When I went to Wilson College as a freshman, I remember being very drawn to a pitch black Belgian warmblood gelding named Total Eclipse. Eclipse was an unhappy horse.
His history is still a little blurry. Everyone had a slightly different story. But it sounds like Eclipse came from a well known trainer. I was told he was a stallion until he was 8 years old, when he was donated to the college. Supposedly, he was schooling through intermediaire level dressage, but was struggling, especially with his tempis (flying changes). Supposedly he also had been cast in his stall and messed up his jaw. So he was given to the college.
Eclipse had signs on his stall warning not to lead or turnout with other horses. He was the only horse with a chain. We were also warned to be careful when working in his stall or changing blankets. He want ridden often, only now and then by advanced dressage students or the barn manager. And usually his rides never went too well.
I liked Eclipse from day one. He was a challenge and I like making friends with the challenging horses.
I never had too much interaction with Eclipse until the summer after sophomore year when I stayed at the school to train and reschool the school horses. Several weeks into the summer, the barn manager told me an the other girl that stayed for the summer that we were going to start riding Eclipse.
As much as I liked him, I was nervous the first time I rode him. He was a very intimidating, angry horse that I had even warned about since my arrival freshman year. I was told to lunge him before my rides, to only walk and trot, to stay in an indoor arena, to ride in side reins, to not allow him to use the whole arena, and to not ride with other horses. Of course I was nervous.
Eclipse had the biggest trot I've ever attempted to ride, which didn't help matters. He also was very fussy about his mouth and pinned his ears for most of our rides. But I seriously loved this horse, and took pity on him. Someone hadn't been very nice to him at all and he had his guard up, always expecting the worst.
When the barn manager left for vacation, I admittedly took some liberties.
I started cantering him. He was SO angry at the canter, but I tried to stay relaxed and calm and keep him forward.
Then I took the side reins off. I hate riding in side reins. They flopped around and probably annoyed him more than anything. Besides, it's not a safe practice.
Then we started working in the whole ring. Then in the outdoor ring.
I tried to just relax and enjoy my time with him and not have high expectations for him. And soon he started to relax, too.
One day, I took him out for a hack to the creek and around the paddocks. Despite his fast pace I kept a long rein and let him look around and stretch. His ears went up and he finally began to enjoy himself.
From then on, Eclipse started turning into a happier horse. He didn't feel trapped and bored and forced anymore. We kept our rides fun and full of laughter. I'd take him out for hand walks sometimes just to have more bonding time with him. Sometimes we'd go wade and splash in the creek. Sometimes I'd lay out on a cross country jump an let him graze.
Eclipse loved life and loved work. But he had an ego and a sense of humor. If you tried to force him into anything, he'd challenge it. If you didn't laugh at him sometimes, he'd feel uptight. If you worked with him as a team as tried to find humor in little things, he was the happiest horse in the world. He had the most beautiful, big, intelligent eyes with a spark in them that always made him look like he was laughing.
Eclipse was one of te most awesome horses I've ever met, I always felt like he was much smarter than any horse ought to be.
Happy boy!
At the end of the summer, I had to have him. I approached the program director and bought him. The school couldn't use him anyway...Eclipse didn't very much like other riders.
Eventually, Eclipse was so happy and calm that I could turn him out with Louie. They became fast best friends and were always into no good. One of my favorite memories was when another horse was turned out with them wearing a bright yellow blanket. Eclipse grabbed the tail flap on the blanket and refused to move while the other horse tried to run away, tearing the flap clean off. Eclipse then proudly took his trophy over to Louie and waved it in his face until Louie grabbed it, too...then began theist hilarious game of tug o war I've ever witnessed. Sometimes Lou would try to give up the game, but if Lou would let go, Eclipse would chase him around the paddock waving the bright yellow flap at him.
Those two had stalls right next to each other. They were both so happy and had talented and had loads of personality. I loved walking in the barn and calling their names...they'd both stick their heads out and look at me with their ears pricked up and goofy looks on their faces. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. They made me so happy.
Even though we had our struggles, I felt privileged to just be riding this horse. He taught me so much about patience, having a sense of humor, and true partnership. He loved life so much and I could feel it radiating off of him every ride. We did everything together. I even bought western tack and taught him how to go bitless and neck rein so we could have even more fun and he could be even more relaxed on trails. The first time I let him gallop in a field, he put his ears flat back and ran with all his might. He ate up the ground like he's been waiting all his life to do it. I held on to the horn and just let him go...I'm sure my grin went ear to ear.
Eclipse loved to go new places, too. He would spring onto the trailer and when we got to our destination, excitedly look around to see what new adventure we were going on today.
Whatta hunk :)
All of the comments from students and instructors and staff about his complete change in attitude made me feel so wonderful. I was so happy to help this horse.
Pretending to be hunters...HA!
The next summer I took Eclipse to Chincoteague with Lou. When Lou passed away, Eclipse didn't fuss. I was so glad that he didn't make it any harder on me. But then, he changed. He went from the aggressive stallion that we couldn't turn out with other horses, to happy in a herd with his friend Lou by his side, to low man on the totem pole. He just didn't care anymore once Lou died, and never bonded with another horse. He kind of just kept to himself. It made me so sad. He was just...different.
A week or so after Lou passed, I was lunging Eclipse. He tripped a little a couple of times during his lunge. Even though it was slight, it made my stomach knot. Something didn't seem right.
Over the next couple of weeks, it became evident that my gut feeling was correct. I know my horses. I can read when something is wrong before anyone else can. Eclipse began tripping more often. Then he began limping ever so slightly.
Time off and but didn't help, so we went up to see the vet. After a work up, the vet still wasn't sure what was wrong. The theory was it was just an abcess, but we couldn't find anywhere that one might be. And I didn't buy it anyway. Something more serious was wrong. I just knew it.
Eclipse got a little worse. I was so depressed and broken by the end of the summer that I left a little early, and took Eclipse back home to Lancaster for a few weeks before school started so I could just have some time to come to terms with my depression. One of my best friends died, and the other was depressed and lame and I didn't know how to help him. I felt so useless and crushed.
I boarded Eclipse at Knights Landing for those few weeks, ironically. I had another vet work him up and come to no conclusion.
Shortly after I took Eclipse back to school, I took him to Marion Dupont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA. There he had an MRI. Finally, we found the problem. Eclipse had tears in his deep digital flexor tendon over the navicular area in his heel, in both front legs. The vets assured me that it probably wasn't something I had done to him, but that it had probably started years ago when he was with his owner that donated him to the school, and that the years off at the school helped them heal up...but tendon tears hardly ever heal as strong as they were originally. So when I started working with Eclipse and training for eventing, those tears reopened, and widened. While I was relieved that it wasn't all my fault, I felt so guilty.
Eclipse had to stay in a stall for 8 months. He was such a trooper. Despite his usual need for amusement and adventures, he kept his cool for the whole 8 months. I was so grateful. He seemed to understand that he just needed to stay calm and quiet. When I began hand walking him for several minutes a day, he was such a gentleman. Sometimes, he would have to have a moment to explode a little...so he would leap about. But he would always do it in place and away from me, and then continue walking politely with me.
A second MRI revealed that he wasn't healing as fast as the vets would like. But at the end of 8 months, they finally approved him for light turnout with Ace. I was so worried about his turnout. I knew he would blow through the Ace and could run around and completely ruin the 8 months of patience. So I opted to ignore the vets, and did it my way.
First I started walking him longer, and then started trotting him in hand as well. I couldn't lunge him, because the circle would put too much stress on his legs. I couldn't use the arenas, because he had to stay on firm ground so he didn't strain his tendons. I trusted him, so I felt safe trotting him on the pavement with me, despite the 8 months of pent up energy. He was perfect.
Then I decided I was going to ride him. I wanted to have him walking and trotting under saddle on hard ground in straight lines for a good long time before I put him on turnout so I knew he'd have a little less energy to release and so I could see how sound he was.
It was a huge risk. 8 months in the stall. Energetic and historically dangerous animal. I couldn't lunge him. I couldn't ride in a ring. But I really trusted him and I always felt like this horse knew when I needed him. It was probably stupid on my part. But I didn't want 8 months of work to go down the drain. So I risked my own neck.
He seemed so happy to be undersaddle again. The barn staff helped me out by keeping a large paddock empty for me to ride in for a while each day. The paddocks had the perfect footing for Eclipse. It was shale that had broken down over the years. So it was firm but had good traction, and very level. He was a ball of muscle and energy but I tried to stay calm and just stick to my saddle. He was so good, but there were a few fits of major broncing, and he reared several times if he saw something alarming. I just held on for dear life and tried to talk to him. I could hardly blame him. He was pretty much shut in a closet for 8 whole months. That would drive anyone insane.
After several weeks he was trotting nicely for me for 20-30 minutes in the paddock and calming down. So I finally turned him out with ace, and luckily, my plan seemed to work. He didn't seem to have too much energy after a ride so he would just walk around and eat. Eventually we weaned him onto half day turnout again.
When I graduated college, I moved down to Colora, MD for my job at Hilltop Farm. Eclipse came with me, and I boarded him and my three other horses at the time (I had Sara back, Moose came with me, and my other horse, Hyde) at a nearby farm.
Eventually I moved Eclipse to Hilltop because I didn't have the time to go out to the other farm and give him the care he needed to continue his recovery. Hilltop had the perfect paddocks for him to go out in with great footing and I knew the handlers would make sure he got the care he required.
After some time, I began riding Eclipse again and he was staying sound. But he had changed mentally. The 8 months in the stall made him anxious and reactive. He seemed depressed, too and had lost some of his sense of humor.
Since he was staying sound, I moved him to field turnout 24/7, hoping that the time out with other horses would help find himself again. It seemed to help, but he still seemed depressed. My job and situation at the time made it so I couldn't spend that much time with him anymore. At this point in my life I didn't even want to see a horse anymore. I was just done with horses. I felt so guilty that I didn't spend time with him, but I just didn't want to anymore. I had so many bad hands dealt to me over the past several years that I finally had enough. For once, I didn't even like horses. When I did ride Eclipse, I felt so guilty about riding him, thinking that I'd just make him lame again. I couldn't stomach it.
Eventually I went ahead and found a home for Eclipse. My old trainer from college, Annette, had an older student that wanted a horse to just learn dressage on. She was retired and had her own small farm and didn't even really have interest in showing and none in jumping. Annette knew Eclipse's history and had helped me with him at college tremendously, so I knew he'd be understood and not pushed too hard. Linda, the student, impressed me with how well she cared for her horses and how much they obviously meant to her. She is quiet and kind and treats the horses like her kids. I gave her Eclipse, and have no regrets about the decision. It's a perfect match. I know Eclipse is well cared for and the last I saw him, he seemed to be happy again. He probably loves the constant attention. Her barn is quiet and peaceful. Linda doesn't expect the world from him undersaddle.
Linda and Eclipse
I miss Eclipse so very, very much. He is an incredible animal and I highly doubt I'll meet another one that compares to him. I take great comfort in knowing he's in a great home. He certainly deserves it.
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