Toverkop Eclipse is the newest and youngest member of our herd. She is a two and half year old Arab cross filly standing around 13.2hh at present.  Eclipse is another of our Naturel Horses and was bought with the idea of either backing and training her to sell on, or to breed from. We will let time take its course and see how she turns out.

Out of all the horses, Eclipse is the calmest and least spooky. Using Monty Roberts’ technique of join-up, we’ve been doing a little, slow work. Once join-up and follow-up are established, you are then in a position where the horse trusts you as it’s leader or dominant mare and therefore your reassurance that everything is ok is usually sufficient to calm the horse. With Eclipse, I have been doing some desensitisation work which involves flapping things such as feed bags, plastic bags, umbrellas etc., around and over her to ensure that, once backed, she will not bolt or rear or do anything unexpected should she confront these dangerous looking items with a child on her back. This is very easy when you have a sweetheart like Eclipse, and she stands calmly in the lunge ring with a feed bag on her head! She is a quick learner and has already started wearing a saddle and bridle so, when the time comes to back her next year, it should be a very simple next step.