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Dating back to the 19th century, rocking horses have been a toy loved by children around the world through history, encouraging the little one’s coordination and balance skills. But who said a rocking horse has to look like an actual horse today? Modern designers think it is time to upgrade the century-old traditional design of this iconic toy, by giving the new generations of kids the taste of something slightly more contemporary.

For their Rockin’ Moto rocking horse, NetxOfKin, or NOK Creatives, an innovation and design office based in Singapore, has taken inspiration from the silhouette of the 70’s café-racers and vintage scooters.

The main body is reduced to a seamless curvilinear line that evokes a visual sense of motion. The low drop handle bars brings the rider into the aggressive racing angle and allows a tuck-in posture for better control.

Built with amazing detail, the horse can be complemented with a series of modular fittings that could be fitted to this core to allow role-play of different characters or scenarios. Among them, there is a mock headlight and even adorable little helmets to teach children road etiquette from the star.

Boasting the same cantilevered shape, which connects the curved base to the seat area via the leaning vertical core, NetxOfKin’s Dark Horse encompasses a minimalist take on a traditional equestrian race horse with the forehead and chin groove constructed with a negative space and the orange reins floating up to the rider in a spirited racing fashion.

The rocking horse designs by the Dutch design studio Maison Deux are conceived to reflect a sense of playfulness. The collection includes The Cloud, The Bowler Hat, The Watermelon, and the Moon rockers, which are all named according to the shapes they represent.

Creating a foundation for imaginative play, the rocking horses allow children to literally ride on a rocking cloud. As well as being a fun toy for children, they double as a stylish interior design element for the house. Manufactured using solid French oak and upholstered with a durable fabric made from 100% wool, the pieces can last for generations.

Stockholm-based studio Front, founded by Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, has taken the classic well-known Gebrüder Thonet Vienna’s rocking chair as a reference for the Furia rocking horse they developed for this furniture brand, which has a long tradition of working with bent wood.  The designers have managed to apply features of the iconic design dating back to the 1860s to a piece suitable for a child.

The studio was inspired by the early history of the company, back when the brand’s product catalogues featured all kinds of bent-wood objects, including baby cots. The designers wanted to create a piece for children that could be passed on in the family and bring together the long legacy of the company with a new generation.

Each Furia rocking horse is made by hand, and is available in beech or ash wood that has been treated with hardwax, stained or painted. The seats are upholstered in leather. This, the designers hope, will help to foster an appreciation for good design in younger generations. The natural materials will also look great in any interior, which is especially important today, when the activities in the home do not have the same divisions between rooms as before and the children’s toys are part of the home just as much.

When designing transparent plastic rocking horse for Italian furniture brand Kartell, Japanese studio Nendo has turned to H-beams for inspiration. The steel beams, which are literally H-shaped in cross-section, are used in large structures such as skyscrapers and bridges, their profile being the characteristic that gives the structure its mechanical strength.

Applying this concept to the child’s toy with a touch of playfulness, the designers has managed to develop a form that displays both function and strength, even with minimum use of materials. Created using only three curved pieces of transparent plastic, the H-horse has the curved profile of a traditional rocking horse, at the same time playing with transparency, which has long been integral to the Italian brand’s design identity.