Many of us can remember back to a time in our life when we had a stick horse laying around. They are classic toys and classic for a reason! To this day, stick horses are great toy to spark a child's imagination! 
1. Supplies: fabric, stuffing, yarn, long wooden dowels, styrofoam balls, felt. 2. Carve out a portion of the styrofoam ball and glue the stick into the ball. 3. Cut out your horse head from your fabric. Cut yarn (about 30 inches) and double over. 4. Sew around the perimeter of the horse head, adding the yarn in as you go. Make sure to leave the bottom or "neck" open. This is where you will add your stuffing. 5. Turn the horse head inside out and begin stuffing. 6. Once you have the horse head mostly stuffed, insert the ball into the neck and finish stuffing around the ball. Hand-stitch the opening closed. 7. Cut out the horse's ears and stitch around the perimeter. Turn right-side out and hand-stitch in place. 8. Add details such as a bridle and eyes. For these horses, I cut eyelashes from black felt and used fabric glue to glue them into place. I used the sewing machine to sew strips of scrap leather together to create the bridle and reins. 
I've been making these horses for all the nieces and nephews! I'm hoping these will be fun toys they will cherish for years to come. xo. Katie
DIY Stick Horses
Updated: 5/16/22
This post may contain affiliate links.
hi there !
wow !
is there a templete for the hourse head and eyes?
thanks!
hi i would love to get this pattern but i cant find the download link/button
Aislinn, We don’t have a pattern. Just try to copy the shapes in the photos that Katie created. It’s really an easy project! 🙂 XO! Elsie
Hi, do you have a pattern for the these you can share. I am not very good at this so a pattern would be helpful.
These are so cute! I want one 😉
X
http://kendra-genevieve-rose.blogspot.com
My brothers and I also had these as kids. Such fun!
How practical to use a Styrofoam ball to give it some substance. I love the “girl” horse with the hair bow. And then to read about Jessica Marie’s childhood horse (comment above) with a mane of periwinkle blue yarn and pearl-studded ribbon. I know some little girls who would love a girly horse.
And I love the idea of making these out of old shirts.
Wonder if I have time to make some of these hobby horses in time for Christmas.
Jan
Posts like this make me so excited to have kids, so I can make fun and unique things for them to grow up with. Thank you for sharing them!
Gorgeous! I love their lashes 🙂 pretty pretty pretty
cutest things i have ever seen.
Awwww so cute! If I had kids and time to make these, I so would 🙂
I love these, and plan to make these for my horse mad 5 yr old twins! However, it’s really important to put something on the bottom (like an old pram wheel or a rubber door stopper) so you don’t have a raw end of dowel wrecking your floors or little feet!
So gorgeous and cute. I know my boys would love these!
You inspire and impress me every day, girls!
Ronnie xo
These are too freakin cute. I’d love to make these for my nieces and nephew someday!
These are soo lovely but I bought one for my daughter a couple of years ago thinking she would love it as a christmas surprise. She screamed and we had to hide it in the shed until we could give it to someone else. Beware…….
What a really great idea!!! I am definitely going to be trying this DIY! I think i may just sew a head onto a mop though and use the mop yarn as the hair.. to save a step or two. but these are really adorable.
Anna
http://Judeandbulow.blogspot.com
My daughter is going to DIE when I make this for her. She’s obsessed with Jessie from Toy Story and so this is perfect! Thank you SO much for posting!
These are adorable! I loved stick horses as a kid. Would you mind providing a patter for the head? That would be amazing! 🙂
I love it soo much! Very cute!
These are perfect: I have just ordered my balls! Making them for a friends two sweet boys. Also – you guys have like the best jobs in the world!
OHHH Those are LOVELY. My MIL made ones made entirely out of paper and recycled cardboard and the kids (5 & 2) play with them all the time 🙂 Something about horses and hopping around.