Love Is All That Matters After All - Fall 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Love Is All That Matters After All

by Sharon Prestegard

This is the painting by Sharon Prestegard of herself showing Summer.
November 2, 2007, is a day I will never forget. It was a day I had hoped for since I was a little girl. It was the result of lifelong goals kept alive through faith and perseverance. I never knew it would come until the moment was at hand. It was a glorious moment… a perfect melding of all my life’s ups and downs, talents and dreams. After years of drawing and painting horses the time had come when I seized the opportunity to paint my own. The dream started back before I ever owned a horse, and began to materialize the day I saw Summer, a two-month-old appaloosa filly, standing in acres of windswept grass under the Nebraska sun. Her breeder had invited me to stop by the ranch when I exhibited artwork at the 2004 Appaloosa Nationals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

When I saw her, I knew I had to have her. I brought her home along with her dam because she was too young to wean. The purchase agreement included completing a portrait of her sire, Chrome Soldier, and showing the filly in halter futurities.

When the breeder picked up her mare, she brought along Soldier so I could gather reference material for his portrait. The resulting artwork was recognized in an international art competition. As promised, Summer was conditioned and trained for the halter futurities. At her first show at four months old, she took reserve. Her yearling year she won several times and advanced to the Grand and Reserve mare class, occasionally bringing home the Grand Champion title.

One morning during a workout Summer tied up for no apparent reason. I was thrust headlong into research about polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM). She tested positive for PSSM, and my dreams of showing Summer any more that year were dashed completely. I was devastated.

Endeavors in the studio carried me through this period. For what purpose did God place such a beautiful creature in my life? Through my depression I resolved that He must have different plans for her, so I did not give up hope.

Another year went by as Summer enjoyed leisure days in the pasture. Another winter, another spring, and I was asked to create for the second time the poster for the Pinto Horse Association’s World Show. While exhibiting there, a couple looked through my portfolio and admired a photo of Summer. They listened to the story of my dreams for her and came back the following day with a poster for me to sign – but they had something to say first. These owners of a World Champion quarter horse stallion offered me a free breeding for Summer. I was nearly speechless. I took a hard look at Summer when I returned home. Was she worthy of a breeding like that?

Against unfavorable odds, I put Summer back into a conditioning schedule. After a couple of months, she was looking incredible. I took her to several shows and she won her division and then Grand or Reserve Grand Champion Mare, and we had qualified for the Appaloosa Horse Club World Show (ApHC).

I hauled Summer to another facility that had a heated barn. Within days the trainer related that she had quit eating -– which was surprising since I had brought my own feed. I went to see her and she seemed her old self. The trainer asked me to work her, which I did while he watched. Afterward he told me that he had seen nothing like this before, but he thought that Summer missed me. He said she was a totally different horse when I was around. So, I went and fed and worked her myself, but she just would not eat there. She was losing weight and looking depressed. I began to think that she wouldn’t make it to the ApHC World Show, so I brought her home.

As soon as she arrived to the comfort of her own stall, she was begging for food – the exact same feed. New fuel for the long-fanned flames. With extra feedings and work, I conditioned Summer into shape myself and hauled to Fort Worth, Texas, for the ApHC World Show and entered the non-pro three-year-old mare class. She showed well and I thought we might win the class, but as the scores were announced it was not how the judges saw it. We ended up placing fourth, and I was disappointed. You might even say I was a bit of a sore loser. I just wanted to pack her up and head for home.

Throughout the rest of that day, I was complimented on my mare and asked if I was entered in the Open 3-year-old mare halter class. At the time, I didn’t see the point. I just saw the expense and my husband shaking his head no.

However, when I watched the video of the day’s class, I saw a proud, graceful horse that appeared delighted to be in the arena. Summer’s eyes sparkled and her muscles rippled under a dazzling coat. I had never seen her from this vantage point and announced to my husband, “We are going in the Open!”

I arranged for a professional handler and Summer was first in the order of line up. I had her ready and waiting at the entrance and ran from the staging area to the stands to watch them perform flawlessly… all except for the occasional glance she made up into the stands to see where I was. That alone had my eyes welling up with tears. Before the announcer read the judges’ placings I knew I had a world champion in that ring. And as the placings were announced it became my reality – my dream come true.

I am speechless over that unforgettable moment, but it came out of my heart and onto the canvas. It was not created from artistic knowledge, nor correct technique. It was painted out of pure joy and love; it was painted for myself.

I was offered a large sum of money for Summer immediately after her World Championship win. It was foolish, I suppose, not to accept it. But the trophies, awards and money hold no value in comparison to the journey and the fulfillment of the dream. Summer lived up to the registered name I gave her when she was two months old, Letters From Home. And that is what she has been to me… a love letter from God in whom I put my hope and faith – a God who allowed a little girl to live her dream.

Visit Sharon Prestegard’s artwork at www.sharonsloft.com.

~ Back ~