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Animal puzzles are always fun projects to make. Obviously, this puzzle is more of a showpiece than a puzzle that will give you a challenge. If you own or know someone who owns horses this will make a nice Christmas gift.
When you cut puzzles it is important to get a good fit between the puzzle pieces. You don't want the piece too sloppy or too tight. If you use a blade that is too thick then you will have a loose fit.
I used Ash which is a very dense/hard wood. I also made the puzzle thicker than the pattern calls for. I used 1" thick instead of 3/4" because that is what I had handy. This combination is a setup for problems when cutting puzzles. Here is why.
I used a #3 blade. With the thick/dense wood and the thin blade, you can very easily get distorted cuts. The blade will slightly bend as you push the wood into it. This bend causes a warped cut. The pieces will not want to pull apart resulting in a poor puzzle fit.
The easiest way to avoid this warped cuts is to use a softer thinner wood. 3/4" clear pine works fine for puzzles and is much less forgiving.
If you want to use a dense wood, like Ash then here are a couple of tips.