[makeover 2023] Love and Loss

The mare looked at the house. It had been dark for a while now. She didn't feel like standing in her filthy stall, despite the rain. Why had her human not come to clean her stall? Feed her? The buckskin mare couldn't remember how long it had been since she had last seen her human, but the grass had worn thin and heaps of manure had taken it's place. She was hungry, really hungry. How many times had she seen the sun rise? 30 times? 40? The rains had been especially heavy the past few days. The mare's legs were covered in mud, the white markings on her front legs rendered practically invisible by the layer of wet, cold dirt that caked on them. The mare shivered. She was so hungry, and she was starting to feel cold even though she felt like she normally wouldn't. Was autumn rolling by already? The mare took a step, but stopped. Her foot had started to hurt. 
The weeds that grew on the other side of the fence tempted her. She had grazed as far as she could, leaning into the fence as far as she could to grab whatever she could reach.

The mare stood there, waiting, convinced her human would be back eventually, for many more days. She, however, never did. The fence slowly rotted away due to the moisture and he mare leaning against it every day to try and get at least a bite to eat and calm her angry stomach, gnawing at her from the inside. Eventually one plank fell. Then another. The last plank of the fence fell, and the mare could just... go. But where would she go? The mare felt tired, cold, her stomach hurt, her feet hurt and she had never felt so alone. 

The mare would never know that while she waited, her human laid inside the decaying building, becoming one with the earth again.
She would never know that a heart attack had seperated the two of them, and caused so much misery in it's wake.
The mare would never know that her human had been preparing the mare's feed when the final chapter of her life had ended.
And she would never know that she had been the only friend her owner had had, which ultimately led her to suffer for so long, both going unmissed by the world beyond their little haven.
The mare would never know, that her owner had not left her by choice. 

She stayed for two more days, waiting. When the sun eventually rose again she gathered her strength and walked out. Out towards greener pastures.