The Comanche And Horses: A Century Of Partnership

The Comanche relationship with horses began around the late seventeenth century, and the transformation it produced over the following 150 years was one of the most rapid and complete economic and military revolutions in pre-industrial history.

Before horses, the Comanche — or those who would become the Comanche after they acquired horses and moved south onto the Plains — were largely a foot-based people living in the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain foothills area, subsisting on small game, plant foods, and occasional large game.

Horses changed everything.