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How to fold an origami horse

Fold a triangle and crease the leg lines, reverse-fold the neck back and cut out the legs. Lift the neck, fold out a white mane, crimp the head down and hang a white tail.

You need: 1 square sheet, 15 × 15 cm, brown on one side, small scissors and a ruler. Hard, 15 steps, about 20 minutes.

Steps

  1. Fold in half. White side up, fold the top corner down to the bottom corner. The long fold at the top is the horse's back.
  2. Crease the middle. Fold the triangle in half, right point onto the left point, and crease it hard. This crease marks the back of the front legs.
  3. Open it. Unfold it back into the triangle.
  4. Crease the hind legs. Fold the left point over on an upright crease 3 cm left of the middle crease. This crease marks the front of the hind legs.
  5. Open it. Unfold it again.
  6. Neck back. Outside-reverse-fold the right end back over the body, on an upright crease 1.5 cm right of the middle crease. Each layer wraps round the outside.
  7. Cut the legs. Cut the bottom point off level, 6 cm below the top fold. Cut up both leg creases to 2.5 cm below the top, and straight across between them.
  8. Cut the neck. Cut up the neck fold to 2.25 cm below the top. From there cut the neck flaps to 1.5 cm deep at their tip, and snip the tip off square 1 cm in.
  9. Lift the neck. Outside-reverse-fold the neck up on a crease from its bottom corner, so it stands up and leans forward over the front legs.
  10. Snip the folds. Cut along the neck's back fold to the nose, and 1 cm down the crease at its base. Cut 5 cm along the top fold from the left point.
  11. Mane out. Fold the back edge of each neck layer out, 1 cm wide at the base and tapering to nothing 2.5 cm from the nose, so a white mane shows.
  12. Head back. Fold the top 2.5 cm of each neck layer back over the mane, on a crease from the top of the mane slanting down to the front edge.
  13. Head out. Fold the head back up on a crease from the same corner, so it points forward and down. Glue the two head layers together.
  14. Tail down. Fold each layer of the left point down and back on a crease from the end of the cut, so it hangs as a white tail.
  15. Shape the rump. Cut up the tail crease from below, leaving its top 1.5 cm. Cut the rump from there, curving in to the back of the hind hooves. Trim the tail slimmer.

Neigh!

Snip a fringe into the mane and the end of the tail. Draw an eye and a nostril on each side, and colour the hooves dark.

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