Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The Making of the Equicizer (Part Two): The Building Process

In Wooden Horse Wednesday’s fifth blog we’re going to detail, through pictures, the process of building and putting together the Equicizer’s body, including the attachment of the horse heads that were shown being carved and painted in last week’s blog. Before we begin, here are this week’s fun facts about the Equicizer!

Fun facts about the Equicizer:

  • Frankie builds the Equicizer in sets of 4 at a time.
  • A set of 4 Equicizers take a little over 2 weeks to complete from start to finish - with no hiccups! - when they are then ready to be sent out the door to their new owners.  This amounts to 6-8 Equicizers built a month, which allows for roughly 72-96 Equicizers to be built per year.
  • To date, Frankie has built over 1,170 Equicizers which have shipped all over the world.

The Building Process


 photo DSCN0038.jpg
The outer shell of the Equicizer is built similar to the hull of a boat, structurally able to withstand significant weight and pressure that support the mechanics and array of hardware that will be placed inside, along with the rider. This picture gives only a small view of the design that is behind and makes up this outer shell.

 photo 100_3561.jpg      photo 100_3565.jpg
The Equicizer shell is first padded and then carpeted, according to the color the customer ordered.
 photo 100_3607.jpg      photo 100_3615.jpg
The neck is covered and the mane is put on.

 photo 100_3633.jpg      photo 100_3642.jpg
The tail, handles, back and side panels are also placed on.

 photo 100_3652.jpg      photo 100_3666.jpg
For the Elites, the wooden side rails are attached to the base frame. The Classics do not have this additional detail. Then the frame is secured to the body of the Equicizer and the rest of the hardware is placed inside.
 photo 100_3678.jpg      photo 100_3699.jpg
Once the head is secured onto the body of the Equicizer, holes are drilled for the bridle.
 photo 100_3708.jpg      photo 100_3710.jpg
The nameplate is secured and the finishing touches are all that’s left!
 photo 100_3722.jpg
 photo 100_3740-1.jpg

These are only a handful of the steps involved in making an Equicizer. There are dozens of other steps taken before the Equicizer is actually complete but this should give you a rough idea of what’s involved in building an Equicizer. In next week’s blog, we’ll take a look at the packaging process!


Click here for The Making of the Equicizer (Part Three): The Packaging Process



By Kayla Jarvinen

No comments:

Post a Comment