Hey Kate!!!! Lucky find!!!!!!!!!!! I love mosaics too. some of the girls on the Mosaic Forum (Here at Garden Web on the Home Forums there is Stained Glass and Mosaic Forum. They have some neat rocking horse (carrousel) mosaics. They will be able to give you specifics on adheasive and grout. Some of the girls on this Forum do mosaic work too but you might get your answer very quickly by doing a 'search' over there.

Thanks for all the great comments! Im going to try to answer all questions! Aquawise, I hand sanded the whole thing and then spray painted it with rustoleum. For the saddle and harness colors I also used rustoleum, not the spray kind tho! Then I sprayed the whole thing (about 3 coats) with a outdoor sealer/ poly. For the plugs, I pulled out the wood foot rests and cut them about 3 inches long and reinserted them with some jb weld on them. they were tight to begin with but I thought that would help too. Careful not to push them all the way through!! Sandplum, I actually used a wood bit and just went really slow. Drilled a pilot hole first. Jeanne, I have not started on the other one yet as I went back to work for the winter (until April). (just retired in Aug).. They made me a offer I couldnt refuse!!!! My brother is on the lookout for a geared down motor we can use for the solar carousel. I do have the new horse off the stand and ready to be sprayed. Thanks again.. Kathy O (lots of Kathys on here it seems!)

I was actually thinking I wouldn't change much but maybe revive the wood with something? I have that Howard Feed N Wax and also some type of lemon oil for wood. I thought changing the mane would be a good idea since it's really scraggy looking. I considered adding DS's name to the other side but I don't love that mine's still there. It was neat as a kid, but my parents had a thing for putting my name on stuff. Of course, the only way to get rid of mine would be to fill and paint and I don't think I want to paint. I was going to save it for Christmas for DS but I think he'd really enjoy using it now.

Ruth, if you no longer have the wood dowels that came with the horse, go to the hardware store and pick up some that will fit in that hole. Cut them about 1/4" short on each side. Glue them with carpenter's glue. Once that is dry, fill in with wood putty, sand smooth, then proceed to paint. I crackled one of the horses but you can start painting right on the horse (you may want to spray a primer on it first). I used acrylic paints - straight color book type painting with the exception of the roses which I painted myself (you can find beautiful decals if you don't paint). Once you have completed the painting (this may take several coats), use a good spray varnish or polyurethane to seal the paints. That's about it. If you have any further questions, please ask. B