Observing Sweden - Dala Horses

Horses everywhere . . . a graphic stampede. They’re on curtains, rugs and key chains, lamps and pillows, paintings, flags . . . statues at filling stations, mail delivery trucks. The Dala Horse is everywhere in Central Sweden – the Dalarna province. Horse carving here began with bored woodsmen during the long, dark Swedish winter evenings long before the advent of TV and cell phones. They used wood scraps and red paint produced by the enormous copper mine in Falun.

The horses remain one of the few living folk traditions of Sweden and are sold to both tourists and locals. Yesterday we paid a visit to Grannäs, a tourist stop in Nusnäs, Sweden – about an hour’s drive from where we live. They carve Dala horses there.