Inside the Barn With: E.V. Comander

Hannah Hoch and E.V. Comander (a.k.a. Salty) at the 2018 Capital Challenge Horse Show. Photo by Shawn McMillen Photography

With Hannah Hoch in the irons, E.V. Comander is an equitation star! Hannah and her family purchased the 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding in the winter of 2018, and since then Hannah and “Salty” have had great success in the equitation ring – which most recently included winning the 13- and 14-Year-Old Equitation Championship at the Capital Challenge Horse Show.

Hannah shares more about Salty here!

·      Hannah’s favorite thing about Salty is his personality. “He’s a puppy; he’s the strangest horse that you’ll ever meet. He loves people in his stall. If you’re standing there and you’re not giving him treats, he’ll bang on the stall door. He loves just resting his head on you.”

·      He has a not so secret crush on Hannah’s junior hunter, Clear Sailing (a.k.a. “Special”). “He loves Special, his girlfriend. When Special leaves, he screams for her. Special doesn’t really care about him, but Salty loves her. It’s so funny.”

·      His barn name originates from where the Hochs were when they purchased the gelding. “My mom came up with it because we were in Salt Lake City when we actually bought him.”

·      His favorite treats are bananas.

·      He has a messy habit. “When we’re trailering him places and we stop at a rest stop, we let his head go out of the trailer and give him water and all of that. We’ll go in to get food, and when we come out, he’ll have knocked all of his hay out of the manger onto the road – every single time. All of it’s on the ground, and we have to put it all back.”

·      If he were human, he’d be a little nerdy and a super nice guy. “He would be a really cute nerd with little glasses. He would just be nice to everyone. No matter how other people treated him, he’d just be nice.”

·      A typical week at home for Salty involves cavalettis. “We do a lot of cavaletti work and exercises with him. We probably actually only jump about once a week, but we do a lot of cavalettis with bending lines, collecting and lengthening of strides – things like that because he can get a little bit bored when it’s just on the flat. Putting some cavaletti work in there really helps him.”

·      He’s a different ride for Hannah than her other mounts. “He’s very leg oriented. He needs more go then whoa. It’s built up my leg strength.”  

·      In his down time, he can be found grazing with Hannah’s mom, Anne Hoch. “His favorite thing is when my mom grazes him; he loves my mom – but he has to have Special with him!”

Look for Hannah and Salty in the ASPCA Maclay Finals at the National Horse Show!