarn and make a row of large running stitches back and forth through the yarn at the base of the mane.
For the tail cut a piece of cardboard 3" long and wind yarn around it about 25 times. Tie a double strand of yarn under loops at one end, Knot securely several limes and clip close.
Remove yarn from cardboard and wind a strand of yarn several times around the tassel 1/4" down from tied end and fasten by threading end in a needle and taking a few over-and-over stitches. Cut loops at opposite end. Sew tail to animal where indicated.
