DIY Clay Horse Flower Pot Tutorial

• Hand drill with 5/16 masonry bit (to drill holes into pots)
• Diamond hole saw drill bit (25mm) (to drill tail hole into pot)
• Hack saw or metal chop saw (to cut thread rod)
• Wrench or Ratchet (size 5/16) to tighten nuts onto thread rod
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun with extra strength gorilla hot glue (for gluing on the mane & rubber washers)

Supplies:

• 5/16in thread rod (you’ll need 8ft)
• Large fender washers with an inner diameter of 5/16 and outer diameter of 1 1/2in (you’ll need 13)
• Small flat washer with inner diameter of 5/16 (you’ll need 1)
• 1/2in inner diameter rubber grommets (you’ll need 4)
• Sixteen small clay pots with 4in wide top & 4in tall (Legs)
• Two large clay pots with 10in wide top & 8 1/2in tall (Body)
• Two clay pots with 8 1/4in wide top & 6in tall (Head and Neck)
• One clay pot with 8 1/2in wide top & 7 3/4in tall (Nose)
• Garden sisal rope natural light (for the mane and tail) I used about 70ft so I bought the 100ft roll (you can also use yarn, or a mop head dyed to the color you want)
• Garden sisal rope dark (for the halter)
• Two wooden spoons (for the ears)
• Outdoor spray paint (this is the base color-it’s easiest to spray all of the pots before assembling) Remember to also paint those spoons for the ears!
• Paint and paint brush (for the hooves and markings) I used some old outdoor paint that lasts forever in the elements)
• Sand or small sand bags (when I added soil to the head, my horse became ‘front heavy’…adding sand or sand bags inside the back legs fixed this problem)

Assemble supplies into groups as shown:

1. Sixteen small pots with 4in wide top & 4in tall (Legs)
2. Eight large washers, eight 5/16 nuts, & four 5/16 thread rods at 10 1/2in long   (Connects Legs together)
3. Two large pots with 10in wide top & 8 1/2in tall (Body)
4. Two rubber washers, two 5/16 nuts, two large washers, one 5/16 thread rod at 17 1/4in long (Connects body together)
5. Four rubber washers, four rubber grommets, four 5/16 nuts and two 5/16 thread rods at 9in long (Connects legs to body)
6. Two pots with 8 1/4in wide top & 6in tall (Head and Neck)
7. Two large washers, two rubber washers, two nuts, one 5/16 thread rod at 7in long (Connects Head, Neck, and Body together)
8. One pot with 8 1/2in wide top & 7 3/4in tall (Nose)
9. One large washer, one smaller washer, two rubber washers, two 5/16 nuts, one 5/16 thread rod at 7in long (Connects nose to head)

You’ll be drilling some holes into a few pots so make sure to soak the following pots overnight in water before getting started:

• Four #1 pots (legs)
• Two #3 pots (body)
• One #6 pot (head)

If pots don’t already have a drain hole in the bottom, you’ll need to drill one (the hole must be at least 5/16in or larger for the thread rod to fit through)

Putting it all together…

Gather your #2 supplies and assemble the thread rod, nuts and washers together as so…

Gather a #1 leg pot that has already been soaking in water and slide a thread rod through the top

Stack it on top of 3 more dry (not soaked) #1 leg pots

Slide the thread rod through all the pots and screw another nut and washer at the bottom, then tighten together.  Make sure it’s snug but not too tight, or the pots will crack (Luckily, this only happened to me once)

With the 5/16 masonry bit, drill a hole in the side-top (already soaked) pot.  When drilling, just go slow and don’t push too hard.  Drilling holes in clay pots is actually really easy, I was a little hesitant at first, but soon got the hang of it

Make four of them…these are your legs!

Now grab both of the #3 body pots and drill two holes in both the pots with the 5/16 masonry bit (these holes will connect the legs to the body)

Take one of the #3 body pots and drill a third hole in the center of the other holes (this hole will connect the neck to the body)

Now attach the #5 supplies to the #3 body pots as shown

Now grab the other #3 body pot

Find the center between the two side holes, and drill a larger hole at the side-bottom of the pot with the 25mm diamond hole saw bit (This will be where the tail comes out) With the hole saw bits, I start out at a 45 degree angle until a groove has formed, then you can turn it straight into the pot

Gather your #9 supplies, cut the rubber washer in half and hot glue it to one side of the outer part of the large washer (I did this as I needed larger rubber washers, but they cost more…doing this fixed the problem)

Assemble the large washer with the bolt and thread rod as shown

Slide the thread rod into the bottom hole of the #8 nose pot, making sure the rubber washer comes into contact with the pot

It should look like this from the inside

Gather a #6 head pot and drill a hole in the side top with your 5/16 drill bit

Attach the #6 head pot to the #8 nose pot as shown

Secure together with the remaining #9 supplies

It all should look like this

Gather your #7 supplies, making sure to cut the rubber washers in half and glue them to the large washers.  Assemble as shown

Slide the thread rod through the bottom hole of the #6 head pot

Attach the other #6 neck pot to the #6 head pot as shown

Secure together with the other large washer and nut from your #7 supplies

Gather the #3 body pot that has the smaller hole, and attach it to the #6 neck pot

Secure together with the remaining #7 supplies

Gather your #4 supplies, making sure to cut the two rubber washers in half and gluing them to the large washers.  Assemble as shown

Slide the thread rod into the #3 body pot as shown

It should look like this with the thread rod sticking out

(Now, it’s time to attach the tail!  If you don’t already have the tail made, skip down to the tail section first)

Push the taped end of your tail through the large hole of the other #3 body pot.  Tie a knot in itself to keep it secure inside the pot

Attach both #3 body pots together

Secure and tighten with the rest of the #4 supplies

Before completely tightening the #3 body pots, make sure the hardware that will be holding the legs on are straight and aligned with each other…otherwise the back legs will be crooked from the front legs

One by one attach the legs.  The easiest way to do this is to get a helper…Have one person hold up the body while the other attaches the legs to the hardware that is already sticking out of the sides of the body

The rubber grommet serves as a cushion so that the legs don’t grind against the body

I don’t tighten the legs snug to the body like I do the rest of the pots…I leave a little room for play so it doesn’t put any torque on the leg pots

Tail:

Gather your sisal rope

Cut 8 pieces of rope at approx. 2 ft long and unravel the rope

This will be your tail!

Wrap a piece of tape around the tip of the tail to hold it together

Mane:

I used a single piece of sisal rope cut to the length of the neck and tied unraveled pieces of rope to hang from it

Each piece of unraveled rope was approx. 34in long…

Find the middle…

Loop it around the rope, making a knot, and pulling tight

For a thick mane you’ll need to push the strands tightly together…

I used a line of hot glue underneath the knots to keep the strands tight

This is what it looks like when you’re done!

I made two strands of mane to hang on both sides of the neck…then I hot glued them on

Painting:

I wanted to use paint that would last through our hot Arizona summers, and luckily found some outdoor paint in my shed

Since I had already painted a base coat on my pots before assembling, all I had to do was add a few coats of white and black paint for the socks, blaze, and hooves

Halter:

Since my mane and tail were light in color, I wanted some contrast so I used a darker-colored sisal rope for the halter

Simply loop around the muzzle and tie a knot…

Wrap the rope around the back of the head to the other side…

Tie another knot…

After the second knot I cut the end off and tied a third knot at the bottom of the halter, making sure to let some rope dangle…you now have a halter and lead rope

Hitching Post:

I simply used two logs that I cut evenly on the bottom so they would stand up on their own.  I then bored one hole in each log with a spade bit to fit the branch that connects them together

Now add soil and some plants (yes I made a mess all over the porch)

…and don’t forget those wooden spoon ears!

If your horse becomes ‘front heavy’:

After I added my soil and planted the plants, the head of my horse became heavier than the back end.  My horse’s back legs were actually suspended in mid air an inch or two (it kinda looked like he was bucking!)   Anyway, I fixed this problem by adding some sand in his back legs.  I had to wet the sand before packing it into the pots so that it would stay when I turned the top pot upside down.  You can always use sand bags if you don’t want to use loose sand…

After packing the sand in, I flipped the sand-filled top pot onto the upright filled one…

Then put it all back together…