Wooden Rocking Horses for Toddlers

Rocking horses have always been popular as luxuriant toys and collectors pieces. They have always followed a traditional style with varying degrees of intricacy and detailing which often determines their price or collectable value. 

It is known that hobby horses existed in ancient Greece around 400BC. In the 1300's, wheeled horses were made for children to re-enact jousting tournaments and by the mid nineteenth century many wooden pull along toys like horses were made in England, Europe and America. 

The earliest known arrival of rocking horses for toddlers was half-moon shaped with boarded sides and log body between the two rockers and a very naive head. Kings Charles I is thought to have owned the oldest known example, C1610.  More ornateely carved and painted versions of the wooden rocking horses for toddlers started to appear over the next couple of centuries.

Bow rocker horses that are popular today were created during the eighteenth century in England. Bow rockers were said to help children of the wealthy to learn the basics of balancing when riding real horses.

Spotted rocking horses started to appear in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth centuries and they were usually white with black spots. The white/grey background with black dappling appeared later.

F.H Ayres made some of the most well know rocking horses and was based in London from the 1860's making other goods as well. Their rocking horses were sold through  outlets like Harrods and often bore the shop's name on the base of the stand.

Modern manufacturing technology allowed natural rocking horses and wooden pull along toys to be made . Without modern technology wood is far too time-consuming to shape and sculpt by hand. With the use of modern machinery it is far easier to rub down and shape intricate curves and surfaces enabling fine and beautifully polished surfaces.