14 DIY Wooden Rocking Horse Plans You Can Make Today

The wooden rocking horse is a fantastic project to build to sharpen your woodworking skills, and a successful project will result in a toy that your children can use. Some of the smaller horses make great heirlooms that you can pass on from generation to generation.

We have searched the internet for every free plan we could find that details on how to build your rocking horse from scratch. Keep reading while we list all of the projects we could find. We’ll also talk about how advanced the project is and some of the tools required for each.

These are the plans we were able to find for you, each teaching you how to build a wooden rocking horse. We separated them into easy, moderate, and advanced difficulty, but we did not sort them further.

1. Mother Earth News

The Mother Earth News Rocking Horse is a unique style rocking horse that is easy to build and uses a recycled leaf spring from an automobile junkyard. This rocking horse is for outdoor use and almost resembles a playground spring toy.

2. The Woodcrafter

The Woodcrafter Rocking Chair is a nice looking and easy to build rocker that you can have finished in a day or two. It requires some cutting, but there are no problematic angles, and you don’t need any advanced tools. The hair is simple to create using nylon rope.

3. Instructables

This Instructables Rocking Horse design is for dolls, but it’s very easy to scale up to any size. You only need nails and wood to complete this project, but it does require some skilled cutting to shape the horse, so we put it on the medium difficulty pile.

4. Mother Earth News Spring Rocker

The Mother Earth News Spring Rocker is the second rocker by Mother Earth News on this list. This one is a little more complex than the last, but it’s just as unconventional. This model resembles the old-style rockers that work on springs, and they are plenty of fun for a small child. This model looks complicated, but it’s not that hard. We put it on our medium difficulty pile.

5. Wooden Toy Plans Free Rocker

The Wooden Toy Plans Free Rocker is a medium difficulty rocker that’s not hard to build if you have some experience making cuts with the saw. The finished product is colorful, durable, and suitable for small children.

6. Family Table Furniture

The Family Table Furniture is an advanced rocking horse that isn’t too hard to build if you have experience woodworking and have the tools. The result is durable and can withstand the weight of even larger children.

7. Wooden Toy

The Wooden Toy Rocking Horse is a medium difficulty project that results in a smaller sized collectible rocker that will look nice on any shelf. This project requires a few intricate cuts but isn’t hard to build, and sanding is the most time-consuming part of the process.

8. HGTV

The HGTV Rocking Horse is easy to build but it does require a lot of angled cuts to get the shape right. For that reason, we placed it on the moderately challenging pile. This project results in an almost indestructible rocker.

9. Robin Lewis Makes

The Robin Lewis Makes Rocking Horse is a smaller sized rocking horse that we consider a medium difficulty build. The video demonstrates the build using some advanced tools like a table saw and router, but you can complete the work with ordinary hand tools if you have patience.

10. Wooden Toy Plans

The Wooden Toy Plans Rocking Chair is suitable for small children, and it also makes an attractive piece of furniture. This design uses quite a few power tools and some challenging cuts, so we placed this in with our advanced builds. The instructions are easy to follow and well explained.

11. Canadian Home Workshop

The Canadian Home Workshop Rocking Chair is a high quality that is a little more advanced to build, but the resulting rocker is one of the best on this list. This project uses some exciting techniques such as wood bending that really help this build stand out.

12. Lees Wood Projects

The Lees Wood Projects Rocking Chair is an advanced build that requires some intricate cutting and special tools. The result is an antique style rocker sure to turn some heads and show off your woodworking skills. This rocker is suitable for small children and is extremely durable.

13. Shopsmith Hands-On

The Shopsmith Hands-On rocking Horse is an advanced project that results in a taller style horse that even older children might use. The horse is also extremely durable and makes a beautiful looking piece of furniture.

Summary

We recommend looking through the list to find a project that suits your skill level and uses the tools you have available. The rocking chairs at the beginning of the list are easier than the projects at the end. We believe that you can find the perfect project for you. If you have enjoyed looking over this list and found something to get you started, please share these plans that teach you how to build a wooden rocking horse today on Facebook and Twitter.

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