08/04/2026
CW: horse death, euthanasia
On Friday, July 31st 2026, shortly after 10am, I said goodbye to the first horse I ever had the honor of calling my own partner.
Geronimo and I were a pair of grumpy introverts who worked so well together because we understood each other. He didn't like to cuddle, but I knew he liked me because he didn't try to buck me off. (It was a known character bug.) He didn't want apples or carrots or to show me his favorite scratching spot and he hated arena work, but he absolutely lit up when we went out exploring the levee, or the Spillway, or the trails in a new nature park. He was a natural at liberty, expressive and energetic. He feared no obstacle, nor train, nor dump truck. He had an odd interest in excavators and a weakness for the humble alfalfa pellet. He had a beautiful red-headed girlfriend named Nikki, a best friend named Pal, and a human who listened when he spoke and noticed when he held his breath.
Geronimo had squamous cell carcinoma the entire time we knew each other, and an unknown amount of time before that. Chemotherapy helped some, immunotherapy helped more, but it came back with a vengeance just when I thought we could see some light at the end of a long tunnel. We fought it for another year without much luck. Around the beginning of this year I decided to stop treatment and let him have a few months without me constantly bothering him to put ointment on his painful lesion. I asked absolutely nothing of him, just enjoying his company and leaving him to be a horse with his Nikki.
A couple weeks ago, he told me it was time. He looked tired in a way he never had before, and I made the call I had been dreading.
In his final week I bought a comical amount of junk food that horses tend to like: oatmeal cream pies, fruit by the foot, beer, donuts, caramel rice cakes. I thought he could have a final-hour binge on all the forbidden treats. In true grumpy-guy fashion, he was interested in none of it. Just NickerMakers and German Horse Muffins, thank you.
Geronimo slipped away peacefully at LSU with me stroking his cheek and telling him how good and brave he was, and how proud I was of him, and how thankful I was for our time together. We brought Nikki with us, and she was allowed to visit his body to say goodbye.
He will be cremated in racehorse tradition (head, hooves, and heart). But first, he will help teach the next generation of equine vets. I donated his body to the University for an educational necropsy. I expect they will find him full of metastatic cancer. What they will also definitely find is a stomach full of NickerMakers and German Horse Muffins. 💔
Please be kind with me this week if I'm slower to respond than usual.
*no AI was used in the creation of this post*
