*****UPDATED AUGUST 01, 2011*****
Can I just say that this is still a favorite in our house, four years after we bought it. Our eldest is now 5 years old and we have a 3 year old as well. It still is ridden almost everyday by them and all their friends and the horse still looks and works as if it were brand new. Our girls weigh 44.5 lbs and 50.5 lbs and when they ride the horse it no longer scoots across the floor; they can get the legs to lift up off the ground if they rock it with enough strength but we've warned them that they might break it if they continue doing so. Amazingly enough; the batteries are still the originals, mind you, we usually turn it off now when we are done playing on it. The whole toy, springs, plastic body, material spring covers, rope hair; are all flawless; they look and function as if we just bought it. Kudos to Radio Flyer for making such a sturdy children's toy.
*****UPDATED AUGUST 28TH 2008*****
It has been a year since we bought our horse and it is still one of the most played with toys in our house. I don't think it goes a day without being ridden at least once. I haven't had to change the batteries yet, which I must say surprises me since it gets left on constantly. I have to make a correction to my original review, the sound is SUPPOSE to be motion activated, but we have left it on accidentally and 2 am in the morning the thing goes off and wakes the whole household. Not a big deal, you just have to make sure to switch it off, because it will go off even without someone on it. My daughter is 27 months old now and weighs 33 lbs and when she really rides it, it does move a bit but not so much that we've felt a need to secure it down with anything. The movement is minimal, we just make sure to pull it out from the wall. I also think that amazon has changed the picture of what they originally had up when I wrote my first review because the current picture looks more like the model we have, although the saddle still looks different. Our daughter can now reach the stir-ups with no problems, but still uses the back support bar most of the time. We have been nothing but happy with ours and I stand by my original review, it is a wonderful toy that I would recommend to anyone.
*****ORIGINAL REVIEW AUGUST 2007*****
We bought this for my daughter who is only 16 months old, even though the manufacturer recommended age was 24 months to 6 years. After reading some of the other reviews and looking a bit closer I realized that the horse that we bought, even though it has the same manufacturer and name is not the same one that Amazon is selling. We bought ours at Toy R Us for the same price but there are a few differences. Our saddle and saddle blanket are both plastic not leather and fabric. We do not have the little step and we don't have the bulky looking feet or the "adjustable" stirrups. Other than that I think it is the same though. I wish I would have seen this one before I bought ours as it looks like it's an upgraded version. I am writing this review anyway so that people are aware that there are two different style (maybe more) both made by Radio Flyer and both called Liberty Spring Horse with sound.
Our horse came in a pretty heavy duty box, which was great for us because we had to ship it out of the country and didn't have to worry about it getting damaged in transit. It was pretty easy to assemble, it came with straight forward instructions and the necessary tools needed for assembly, minus a screwdriver I think. My husband had it fully assembled in less than 20 minutes. Our daughter loves it. Even without the little step she is able to climb up on it using the base and the legs that house the springs. We don't have to help her at all. If she were bigger, I'm sure it would be a lot easier but she is determined and has figured out how to make it work. It bounces or rocks back and forth depending on whether she jumps up and down or rocks her body forward and back. She has no problem reaching the handlebars but her legs aren't long enough to comfortably reach the stirrups yet something that might not have been the case had we had the three leveled stirrups. She'll grow into them though and right now she is happy using the back support pegs to rest her feet on. This even allows her to stand up and pretend to be a jockey!!! The springs are covered by a black, pretty thick, padded piece of material which Velcro's on and can be removed if needed. It is very stable, even without the bulky feet, and doesn't slip or slide a bit on our tile floors, although my daughter is only 25 pounds right now, but she can get a bit carried away when she rocks out and it still doesn`t move.
We chose to get the model that has sound and I am glad we did. It takes three AA batteries (not included) and has an on off switch, which is located on the underside of the horses belly. It also has two different sound levels, a low and a high. Our horse has four different sounds, a horse whinnying and snorting. Then it has two gait sounds, a trot (clip clop clip clop) and a canter (clip clip clop clip clip clop). It also plays a musical version of Home on the Range. All the sounds are motion activated so even if you leave it on by accident, it won't play unless it's moved. The frame is made out of steel, the horse body is thick plastic and the mane and tail are weaved rope. It is made, as far as I can tell, very well, it doesn't look or feel cheap and they took a bit of time to do some detail. All in all, we are happy with our version and think that it is a wonderful addition to our toy collection. I would highly recommend it to everyone. I uploaded two pictures of my daughter onto the site so that you can see the differences between our and Amazon's version.