The Stablemates Model Workshop: DIY: How to make a Stablemates Dressage Arena

Here's how to make a cool dressage arena for your Stablemates!

Please note that (like the Traditional size dressage arena you can buy from Breyer) this arena is not perfectly to scale. If it were exactly 1:32 scale, it would have to be huge! However, it's pretty close, easy and cheap to make, and durable enough for many years of play.

Here's what you'll need:

10 plain white plastic drinking straws (if you only have clear ones, you can fill them with white paint, but this is kind of annoying)
A handful of popsicle sticks
Shears
White acrylic paint and a brush
A black permanent marker
Toothpicks
A hot-glue gun (ask a grownie for help if you're little)

Step 1: Make the poles.

Divide the 10 straws into two groups of four and one group of two. Leave the first four be. Cut about a quarter of the length off of four more straws, and cut the last two in half. You should now have four long straws, four three-quarters straws, and four half-straws (you can throw away the leftovers from the three-quarters straws).

You should now have something like this.

Step 2: Make the corner pieces.

Use the shears to cut a popsicle stick about 1" (2.5 cm) from the rounded end. Then, cut off another 3/4" (2cm) of the popsicle stick. This will be the base. Glue the 1" piece upright in the middle of the base, with the rounded tip facing up. It should now be able to stand on its own. Now, cut two pieces of toothpick, each about 1/2" (1.5 cm) long. Glue one toothpick piece to one of the thin edges of the upright popsicle stick piece, about 3/4" (2cm) from the base. Glue the other toothpick piece to the middle of the front of the popsicle stick, at right angles to and at the same height as the first toothpick piece. (See diagram below.) Paint the whole assembly white and let it dry. Repeat this step 3 more times to have 4 corner pieces total.

Here's what they should look like.

Step 3: Make the pole supports.

Repeat the steps above, as for the corner pieces, but instead of gluing on the toothpicks at right angles, glue them both to opposite sides of the upright popsicle stick. They should be at the same height and both about 3/4" (2cm) from the base. Repeat this step 8 times for each of the pole supports. Once all the supports have been painted white and have dried, use a black permanent marker to write a letter neatly on both sides of each one. (See diagram below). The letters should be: A K E H C M B F.

Here is what you should have when you're finished:

Step 4: Assemble!

Now that you're finished, you can put your dressage arena together by hanging the poles from the toothpick supports, so they are a little ways off the ground. There is a specific order that the poles and letters go in, so here is an assembly diagram to help you out. The x's are the corner pieces.

A fun acronym to help you remember the order of the letters is: "All King Edward's Horses Can Make Big Fences."