Rody the horse

We had another Scooters Family class at Isis, and in the class they had these fun Rody horse toys.  Your baby sits on the horse facing forward and you let them try to balance.  He moves all over but I keep my hands close to his waist to keep him centered on the horse when otherwise he'd already have fallen to the floor.  It works baby's core muscles and hopefully will help him get the strength and coordination to start sitting on his own.  The toy is supposed to still be fun for a 4 year old, but our 6-month old isn't ready to balance on it by himself yet.  He loves the Rody; he tries to eat the ears and laughs and smiles when I help him bounce on it.

Our Rody is green and blue

Hobbyhorse

It was a bit expensive, and I was sad to see it's cheaper above than what we paid.  It is inflatable, and they did blow it up for us at the store, but I have a bike pump and I'm sure it's not too difficult.


When we described it to my mom she called it a hobbyhorse, an old toy that can be just a stick with a horse head on it.  I think the term applies to any horse shaped toy that a child rides, rocking horses included.  I'd like to try and make my baby a rocking horse, but I always have so many projects I might miss my chance and end up buying one.





This Morris dancer has a hobbyhorse, from the wikipedia page:

Morris dancers along the Thames at Richmond, c. 1620

I only mention it really because of Edmund Blackadder's hatred of Morris dancers.