DIY Pool Noodle Stick Horse Craft

Saddle up for the perfect craft for your little cowgirls and cowboys! We made a whole herd of pool noodle stick horse toys that kept the kids occupied for hours! Follow our step-by-step tutorial and make this extremely budget-friendly toy. These hobby horses make great party favors!

Today’s craft tutorial is a REALLY fun one! These pool noodle stick horses are so silly that they’re actually a bit cute, huh? I have to admit: they have grown on me. Do you know what else I love? They are actually VERY easy to make and incredibly budget-friendly as well.

You will find stick horses (also called hobbyhorses) at just about every price range. Some of the custom versions online are quite expensive! If you are looking for a much cheaper alternative, try this pool noodle version.

I bought our pool noodles at the dollar store. You can find them at many other big box stores throughout the summer months. They are also available online.

My kids LOVE using stick horses to jump homemade horseless horse jumps. These pool noodle horses work great for this activity!

Pool Noodle Stick Horse Supplies

Here’s what you will need to make these horses:

• Pool noodles (1 per horse)
• Twine or string
• Scissors
• Felt
• Googly eyes
• Yarn
• Tacky glue

How to Make a Pool Noodle Stick Horse

Follow these steps to make a horse! Repeat until you have made your desired amount. Have fun with different color combinations!

1. Take the top 1/4 of the pool noodle and fold it down as shown below. Use a piece of twine, ribbon or yarn to tie the top securely to the rest of the noodle

2. Draw two rounded-edge triangle shapes on a piece of felt. On a different felt color, draw two smaller rounded-edge triangle shapes. These are the ears and the inside of the ears.

3. Cut out the ears and glue a smaller triangle onto each of the larger triangles.

4. Glue the ears to the pool noodle. Add glue to the back of the bottom of each ear and hold onto the top sides of the pool noodle as shown below for a few seconds until they stick to the noodle on their own. Try not to bump the ears while they are drying.

5. Glue a googly eye to each side of the pool noodle “face.”

6. Trace 2 small circles on felt. I made these circles a little bit smaller than the googly eyes. These circles are the horse’s nostrils. Cut out the circles and glue one to each side of the horse head.

Making the yarn mane

I was not really looking forward to making the yarn manes for these horses because at first it looked rather difficult. I’m happy to report – it wasn’t that hard at all. I only added mane to the top of the horses’ heads… giving them some bangs, or forelock, if you will. You can add more yarn to the back of the horse’s head if you want – totally up to you!

1. Choose yarn color and loop the yarn around your hand 12-15 times in 9 inch strands.

2. Use a small piece of yarn to tie all of the loops on one end of the yarn bunch together. Cut the yarn loops on the other end.

3. Use scissors to cut a small slit into the pool noodle, between the two ears. Use the scissors to poke the yarn used to tie the strands together deep into the slit that you cut. If you want, you can add a squeeze of glue to the top of the slit, to seal it around the yarn a bit.

That’s it!

Let the glue on the horses dry for a couple of hours. After the glue has dried, these horses are ready to go for a ride!

I would love to hear from you if you decide to give this craft a try! Let us know how they turned out for you!

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