Sweden’s Wooden Horses

A small wooden horse with no tail figures prominently in my childhood memories. The horse is red. Its harness is brightly painted in colours that I had never seen on real horses around my community. Then again I had never seen a real horse this shade of red either. My parents tell me that the horse is from Sweden.

Fast forward many, many years (well maybe not that many years. After all I still am a young ‘un!) We are in Sweden and are about to visit the original home of my small wooden horse with no tail…and I am excited!

We have made our way into central Sweden to the county/province (not sure what it is called in Sweden) of Dalarna. The paved, well signed highways and local scenery have made the journey a  pleasant one. And now we are here in Mora.

There are statues of King Gustav Vasa. I must tell you about him in a different blog. His is quite a story.

Bit warm today for skiing isn’t it? But there is a cross country skier (okay, a statue of a cross country skier) in front of that very modern looking museum. Vasaloppet. Hmm, that sort of rings a bell. Must go inside and check it out.

And look. There’s a little museum celebrating the life and work of Anders Zorn. I recognize that name. He is quite a famous painter..Swedish, 1800s. Did not know this is where he was from. We must go inside that museum, but later because right now I am most interested in finding the home of my little red wooden horse.

Asking around we discover it is called a Dala (pronounced daw’la) horse. In Swedish it is Dalahast, so “hast” must mean horse in Swedish!

We also learn that the workshop that produces the Dala horse is in Nusnas, a village just outside of Mora. So let’s go.

Oh, there are signs for two workshops…Nils Olsson’s and Grannas Olsson’s. They are practically  next door to each other so let’s park here and then we have easy access to both.

My little wooden Sweden horse began its life as a pine tree! The tree was selected specially for its size and quality in the forests that are abundant around here. When the tree was just the right size it was cut down and sawed into blocks of wood (called blanks). There are bins of blanks here!

Next we see how a sketch drawn on the blank is used to guide a saw which cuts out the rough shape of a horse. And there is a whole bin of roughly shaped horses. Doesn’t look much like my horse yet.

Next step is the carver. Horses are carved individually…not mass produced. I watch and listen with keen interest as this artisan carves away and talks with visitors telling them about the process and answering questions.

Here is the vat filled with primer paint that the carved horses are dipped into. And look at the racks and racks of horses drying.

But wait…that’s not the same red as my Swedish wooden horse. Oh, right. This is the primer coat, not the finished coat. These horses are drying and then will be examined for any imperfections before they are sanded and dipped into a vat of traditional red. It was interesting to learn what makes the red so unique. Its because of the source…copper mines found near here.

More racks and racks of drying red horse. This time they are the “right” red.

Final step. Painting the design. This woman is a fast painter and a good painter. She just turns the horse from side to side and the beautiful unique colours on the face and bridle of my Swedish wooden horse appear.

So that is how my childhood Swedish horse came to life.

Let’s head into the store.

Whats with all these different colours. Lots like my red horse, but there are also blue horses and white horses! Well I guess that is progress. This replica of a traditional unpainted Dala horse is intriguing. Let’s buy it and take it home to introduce to his ancestor…my small red Dala horse with no tail.

 

 

 

How to get to Mora and Nusna

• Fly to Stockholm
• There is an airport (MXX) near Mora, but if you are not severely pressed for time rent a car and drive NNW from Stockholm to Mora. It’s about 4 hours if you drive directly there but there is so much to see along the way allow considerably more time.

Travel more of Sweden with us…click here.

Travel the world with us…click here.

Happy travels!