Dala horse

What it is

A Dala horse is a statuette of a horse, cut from wood and painted. Most people picture one shape: a stout body, a short neck, and a harness picked out in white, green, yellow and blue. Older horses were painted iron oxide red, and the usual colour now is a reddish orange. Carvers in different parts of Dalarna keep their own local shape. Some of these horses are stocky workhorses, while others, such as the horse of Rättvik, are lean and upright. Because each one is carved by hand, no two come out the same.

Origins and history

The oldest written mention of wooden horses for sale in Sweden is from 1623. Carving them as a living is thought to have begun in Bergkarlås and spread to nearby Risa and Vattnäs, while Nusnäs, farther off, began on its own. Those villages already made furniture and clocks, and leftover wood may have gone into horses. Early horses were often left unpainted; from the early 1800s white or red paint became usual. In the 1800s a painter from Risa, Stikå Erik Hansson, worked out how to load two colours on one brush, a method still used. A local tale tells of a wandering painter in the kurbits style, the flowery folk painting of the region, who decorated a farm horse to match the furniture around it.

How it is made

The wood comes from slow-growing pines near Lake Siljan. Trees are chosen while they are still standing, then felled and sawn into blocks. Each block is carved by hand. It is dipped in primer so that flaws in the wood show up, then filled and polished smooth, and dipped in paint. A practised painter adds the harness and the fine details free-hand, a skill called rippling that takes years to learn. Finally the horse is varnished. At least nine people have a hand in one horse, and the shape they follow is based on flat-plane carving.

Villages and styles

Production grew up in four villages of Mora parish: Bergkarlås, Risa, Vattnäs and Nusnäs. Few early carvers signed their work, but painters tended to keep a personal pattern, so a horse can sometimes be traced to a particular hand or village. Many of the oldest horses have not survived; those that have are passed down in families or kept by collectors. Villages across Dalarna still turn out horses in their own local style. Since 2000, carvers and painters have shown their work each year at Klockargården in Leksand, and about forty of them take part.

In North America

Dala horses were shown at expositions in Paris in 1937 and New York in 1939. For the Swedish pavilion in New York, two architects, Sven Markelius and Anders Beckman, chose the horse as a strong emblem. Around that time mass production began, and the horse moved from toy to souvenir. In Lindsborg, Kansas, a workshop modelled on the hemslöjds, the craft centres of the Swedish countryside, shows how the horses are made. In Chicago, one stands outside the Swedish American Museum, painted by Lars Gillis for the Swedish American Women's Educational Association to mark the link between Sweden and the city. The original was taken down in 2013 and restored over a year.

How Dala horse is kept

The craft is kept by carvers and painters, mostly in the villages of Dalarna and above all in Nusnäs, where workshops still make horses the old way. A pine tree is marked while standing, felled and sawn into blanks. Each blank is carved by hand, primed so flaws show, filled and polished, then dipped in colour. A practised painter adds the harness free-hand in a technique called rippling. The horse is varnished and sent out. Villages across the province also keep their own local shapes, and a yearly show in Leksand brings the makers together.

When and where

The craft belongs to Dalarna in central Sweden, and within it to the villages of Mora parish, especially Nusnäs, which is the main centre today. Horses are also made in other villages of the province, and the annual show at Klockargården in Leksand gathers about forty makers. Outside Sweden, Dala horses are made and shown in Lindsborg, Kansas, and one stands in Chicago.

What Dala horse means

What began as a toy became a marker of place. For people from Dalarna, the horse stands for the province and its villages, each with its own shape and its own painted pattern. For Sweden as a whole it works as an emblem carried abroad, which is why it was chosen for the Swedish pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair. Older horses kept in families carry memory as well as value, and collectors prize the early ones.

Questions people ask about Dala horse

See also

Dog sleddingAn Arctic tradition of navigating snow and ice behind working dog teamsDreamcatcherA hand-woven hoop from Anishinaabe tradition, hung above a cradle to protect a childBarn raisingA communal tradition where neighbours assemble to erect a farm barn in a few daysNavajo weavingHandwoven wool textiles and rugs made on continuous warps by Navajo artisans

Good reading and sources

• Dala horse on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.