Above, Prince George Rides His Rocking Horse.
My Rocking Horses are In the News Again!
I'm so thankful for the delight these rocking horse creations bring to people and their loved ones. We were amazed and honored when I was asked to build a special rocking horse for Prince George!
Below are links from online news articles about my rocking horses. We've placed the newest articles at the top. Enjoy!
Presidential Swag and the Gift Horse
The New Yorkder
By Robin Wright May 20, 2016
...The most famous gift from the Obamas was to the youngest recipient. In 2013, the State Department’s Protocol Gift Unit contacted Jackie Wilson, a self-described Oklahoma cowgirl. She’s been drawing horses since she first picked up a crayon, and riding them since she was twelve—more than half a century ago. “God outdid himself when he created the horse,” she told me recently. Her first horse, a pinto, was named Chiquita. During a pregnancy in 1979, Wilson read a magazine article about rocking horses and decided to make one for her baby. It was the beginning of a one-woman business making handcrafted rocking horses, initially sold by word-of-mouth, and now on the Web. She makes four different styles, including the Chiquita, in a small workshop in the woods behind her home, in Edmond, Oklahoma.
The State Department asked Wilson to make a rocking horse, but wouldn’t reveal the identity of either the giver or the recipient. “The woman said, ‘Don’t tell anyone in your family. Don’t tell your friends. If you do, then we won’t send the gift—we can’t proceed,’ “ Wilson recalled. She worked on the horse for weeks and, although she hadn’t voted for Obama—and still wouldn’t—she donated the materials and labor. The Protocol Office had the leather saddle embossed with the Presidential Seal, and added a miniature mallet crafted from a fallen oak branch on the White House South Lawn. The horse, a four-foot-long dapple gray on gliders, was the Obamas’ gift to Britain’s Prince George at his birth.
The gift remained a secret—the Protocol office never confirmed to Wilson that her rocking horse was for the little prince—until it went on display at Buckingham Palace, in 2014, during an exhibit of royal toys from over the generations. Wilson and five members of her family scrambled to get to London for three days just to see it. “We went through the Palace and, by golly, there was the horse!” she told me. “They wouldn’t let us take pictures, but they can’t take the memory from me.”
Last month, at a dinner given by Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge at Kensington Palace, the Obamas got to see bonny Prince George, now almost three, actually put a Presidential gift to good use. Afterward, the Palace released official photographs. “It grabbed my heart,” Wilson said. “He was really on the horse!” And he got to keep it.
(Excerpt from full article. To read full article about Jackie's Rocking Horse, click here)
Prince George gets a wooden rocking horse from Oklahoma - for The Oklahoman, by Diana Baldwin, published August 13, 2014. This most recent interview includes photos and video. We've included a photo from that interview at the top of the page. Thank you to The Oklahoman!
You'll find this same article on the TulsaWorld.com site (click here).
Birthday Present for Prince George - This is the DailyMail article from the United Kingdom, published July 25, 2014. In this article, Dan Miller discusses the royal gifts.
Rockin'Gifts - by Radina Gigova, December 2011 for the OutlookOklahoma.com site. In this article, Radina talks about Jackie's beautiful rocking horses.
NewsOK Article - by Diana Baldwin, October 18, 2011. This article is an interview of Jackie by Diana. It tells the story of these rocking horse creations and Jackie's vision. It also has a short video clip of Jackie working on one of her horses.
Edmond Life & Leisure- This is a reprint of the NewsOK Article for the Edmond Life & Leisure magazine.
