Bay Restoration

This horse was found in the attic of the family home. It was built by the client's grandfather. She remembered riding it as a child and was interested in having it repaired and restored. When it was brought to me , it was missing both ears, part of it's back leg,  it's leg joints had delaminated and had been nailed back together and the swing stand was very damaged and needed to be rebuilt.

                                         When fixing the joints I found                                 I removed all the nails and flattened the joints .

                                        that they had been nailed back together                    Then I glued and doweled them together properly

New blocks of wood were added to the head.

Then I carved new ears.

After the wood repairs were done and the horse was repainted as a bay. I made new tack, recovered the saddle with new leather, added a new saddle blanket and new horsehair mane & tail.

The wood of the original swing stand was broken off and rotting in places. The client and I agreed that it should be rebuilt. I was able to use all of the original hardware from the stand.  The stand was slightly redesigned - to make it taller. I tried to keep the essence of the original. The hardware was painted gold and the stand was painted black.

Before                                                                                                                        After