Quarter Horse...Part II

I guess I'll go ahead and finish with my entry about our spectacular adventure at the summer AQHA show.
I guess I should explain the title of the last entry. We woke up at 5:15 AM on Friday morning to get ready and leave for the showgrounds, and we called for a wakeup call the night before. We never trust the alarm clocks in the hotel rooms, after all. So, since I'm the best at waking up early in the morning, I was busy getting dressed and washing up while my mom and sister were lying in bed and shielding their eyes from the bathroom light that I turned on. About five minutes after I initially got out of bed (Everyone else had gotten up by then, too.), there was a loud noise. I instantly knew that it was the fire alarm, so I rushed to put on my shoes and check the door to see if I could go outside. The trip was becoming all too similar to being back at college (We were actually very close to the college, and everyone knows about dorm fire drills...) when suddenly the alarm turned off and silence was restored to the dark halls. I glanced out the window and saw firetrucks in the parking lot, and Anna, Mindy's mom, called our room to ask us if we'd heard it. She said that she woke up and thought it was the wakeup call, haha :) My sister and I were all ready, so we flopped out on the bed and laughed about the thought of the fire sprinklers going off while people are sleeping in their beds. When we went down to the lobby to snatch up some free breakfast, the poor guy who was at the desk told us that someone had tried to go through the fire escape exit to go to the nearby Denny's restaurant. He added that he's on first-name basis with the local fire department because it happens a whole lot. It was so funny.
I wrote about all of my classes and how proud I was of my little girl. She honestly did give me some impressive rides. As far as pleasure goes, we won all of our classes :) I love her so much.
After all of our classes on Saturday, Mindy and I went to a trailer that was selling tack and other horse stuff. Stella lost her nice lavender halter about a week and a half ago, and I still haven't been able to find it. I'd borrowed an old halter from out of the trailer and we were doing fine with that, but I really wanted to get Stella a new halter. Mindy helped me pick out a few that would look really nice on Stella, and then I brought Stella up to the trailer so we could try them on. She usually wears ridiculously small halters, and I ended up getting a purple cob-sized halter for her. It was very inexpensive, but it looks great on her and I think she's happy to have her own halter again. They had some halters like the last one I had for her, but none of them were lavender and I really wanted to get Stella a purple halter. Sometimes I like to say that I've always wanted a girl horse because I can take her "clothes shopping," braid her mane and tail, and even put that glittery hoof polish (Eh, that's crossing the line...) on her without the guilty feeling of emasculating my poor horse. The funny thing is that I can't stand clothes shopping for myself, and I don't overdo the whole personal grooming thing. She's my little girl; I have to spoil her a little :)
On Sunday, I gave Stella a thorough grooming in her stall, put the new halter on her, and took her out to graze. She was SO happy. She loves to hand-graze. She usually likes to cruise around with her nose an inch or so off the ground until she finds the perfect spot, where she'll munch until the good stuff is gone. I think she was very happy to get out and have a nice snack. I remember the first year we took Stella to this show, just weeks before Mac died. I was leading her around while we waited for Larry to get the trailer hitched and ready for the horses. I turned my back while Stella was grazing and tried to get her to follow me as I walked a few feet closer to my mom and sister, who were also holding horses. I felt a small pull in the lead and heard the satisfied "sigh-plunk" of a horse about to roll, and I turned to see Stella taking a nice roll on the grass. She's a character, isn't she? I thought about that a lot while we were grazing in the same spot.
We packed up when everyone else was finished showing, and then we headed out for the ride home. I think Stella was very glad to be back in her own stall. I gave her fresh sawdust, hay, and water. Then, she got her dinner and I went home to have my own dinner. But first we shared kisses and sweet nothings as I thanked her for an amazing four days.
I'm so lucky to have a horse like Stella.