Alison, 10, Wins Right To Name Foal "Eclipse"
Bourdon Herald, Friday 7 November 2003

A horse trainer has been flooded with entries after asking Herald readers to come up with a name for a new foal.

Kuchina Johnson, from Oakhanger, was bombarded with letters and e-mails from people of all ages after announcing the competition last month. But after much deliberation and careful consideration she has decided to call the Andalusian fool, Eclipse, as suggested by 10 year-old Alison Wise of Alton. Kuchina received 217 entries altogether, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, and was overwhelmed by the sheer weight of replies. Young alison was treated to a tour of the stables and a demonstration of Kuchina’s award-winning show on Saturday .

Mrs Johnson thanked everyone for their help in the competition, and said she was delighted with the response from readers.

She said “The amount of replies we had was quite amazing; we had lots of weird and wonderful suggestions - you name it, we had it!” She added "There were some really good ones and one girl even gave me a list of 10 names - I'd like to thank everyone for taking part.”