Dear Gibraltar,

It has now been a month since I had to say goodbye to you, sooner than we all expected. Let me tell you, each passing day doesn't get any easier without you. I still find it hard to believe that you're gone - that I no longer have you to share my Sunday mornings with, no one to buy blueberry Frosted Mini Wheats for. My weekends are simply not the same without you; there's no more 15 minute drive in any type of weather, I don't have to hike to the top of the steep hill in your paddock to pick the burdocks out of your tail while you try to walk away from me to eat more grass, and there's no more gobs of wet Alfalfa cubes to wipe off my face after you gave me tons of slobbery kisses. It's the little moments like these I'll never forget.

Thank you for never giving up, even if you knew there wasn't a shot you could do it right. Whether it was a three foot oxer, that creaky wooden bridge on the trail through Blydenburgh Park, trailering to your new barn, or simply making the short walk from your stall to your paddock on your bad leg, you did it. You proved to me, and so many others, that nothing can truly stop you. Thank you for giving me more than I could ask for, and for trying harder than any performance horse I ever sat on. Thank you for being my shoulder to cry on, soul to confide in, and heart to trust.

Thank you for giving me 17 years of love, happiness, and laughter. I will forever miss the silly faces you would make when you yawned that would make you look like you were passionately singing, how you would stick your tongue out in nearly every photo I took of you, how you would give me a kiss any time I asked and vigorously lick my hands for no reason, how you were always ready to show off for the pretty little mares anywhere you were, how you found the need to insert yourself into everyone's conversations and personal space, and how you would greet me with a whinny when you would hear my car pull up at the barn. You had a personality like no other animal I have encountered; it simply beamed out of you.

You truly touched the lives of everyone you met, without a doubt. You endlessly handed out love from the moment you stepped off the trailer from California as a yearling. You selflessly dedicated yourself to your job at Medieval Times for 10 years, and loved every minute of it. You carefully carried young, inexperienced riders on your back, teaching them the basics of horsemanship and the foundation of riding. Your kind eyes comforted us, and your sweet disposition made trusting you the easiest thing in the world. Through every stride, you filled my heart with a type of love I will never get from anything else.

I'm sorry there was nothing more we could do to help you, but I hope you know that your disabilities never stopped any of us from loving you and we did everything we could to make you as comfortable as possible. You blew the minds of everyone with your strength, and how you kept going and walking until the very end, when there was no way you should've been able to. The vet couldn't have described you better when she looked at me and said, "he is one very stoic horse."

If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that whoever chose your name sure knew what they were doing when they decided to name you after a rock.

Thank you for being my best friend. I love you endlessly,

Mom

Gibraltar "C"

May 5, 1999 - November 18, 2016