Walking Chestnut with carriage - Prancing horse & carriage (1994)

 I really wanted another dog to join my herd - unfortunately it didn't work. Then I concentrated on getting one of the older horses - I also failed. And at that time, there was an advertisement still  hanging on with a chestnut and her carriage. The price was attractive, but the carriage had a lot of shortcommings, and the chestnut filly had her mane cut off and shortened tail. I struggled with my thoughts and finally gave up

Chestnut with the carriage arrived to me at the beginning of June 2022, together with the original box, in which I also found instructions and leaflets - a real treasure. However, the carriage does not have a roof, drawbars, wheel plugs, two boxes with accessories, two supports for the roof, decorative butterflies, horse hair clips and reins. The saddle stirrups are torn off on both sides.

The box is so big that at the beginning I focused mainly on the mare. However, she will remain a mare, although I had a different idea at the beginning. I pulled her out of the box and left the rest in the garage.

There was no great tragedy, the tail wasn't so bad. But such a short mane did not suit me at all and when I was about to buy the set, I knew that it should be replaced. The horse is walking - its mechanism works perfectly, so I felt it would be an interesting adventure.

Her flowery saddle pad was very dirty, the saddle underneath was sticky. So I took everything off her and set it aside.

I decided to order her new hair from a professional faux hair store - one for people. I chose two colors and two types. One hair was henlon - it appealed to me more in structure and appearance, but I chose a light brown which was too sad and serious for her. Ultimately, I decided to use the fiery red kanekalon hair. I think it will give her some character.

At first I tried to disassemble her, but I gave up and decided to try to replace the hair in a different way. First, I had to got rid of the mane, although it was not easy at all, because it turned out that there is a large pin inside the neck, which ends near the ears - on which the neck rests and through which it moves while walking. The foil base into which the mane is sewn encircled this pin around. So, it was like a double base here - compared to stationary horses. In the end, the mane was pulled out.

As I took the mane out, I noticed that it was made of hair in two colors - it was golden orange on the outside and something like pink blonde inside.

The tail, of course, also consisted of two different hair colors.

First, I pulled the tail out with small strands. Then I pulled out the rubber band, which broke itself, and finally I cut another securing tie - after that the tail gave up completely easily.

I was so excited about this job that I forgot to take pictures of some of the stages.

The tail is also a switch - the chestnut has the same design as Queenie, or Sprint - I also tried to struggle with the tail with sensitivity so as not to damage something.

I prepared a new hair for chestnut - I measured out the necessary amount and fastened it with ties. The hair was quite stiff, coarse and due to its crimped structure - it was very frizzy. It didn't look natural at all -  so I decided to wash them first with a liquid for washing delicate fabrics. I rinsed them in hot water and then rinsed it under the cold. Finally, I soaked it in the fabric softener - standard procedure. I left it overnight in the bathroom to dry.

As this human artificial hair is quite long, I planned to cut the prepared strand in half - I planned one part for the tail and the other for the mane.

However, in the process it turned out that I overestimated the amount for the tail, I had to subtract a bit from that part, which made me have more hair for the mane. There was no problem with installing the tail - I threaded hair through the beam to which the original tail was attached. After threading it, I secured the tail by squeezing it with a tether tie, which I pressed inside the switch.

The tail came out impressive.

As always, the mane was more "fun". I figured out a way for it - fine strands, but not as fine as in Hennrietta's or Mustang case, where I laced hair on the base - I tied with thread and secured with hot glue.

Ready single strands of the main

All single strands for the mane

Once I had finished to knot all the prepared hair, I started to put them together and glue them together, also with a hot glue. I divided all the bands into 3 sections.

Ready sections for the mane

I glued the strands on both sides, so a flexible bar was created on each of them, that allows the strands to stay in the neck gap without additional fastening. It was also easy to mount the hair by simply tucking it into the slit.

Both the tail and the mane came out impressively! At the beginning, I had a plan to shorten hair to its original length, but when I saw the effect, I couldn't do it.

Her hair was sticking out above her neck, so I grabbed my old blow-dryer and with a brush-shaped tip, I pushed her hair down. During this treatment, I noticed that the hair was straightening. And I still haven't got a hair straightener. But my blow-dryer with a curling tip did the work. Finally, I combed the mane a few times with the brush-shaped tip and combed the tail in the same way. I just straightened the hair, I had no heart to cut it - she looks so beautiful!

You can watch on YouTube the video of the whole rehair process:

I brought home the carriage. It was taken apart. Fortunately, there was an instruction in the box. But before I put it together, some parts had to be washed thoroughly - there were traces of glue on them, just like on the saddle. That's why all the dirty parts that I could soak, along with the picnic blanket and saddle pad, ended up in the wash basin. When everything was dry, I dressed up my filly and assembled the carriage.

I believe that this purple goes perfectly with my chestnut redhead! I thought about interesting name for the filly for a while, eventually she was called Waverly Vivian. I associate Waverly with lush curls, maybe she doesn't have curls at the moment, but she has lush hair and maybe one day I will come up with an idea to get her curls. That name also stopped my urge to cut her hair. Vivian is the name of the character from Pretty Woman who wore a red wig. And my Wavy is pretty too.

Joey as a carriage horse

Okay, that's not a mistake in this photo above. Joey is great for pulling a carriage, though not as mobile as Waverly. When, after assembling this carriage and installing the drawbars from the Ski Fun set, I attached a chestnut to it - something did not suit me. This carriage is huge! She looked so poor in this harness, especially when I looked from above. If two such horses were harnessed to this mega-carriage, it would be ok, but not the one. And then I remembered another set with this carriage - Sweet Magnolia. It must have been a total failure, because in that set there was a horse in the Prancer mold (aka Arabic). I haven't used any of my prancer horses on this wagon, but I imagine it would look rather bad.

Sweet Magnolia Horse & Carriage - photo from eBay

So in the garden, I let the girls go wild with Joey. And then Selena brought a new redhead.

And we harnessed the chestnut to her wagon.

In the meantime, I came up with a quick hairstyle, consisting of two braids tied together.

I made reins from a cotton string dyed with a marker. The drawbars, as I have already mentioned - I borrowed from Ski Fun - and the damaged carriage was ready for a ride.

As for the redheads, Turquoise, Lord's companion, also appeared. He thought Jackie had some treats in that trunk.

Anyone talking about the ride? Turquoise is ready! Well, only the girls were supposed to drive, dogs were out of the question.

Ok, this is the photo cutscene behind us.

Now for comparison - the Ski Fun and Prancing carriage:

With the basket extended, it is almost twice the same as the Ski Fun carriage. 4 dolls can sit in this carriage. And in the original, there were two chests with equipment also!

From the original picnic equipment in my set, only a blanket is left.

The second box in my collection. It's a bit chewed on time, but I admire someone kept it anyway.

In the box, as already mentioned, I found leaflets and instructions. I have no idea how to digitize the mini catalog yet - it is in a non-standard format and of poor quality - after placing it on the scanner, you can't see much. The manual was scanned.

These were the treats out of the box. Finally, my pretty again. I must point out that the hair does not interfere with Wavy's walking, nor does it prevent her from pulling the carriage.

With her mold and model sister - Queenie (Sprint)