Okay, I will save you some valuable time that I had to learn the hard way. Use COLORED polymer clay! I spent a long time painting the bodies of my ponies and they never looked as good as the ones i make now with colored clay. I recommend Fimo Accents or Premo if you can get them. Fimo is better in my opinion. Ignore the cooking directions and cook at 225' F for about 20 minutes. Get some steel (it has to be steel) sculpting wire to make a frame. This is very important or your pony will lose its shape when you cook it. Make a little pony frame and add the clay to it and shape it and smooth it as best as you can. Do this for the head and body but not the hair. Not cook it. After it has cooled down (let it cool all the way or it will break easily) you can now add the hair. Add the mane however you want it to look. As for the tail, what I do is drill a hole in the butt area and the take the wire you have and bend it in the shape of the tail you want and add the clay but leave about 1/2 inch of bare wire and the 1/2 inch will be pushed into the hole you drilled and hold the tail in place. I do this so I can make the tail separately because I ship mine and they are less likely to get broken. If you want, and you are going to keep your pony, make the wire frame and include a strand of wire for the tail. I still recommend finishing the tail and mane afterward because the more uncooked clay you have, the more likely it will be to mess something up before you cook it. After you have made the body and added the hair it's time to paint the eyes and cutie mark. I suggest getting the finest brush you can find and using glossy acrylic paint. Thin it with water a little before you use it and it will be easier to use. The rest is just something you will learn by trial and error and everyone is different. I only use my fingers and a toothpick for fine details but there are a lot of different types of sculpting tools that other sculptors use and enjoy but that would depend on you and what you feel comfortable with. A last thing...sometimes the clay is too soft and you need to make it more firm. Here is a description on how to fix this : [link] . All clay will become softer as you work with it...it may feel okay at first but become too soft and that is when you will need to do the steps in that link. Always knead your clay a little to get it ready to sculpt...this is called "conditioning" and is important. Good luck and have fun