How to make a stick horse

To prepare for party favors for my oldest daughter’s Cow Girl birthday party, I made a stick horse. 

Here were my materials:

 

I used:

* Dowel rod (I used just under an 1 inch dowel rod, so it wouldn’t be flimsy.  You could also saw the handle off a broom.  I don’t have a saw or the motivation to hack away at a broom stick with a knife.  So I went with a dowel rod.)

* Sock (I chose white, because I’m boring that way.  Plus you can draw on white.)

* Polyfill or stuffing

*Red Twine (regular twine could work)

* Red ribbon (for the bridle and reins)

* Googley eyes

* Buttons (for decorations)

* Glue (I will use a glue gun instead of a bottle of glue at the party because HELLO it took forever to dry, even though it is called Quick Dry Glue.  If you’ve got time on your hands, though, this is a cheaper way to go)

* Yarn for hair

* Scissors (To cut stuff, you know.)

 

Ok, so step one:  Stuffing sock with polyfill.  Stuff head, er- foot of the sock, then insert dowel rod and continue stuffing around rod.  Be careful of dowel rod busting through the heel of the sock.  I stuffed to around mid-calf of the sock.  Then I secured the sock to the dowel rod with my red twine.

Step two: Adding eyes and bridle.  I did eyes first.  Because I wanted to place the bridle around the eyes so I needed those placed first.  I cut ribbon and placed it around nose and glued both to sock and the ends of the ribbon.  I cut another length of ribbon and placed above the eyes, what would be the forehead of the horse for top of the bridle.  Once again, glue ribbon to sock and then ends of ribbon.  Now wait an eon for it to dry if you used regular glue like me.  If you’re using a glue gun, you’re super smart but might have burned your fingers.  I’m having sympathy pains for you.

Step three: adding ribbon to make the reins.  Measure enough ribbon to have a set of reins.  Both ends of the ribbon should be glued starting at the nose section of the bridle and to the forehead section of the bridle. I also added some buttons to kind of hide all my glue and cut ends. 

Step four: the hair and mane of horse.  I just looped some yarn around my hands, cut both ends of the loops.  I zig zagged some glue lines along the top and heel of the sock and added the hair.  I also glued some of the hair to come down on the forehead just a bit. 

Aaaannd here’s the finished product.

My daughter plans on adding eyelashes, nostrils and a mouth with markers. 

Happy trails.