This is a shaving horse, I made it of some leftover wood. It is basically a clamp for greenwood carving.  With your feet you push down on the lever that clamps the wood down so you have your hands free to use a two handed drawknife.

A drawknife has the advantage that you can take thick shavings off, while still have control and precision. You grab the drawknife and pull it toward you while your feet push against the lever and fix the wood in position. Therefore is physically impossible to cut yourself this way, it is possible to fall of the shaving horse.

I’m still experimenting a bit with the clamp itself, I used a piece op round wood now. But in retrospect it might be better to use something with a hammer shape that has a bigger clamping surface.

See more shaving horses here