You get what you Need

"You get what you need....."

The words from one of The Rolling Stones song. 

yup

I participate in illustrationfriday.com's "word of the week" event.
Last week's word was "Sweet".

After some thought I decide to post my pastel portrait of "Missy and Foal".















Interesting. I've had horses come and go in my life, though I've yet to own one.
hmmmm

"Missy" as most called her was one of those horses.

I remember the first time I saw her.
I had been taking riding lessons at Haskins farm in Berkley.  There were "school horses" one could ride if one didn't own their own horse.
I rode a couple of different ones over time. 

This one day when I got to the farm I heard one of the mares had a foal.  I went with one of the girls to go see it before my lesson. We stood on a stool and peeked into the stall.
There they were.  The foal was sleepily lying on the ground. Standing over the foal was the mare- Missy.  She was a dark brown, almost black horse with a little white star on her forehead.  The stall's light made her dark coat shine. She was a proud mare watching over her newborn foal.
The girl with me said, "oh, isn't the foal so cute." I was like "yah, and her mom is beautiful". 
Yes the foal was cute, yet something about this mare struck me- she was beautiful. 
Missy was a broodmare that was bred to the farm's stallion. She was owned by the farm too. 
They would  breed a couple of mares to the stallion and would then sell the babies.
I remember wondering about whether there would be a chance to ride her.  At the time she was a broodmare on the farm.

I just didn't know.

I remember thinking about her.  Time passed and I was enjoying my lessons. 
Then one day I arrived for a lessons to have my instructor tell me to go get "Missy" to ride today.  I was surprised and so happy.  I got the chance to ride her after all. 
That was just the first day of our rides. I would ride her mostly in lessons and at shows for the next two yrs.  We developed quite a good bond working together. There were many ribbons and a trophy won.  There were also a couple of foals to see too.  She was a great mare. I loved the time with her.
Later at one point she developed a stifle problem.  It can happen to some mares that have foals. She could no longer do the riding program. She was sold to a woman who didn't ride so frequently- more of a pet.
Though I've never seen her again, I think of her. 
She came into my life for a time.
That was special.
She'll always have a special place in my heart.

Sometimes things come and go, ..are in and out of our lives. 
Perhaps it's perfect in it's way.

Not that long ago I was missing being around horses.
I did an internet search to see what would come up in our area.
I found a place to volunteer so I could be around horses again.  Lend-A-Hand farm. 

One can only imagine what will come into one's life next.