Last month the Belgian foam furniture maker [?] Feek threw some of its coming-soon Animools into the kids' holding room at Interieur06, a big design trade show.
They're abstract animal shapes made out of laminated foam that's suitable and soft for riding. Animools pack flat, probably weigh less than my Big Gulp, and throw together with simple tension cables. The Sparkability folks say they should be arriving early next year [knock on wood].
Wood, you say? A remarkably similar, but even more pared down design for a bent wood riding horse just showed up at a design fair in Buenos Aires. Cristian Mohaded's horse is really beautiful, and while it doesn't have the cushiony, tumbly worry-freedom of the Animools--and it's also not clear that it's ever going into production. Or that it could ever be economically produced and shipped to the US the way a kickboard-foam horse could--I think it's awesome. So if you're ever in BA... Wait, actually, Mohaded's from Córdoba.
I request nothing beyond the thickly cushioned luxury of this horse in soft Corinthian leather.
Cristian Mohaded at Design Connection Buenos Aires 2006 [mocoloco.com]
Animools by Feek [feek.be]
previously: Animools in their holding pen. so small, so cute.
