A horse with no ears

Meet Chestnut

Chestnut and Katie Whompus meeting

Chestnut is a Fur-Real horse, picked up by my dad for free from one of his friends who was giving her away. She came into our home during Bug's first Christmas, back in 2011. Our dog was not too impressed with this new addition, and the cat hid under the bed for days.

At first, Bug was not too impressed with the horse. So Chestnut got tucked into the corner, because she retails around $300 and if my kid is anything like me, she will soon become infatuated with horses. I know, because I was. Except my "first horse" was made out of two wooden sawhorses connected with a 2 by 4, with a 5G plastic bucket as a saddle and a piece of plywood as a head! I loved that horse...

As she got older, Bug became more interested in Chestnut. She started really liking the horse, with one problem. As you can see, Chestnut has no ears. This was HUGE to Bug, who had just turned 2 years old, and she was incredibly upset that Chestnut was "hurt" "bwoken" and demanded that I made it better.

So...I did what I always do, and whip out my yarn and trusty crochet needle. This was my first bridle, and it wasn't that awesome. Basically, it was way too big, and gave nowhere for Chestnuts poor forelock (aka horsie bangs) to go! The reins were also far too long.

Naturally, that means I had to make a second one! (These pictures were actually taken the same day, we just swapped the shorts for pants when the shorts mysteriously became covered in water.

I was able to figure out how to get the ears to stand up nice and stiffly, as well as making an opening for the forelock to go through (which also serves to help balance out the ears). It's still a big long in the front, so I may go back and remove one of the purple granny squares to tighten that up a bit.

Once Bug figured out that she could make Chestnuts head move by pulling on the reins, she was hooked! Just wait until I actually turn the horse on and it starts making noises!



Direct shot of the head-piece. I'm going to take out one of the purple granny's between the hexagon and the noseband to tighten it up a bit.

Side shot of the headpiece. The nice thing about yarn is that is has just enough give that it keeps it nice and snug without needing any buckles, buttons, or ties.