Dapple

I thought I would share with you all these photos of our newly restored vintage rocking horse “Dapple”. He is very much at home here in our new house, having spent the last 20 years getting very damp in my mum and dads’ garden shed– a crime, I know!

He was mine as a child, my dad came home with him one day after coming across him in a local second-hand shop. I remember having lots of fun with him – I used to spend hours just plaiting his mane and tail. However as I grew up, it became “un-cool” to have a rocking horse in your bedroom, and he was replaced by a stars & moon sofa-bed for when friends came to stay! Poor old Dapple was relegated first to the garage, where he suffered some water damage and finally to a small outbuilding, covered with a blanket where he spent the last two decades being eaten by mice and getting very damp.

I’d often thought about finding him and seeing what condition he was in now, but like my parents, we had never had the room for him at any of our previous houses – until now! My parents therefore decided to finally resurrect him from the shed and restore him to his former glory as a Christmas present for Mia and Baby Boy.

It is fair to say that my mum and dad had a lovely time “doing him up”, they spent a lot of time - and money, his new mane and tail, being real horse hair,, the original hair being completely eaten away by mice. The result, I hope you’ll agree, has been worth it – he looks spectacular, and well at home in our Victorian house!
They were very proud to carry him together along our street on Christmas morning to be greeted at the front door by Mia – who had a surprise as she had NO idea!

Dapple is once again very much loved, and will stay in our family – he will certainly never be relegated to a garden shed ever again!