Comanche is the oldest and dearest of Bent Pines herd. At nineteen, he’s been with me for fourteen years.
Comanche is a 13.3hh registered Appaloosa. We purchased him to be a confidence builder for my daughter, who was fifteen at the time. She had a couple of scares and needed to regain her confidence. Comanche was only five, but he’d already been a reliable kid’s trail horse.
The goal had been to let my daughter build up her confidence, and once she was ready to move on to a new horse, find Comanche a new home. The second part was a huge fail.
Comanche helped her regain her confidence. Before long she was cantering down trails bareback and enjoying horses again. We had a beautiful Leopard Appaloosa mare enter our lives just as she was ready to move on. Unfortunately, Comanche had become my best friend during one of the worse times of my life, and I just couldn’t sell him.
At the time, I was still very much a Hunter girl, and he was very much not an appropriate Hunter mount for me. At 5’10”, I have a 35″ inseam. The shortest horse I rode as a Hunter was 16.2hh. But Comanche wasn’t going anywhere, so I decided it was time to learn a new sport.
We tried Stock Horse (reining, cow work, trail, and pleasure) and Western Dressage. He was up for anything. I had a lot to learn, but he was right there ready to do whatever I needed. We had 10 great years together.
Sadly, he lost a few teeth, which led to issues keeping weight on during the winter. We discovered grain allergies. After a couple of years in and out of work, his SI joint just wasn’t up to the job anymore with regular shots. I made the choice to retire him and let him enjoy life as a trail pony.
I still try to ride him a few times a week to keep him in shape, but we mostly just enjoy each other’s company. Comanche is a great teacher and a great babysitter, so everyone who comes to the farm and wants to ride gets to spend some time with my best boy. He’s also a great horse for demonstrations and clinics. He’s happy to stand asleep for hours while I talk about saddle fitting or first aid!
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