An old and A New Friend

I am of the age where one cleans out STUFF. I have lots of STUFF. in one of my bins, I found my old horse riding breeches. I wore these in high school.

Nope - I am not wearing these again. Ever. Instead of throwing them out, I decided to make a horse as a memory of those youthful years. What I ended up doing is making two horses. One is a new friend, and one represents an old friend.

First the new friend. I started with a pattern I found online. It worked pretty good for a horse pattern - easy to follow.

The pattern is from a site called AllPony. They have some fun stuff for kids who like horses. I guess that is me.

Cutting out horse pieces...

Sewing and stuffing....

So, what happened with this first guy, my NEW friend, is that I messed up the legs. I had a photo from a magazine of a stuffed horse with sticks for legs, so that is what I did. I cut the legs off the poor thing, and used sticks.

After stuffing it was time for details. I wanted to use the buttons from the breeches, so this horse ended up with the buttons for eyes.

For this horse, his mane and tail are both from yarn that I have untwisted. It gives him a wild look, don't you think?

This horse has a fabric saddle, tied on with some craft twine. I made him a bridle from the twine too.

And here he is! That is one good looking pony!

Now for the old friend. I made another horse, being careful not to screw up the legs this time.

I wanted this guy to represent the horse of my youth, Rex. For the time I had him, Rex was my world. I loved that guy so much. So, I dug out a few photos, and tried to figure out how I might have a little mini Rex for ever and ever.

Photos of me riding Rex.

Rex needs redish wool sewn on in patches, because he was a paint horse.

And since his legs are not sticks, he needed some wool hooves.

Rex's tail and mane were two colors - red and white. I used some wool roving for this.

White wool roving is added to his face to give him that nice white blaze he had.

Instead of a button, Rex has a more dignified embroidered eye.

And there he is. My old friend, Rex, made out of my old riding pants. Now he can hang out with me all the time!

"One can get in a car and see what man has made. One must get on a horse to see what God has made." - unk