It's a Dala horse. Dalas adorn homes, Christmas trees, mailboxes, tableclothes, wrapping paper, etc -- all year long.I spent last week in my college town. Lindsborg, KS has taken the Dala concept one step further -- a herd of wild dala horses has taken up residence in various locations!
I photographed some (and also borrowed other photos from Mike-Sheryl.com) to show you my beloved Lindsborg's whimsicality. The titles of these 11 wild dalas are as clever as the paint jobs.
24 comments:
They're fantastic! I love them. Looks like they took a bit of inspiration from the cow parade (www.cowparade.com).
I don't know much about them.. but those are great. I love the paint jobs and the names are perfect!
It's funny--we had a huge Scandinavian studies dept at my school, but no Dala horses.
I love them. The names are fantastic. We had two similar projects in my area- horses on parade. There were painted horses all over teh city and then in my town we had Lighthouses on Parade painted by different artists and put up at certain landmarks and businesses. However, they were not as witty as the Dala's
I'm 1/4 Swedish. : ) Those are so cute! Toronto had the same thing several years back with moose. It was a huge hit. After the program officially ended, the moose were auctioned off for charity. You can still see some of them in various spots around the city.
Those are awesome! I love the names too.
Karlinda beat me to it...they also reminded me of the cows. I love them, they are just lovely.
That's so cool, and very coincidental- one of the town's I grew up in has horse statues (no special name that I am aware of, just used for town pride since they have harness racing at the fairground) Anyway, local businesses pay to design one for the town contest, and then display them around the town.
That's so neat that other towns have similar traditions :) And the ones you photographed are just awesome!
Love the dalas and the names.
I can just hear the conversations on the streets of Lindsborg...
"Are they for sale? How many dalas are the dalas?"
OK. It was a poor attempt at humor. :)
Those are very cool.
Very cool
Oh how cool! I have a Dala horse stashed away somewhere. We got it during our trip to Sweden when I was little.
Wow, first time to learn about Dala horses. Wow some of the ones adorning the streets there are really awesome! Very cool.
I like the skeleton one. Very Dia de los Muertos. And this was in Kansas?
So much cuter than the cow parade! I've never heard of them but then again, no Scandinavian background anywhere in our families
Hey! Thank you for the nice mention of Lindsborg, the Dala culture and especially the Wild Dala herd. They are certainly a fun creation. If you don't mind my mentioning an additional growth of the Wild Dala phenomenon, we operate the Wild Dala Winery in beautiful downtown Lindsborg Kansas. You all are invited to stop in to see our very cute (or so we are told) Wild Dala Wine labels and (if you are able to prove you are 21!!) sample a little Wild Dala Wine and see lots of other Wild Dala treats.
I believe the Wild Dala Horse were inspired by the CowParade.
Britt -- I meant to get some Dala wine but didn't know how to get it through the airport! Is there a way to order online?
each is more interesting than the next. thanks for sharing
Those are neat! I love the paint jobs!
My father in law showed me those horses, and I had never heard of them before.
ha ha I love those Dalas!!! There was something similar in a local town near me - only it was pigs!! I should have gone and seen them and taken some photos!
Those remind me of the art cows that graced random street corners in Houston over a couple of year period a while back. Love those Dala horses. Adorable!
Too cool! They remind me of the cows in Chicago and Houston. Love displays like that!
How very cool!! I love to see the depths of other people's creativity. I could never be so clever!
Oooh! These are very cute! They remind me of the lambananas that were placed all around Liverpool last year. You can see some of them at http://www.superlambananas.co.uk/. I may try to get up some of my photos of them for this week's Show and Tell, if you don't mind me borrowing your idea!
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