20 DIY Wooden Rocking Horse Plans You Can Make Today (With Pictures) | House Grail (2024)

• Ed Malaker
• Last updated: Feb 22 2024

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.

The 20 DIY Wooden Rocking Horse Plans

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 Rocking Horse Plan

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 rocker 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. 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.

13. Do It Yourself Divas Rocking Horse

The Do It Yourself Divas Rocking Horse project is difficult to build but results in an extremely attractive horse that will last many years. It has real leather straps and a comfortable seat. You can stain or paint it in many different colors, and you can use pine to help lighten it up.

14. Lowes Rockin’ Horse Project

The Lowes Rockin’ Horse project is a moderately difficult project that is a good choice for a first horse. The author explains each step clearly, so it’s easy to follow. The horse uses a Scandinavian design that helps it stand apart from other horses. It’s durable and scalable, so you can build it to fit your child comfortably.

15. Wally Trinc Wooden Rocking Horse

The Wally Trinc Wooden Rocking Horse project produces one of the most attractive and durable horses on this list, and while it’s considered an advanced project, if you have all the tools that you need, it isn’t difficult to build. The video instructions are easy to follow, as the author demonstrates how to build the horse from beginning to end.

16. The Wooden Horse

The Wooden Horse is the second project from Instructables on this list, and this one is a bit more advanced. But the author uses diagrams to help you cut your boards to shape and provides plenty of images that will help you know that you are doing the right thing. The finished product looks great and is perfect for small children.

17. Little Rocking Horse

The Little Rocking Horse plan is a fun project that will help you quickly create toy horses that look and work great. It only requires wood and bandsaw skills, though you might be able to make it with a jigsaw if that’s all you have. The video instructions are easy to follow, and the author doesn’t leave out any important steps.

18. Chris Makes a Rocking Horse

The author uses a cheap particleboard horse as a pattern for their Chris Makes a Rocking Horse project, resulting in a horse that is large enough for a small child and durable enough to last several years. It will look even better with good paint and stain, and you might even be able to sell it for a profit.

19. Make It Mondays Wooden Horse

The Make It Mondays Wooden Horse is a moderately difficult project that you can finish in a few hours if you have the tools and supplies. The instructions are limited, but you should be able to follow along well enough to complete the project. The result is a small horse that’s good for a young child, but once you’re more experienced, you can scale it up to make ones suitable for larger children.

20. Every Kids Rocking Horse

The Every Kids Rocking Horse project produces one of the more unusual-looking horses on this list, but it’s comfortable, lightweight, and durable. It’s considered advanced because you need a few electric tools, but you can likely complete it with hand tools if you have patience and experience as a woodworker.

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.

Featured Image Credit: Pxhere