25/03/2026
One of my favourites, and the biggest I've worked on so far. (He's been ridden by grown men!)
Mandrake went to a new home but unfortunately his buyer found he didn't quite have all of the look she had been picturing. Mandrake's lower loping stance and arched over neck just couldn't be altered to give it that particular look and Mandrake came home. I have since given him royal blue velvet saddle cloths to my liking, had planned to give him deep antiquing and change his hair but the black had grown on me so it's staying.
It took a temporary "studio" in the garage set up with carpet and curtains to get photos as he was simply too big to get far away from to take a picture of in our house! (Including a photo from our long but cluttered living room)
Photos include one with little Trinket, the smallest rocking horse I've worked on (there's a cart horse that's smaller), a tiny little 27" Ayres.
He stands 53" tall but with a 33" body is as big as they come, if he'd been more upright he might have been 58" or more. His early 1990s restoration by APES was failing so he got a fresh new restoration.
My hydraulic hoist had worn out and I made do with a little stool to sit on for low bits and stand on for high bits, and stood the rest of the time.
Mandrake is a "special" extra carved Lines, an early one, with tongue, extra detail on legs, rump, wither and stifles. This has become my all-time favourite model, and is now the fourth of these horses I've worked on, which is a very lovely privilege. One day perhaps I will have one that's fully complete - one of them had original paint but nothing else, Mandrake's paint was long gone but he still had loads of original brass rosettes, bit, thistle badges and a patent stamp.
