The painting features a young child with fair skin and short hair, wearing a light tan dress and a brown hat, seated atop a toy hobby horse attached to a metal-wheeled tricycle. The child gazes directly at the viewer with a calm expression, hands gripping the horse’s reins. The hobby horse itself is cream-coloured with a stylized mane and harness, set upon a tricycle frame with thin, blue, spoked wheels.
The scene is set on a light-coloured dirt or gravel path that stretches across the foreground. In the background, there is a lush, impressionistic garden border filled with deep green foliage and a few scattered red flowers. The composition is simple, placing the child centrally to emphasize their movement along the garden path.
The artistic style is clearly impressionistic, characterized by loose brushwork and a focus on natural light. The colour palette is earthy and soft, dominated by muted greens, warm tans, and creams, punctuated by the striking blue of the tricycle wheels. The overall mood is gentle, serene, and captures a fleeting moment of childhood play. In the lower right corner, there is a signature and date reading "Claude Monet 1872".