Clothespin Horse Craft {Printable Template}

This adorable clothespin horse craft is super cute and tons of fun! The horse even stands up on its own with clothespin legs. Choose the colors for your horse, and add some yarn for the mane and tail. So fun for a western unit or just a rainy day.

Just print the horse template and add a few basic craft supplies, and you’re ready to go.

As I’ve mentioned before, we live in Texas and my youngest son is a total cowboy. He is currently taking horseback riding lessons and dreams of owning his own ranch someday! His interest was the inspiration behind our Cowboy and Western Learning Pack. This craft goes perfectly with the activities in that pack.

Supplies Needed for the Clothespin Horse Craft:

• Printable template (see below)
• Card stock
• Colored pencils, crayons, or markers
• Googly eyes
• Yarn
• Clothespins
• Paint
• Hot glue
• Scissors

My 16 year old son drew the template for me! He can draw just about anything.

You’ll want to print the template on card stock for durability. Regular paper is just too floppy.

If you don’t have card stock, print it on copy paper and glue it to a piece of cardboard from a cereal box.

We colored our horses with colored pencils. Crayons or markers would also work well! Paint will make the paper curl, so just keep that in mind.

The template does not come with a face. We drew a mouth and nose and glued on googly eyes.

NOTE: You can decide if you want your horse to be two-sided or not! You can definitely decorate both sides, or if kids get tired coloring, they can just do one side.

I found that it was easiest to glue on the tail if I tied a knot in the strands of yarn first, like this.

After your horse is decorated, paint the clothespin legs. Or, you can paint the legs first and let them dry while you decorate the horse! We found it easier to match the paint color to the horse after it was colored, but it’s up to you.

Use a little black paint to make the hooves.

Once the clothespins are dry, just clip them on to your horse!

Make your horses real horse colors, or decorate them however you want!

Jonathan and I have learned so much about horse colors and breeds, although we are still figuring it all out. It’s complicated! We can recognize a bay, a palomino, a chestnut, a buckskin, etc when we see one. But some colors are distinct breeds while others are not. For example, a paint and a pinto both have large white markings. However, a paint horse is a breed that is based on bloodlines, while a pinto is a horse of any breed that has large white spots.

Ready to print your horse template? Click the link below. The file will open, and you can print from there.

CLICK HERE: Clothespin Horse Template

Then head to check out our Cowboys, Cowgirls, and Old West Printable Learning Pack!