Today (well, technically yesterday now, since its past midnight here) we went to see the Levade Noble Horse Gala for the second year in a row. This year, the focus was on French rather than Spanish acts, although they still had plenty ofbeautiful Andalusians along, and like last year it was a very enjoyable experience. I almost forgot entirely about the nasty cold that snuck up on me a day or two ago, although once I got back home it hit me at full strength again.
Like last year, we made sure to be there well ahead of time, and managed to get first row seats. Great for taking pictures, and we filled up both of the camera’s memory cards. We hope to have a photo gallery up in a day or two (and at some point, we’ll put up last yearsLevade pictures again, too), once we’ve had a chance to pick out the best and prepare them.
So, what kind of acts did the show have? Well, there was a French horse comedian (he was there last year, too), and a French horse ‘poet’, who did a very neat act involving a lot of spinning and turning on the part of his horse as well as an act where he and his horse played the part of marionettes. There was also a very exciting act with some cossack -style horse acrobatics, including one of them moving from one side of the horse to the other by crawling beneath the horse as it galloped along. Another French representative was a woman with a traditional circus-style dressage act as well as a marvellous Hungarian Post display with eight horses.
The Spanish were represented by, I think, eight riders on Andalusian stallions, who did a quadrille, a very nice airs above the ground act, a horse and flamenco act and a horse and trapeze artist act. I am probably forgetting some things already (lets blame the fever), but once the images go up I’ll be able to add more info with the captions. Unfortunately, I doubt most of the images can do much justice to what the show is like live. Definitely worth seeing at least once, and they’ll be giving more people the chance by doing a small tour of Europe. And who knows, it might be even bigger next year. We’ll certainly be there if they do another one.
Oh, and of course, can’t neglect to mention that after the show, we just had to tour the stables this year too. Can’t pass up the chance to have a bit of a snuggle with all those gorgeous horses, after all. Met one lovely grey Andalusian (sadly, his stall did not have a sign with his name) who was very interested in nibbling on just about everything, as well as several other very sweet stallions. I do wish I could have taken one or two home ... but then again, I’ve promised Murphy he’s first on the list. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one who one that 122 millionSKR lottery win today.