Levade – Oscar 314

One of the highlights of my day at the combined dressage and endurance event was getting Oscar to do some levade. I have been practicing off and on for a few months and while waiting to do my dressage test and then to head off on the ride I decided to have a few practice rears. It is the silliest of things really, after a thoroughbred youngster reared over backwards with me around 7 years ago, breaking my knee in the process I have had a real fear of horses who rear while under saddle. I dont know why I decided that I wanted to train Oscar to do it, as he had never previously offered to do so out of naughtiness and I have had no experience of teaching it. I think he is the only horse I would feel safe enough to ask to rear up while I am on his back. He has now mastered levade and is almost doing it from voice commands alone. He was caught on camera just as he was going up.