Living a Nightmare

As a horse owner, there are a few things that you live in fear of. Colic, torn ligaments and tendons, nails through hooves, trailer accidents, etc. The last in that list happened to me on Saturday. I hope it never happens again. It was easily the most helpless I have felt in my entire life. Here is what happened.

My friend Jan and I were going about two hours north of here to Misty Morning Hounds to compete in a Hunter Pace. It is a 5 mile course that is timed but you do not know the time when you start out, you have to go at the pace that you think is most reasonable. The team closest to the Pace time wins.

We met at the barn at about 5:30am and fed our two horses and got everything packed into the trailer. We loaded the boys up and headed out. We had gone about 5 miles and were almost to the interstate when we felt a small bump. We looked at eachother and Jan eased off the gas and gently applied the break. That is when all hell broke loose.

The trailer must have come off the ball on the hitch because all of a sudden the truck was shoved from behind (by the 5-6K pounds of trailer and horse behind us!) and was spun almost 180 degrees, so that we were now facing into oncoming traffic. The trailer jack knifed and then whipped around behind the truck, breaking all attachment to the truck at that point (safety chains included) The trailer then took off on its own across the six lanes of traffic and headed straight towards a curb, house, and irrigation ditch all at once. All I could do was watch my horse in this death trap as it flew towards the other side of the road.

Jan and I were both fine. We jumped from the truck and she ran for the horses while I grabbed the phone and called 911. Amazingly enough, both boys were completely fine and were munching their hay when we got to them, muttering about crappy women drivers. The pictures tell the rest of the story, except that we couldn't get the horses out of the trailer! The bottom of the trailer was too close to the ground and the ramp wouldn't open. A few beatings with a crow bar later by one determined tow truck driver and we were able to get them out.

It all started on the left of this picture near that tree. That is where the trailer hit the truck and spun us around. Then the trailer flew across all these lanes of traffic and ended up in the ditch.

When we got over to it, this is what we saw. That is Reno's butt on the right for those of you that wanted to know. You can see how close it got to these people's house. There was apparently a woman working in her office in this corner of the house, so thankful the trailer stopped where it did!
This was the view of the left side of the trailer. The front was crumpled in and the hitch was buried in the ground. This is why we buy STEEL framed trailers!
This was the view from the other side of the trailer. You can see how far off the ground the trailer actually was. This was about 3 1/2 - 4 feet off the ground.

This was what the boys did while they waited for us to bust them out. Notice that Copperfield took way more advantage of the hay net than Reno! If they had been in there much longer, we were going to make Reno share some of his! Also, in this picture you can see there is no bar in front of Reno. When we loaded him there was a steel bar there. With the "sudden stop" he crashed through the bar and it was laying on the ground.

Engrish

Mom ordered Dad a motorcycle jacket for his birthday. It came from Thailand and this is the note that was inside:

Jesson in the News

Jesson has been practicing a form of martial arts called "Krav Maga" for over 6 months now. They did an article on his gym and though he wasn't quoted in the article, they used a picture of he and his instructor practicing. Below is the picture with the caption and then the full article. Enjoy!

Jesson Bateman, 27, and Steven Faison, 23, warm up with some krav maga techniques as instructor Steve Del Castillo looks on.

Premier Martial Arts of Tampa teaches Israeli fighting system krava maga

By Mike Camunas, Times Staff Writer In Print: Thursday, March 26, 2009

LUTZ
Defense wins games. • That's an old saying in sports. And though in the krav maga classes hosted by Premier Martial Arts of Tampa, there are no games or sport applications, it can, however, win a battle. • In some cases, the battle of life or death.

"Its only purpose is to get home alive at the end of the day," Shihan and instructor of krav maga Steve Del Castillo said. "It really is a practical self defense technique. Everybody needs self defense nowadays, and this is one that keeps you on the defensive."

Krav maga (pronounced krahv magah) is used on a day-to-day basis by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) including their Special Forces Units, Israeli police and Internal Security branches. In the United States, it's used by the NYPD, the FBI and the U.S. Armed Forces. It originated in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld, its primary founder, who fled Czechoslovakia to the British Palestine Mandate, now Israel, where it was further developed by the defense forces.

The form is more of a survival system, considered to be a modern street-fighting system, designed to be used against armed and unarmed attackers. This form uses a variety of punches, kicks, chokes, bear hugs, headlocks, grabs and defenses against multiple attackers and assailants armed with any sort of weapon. During the class, participants will team up on each other, as well as use plastic handguns to simulate situations.

But krav maga isn't about going all Steven Seagal on someone. It's more like going all Jackie Chan.

"My old instructor used to say, 'Not real pretty, but real hard,' " Del Castillo said. "It's not quite as much of an art as it is martial. It's a fighting system used to defend yourself, not beat someone up."

Columbus Blue Jackets?

Buddy and I went to the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets game this past Tuesday. Apparently they are an official NHL team. We had never heard of them. We think they meant to call themselves the Yellow Jackets and just got confused. We didn't care because our seats were 7 rows from the glass! The game was very close but the Lightning managed to pull it off 2-1 in overtime! Buddy and I both had a ton of fun!

On March 20th and 21st my Mom and I went to Time Out for Women in Orlando. It is put on by Deseret Book and has become an annual tradition of ours since the event started back in 2003. There are inspirational speakers and song writers and it truly does feel like a time out from life. For those two days you rememer why we're here and where we're going and what is important in life. You also remember that, no matter how you were feeling when you first got there, we are all daughters of our Heavenly Father and are stronger than we think. There are still a few events left this year and, if you've never been, I can't recommend it enough. Here is a link to their website to see if there are any events in your area: http://deseretbook.com/time-out

This year, there was a new presenter there by the name of Mark Mabry. He is a photographer who did an entire series on the life of Christ. His pictures are amazing, but, the stories that go along with each of them are equally amazing. The presentation he gave was very humbling as was his own personal story. It reminded me that we each have internal work to do and that we each have talents to magnify. Here is a link to his website and more information about his photographs which have been assembled into a book called "Reflections of Christ": www.reflectionsofchrist.org

New Job!

I started a new job about two weeks ago, on March 16th. I work for USAA in their Member Relationship division. I love my new job! Here are a few of the perks:

On Site Gym: This is not just any gym. It is amazing, state of the art! All the treadmills/stair steppers/elipticals have their own flat screen tv's with headphone jacks and DVD players, so you can watch whatever you want while you are working out! They have work out clothes there for you that you just throw down the laundry shoot when you are done. They have a sauna and showers with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hair spray, hair gel, blowdryers, straightners, q-tips, cotton balls...you name it! They said they don't want anyone to have any excuses not to work out! Plus they have group fitness classes before work and a few during the day so you can go on your lunch breaks. Two days last week, during lunch, I took a yoga class. Too cool!

The Cafeteria: Yes, yes, I love food. But this is not regular cafeteria food. This is gourmet, fresh salad and pasta bar made exactly how you want it! The menus change all the time and there are always healthy options. Plus, the healthier you eat, the cheaper it is! For example, there are three fresh soups everyday and the healthy soup is always cheaper than the other two. Even in the vending machines, the water is cheaper than the Diet Coke which is cheaper than the regular Coke. They said they want to encourage people to make healthier eating choices. If you don't feel like eating in the cafeteria, you can eat in one of the two break rooms on each floor that overlook the lake.

Covered Parking: There is a six story garage with plenty of parking for everyone. This may not seem exciting to some people, but for those of us that have walked out to our cars in the middle of July in Florida only to have our skin melt the second we got in, you know how exciting covered parking is! Plus, during the rainy season this summer, I will not need my umbrella! Yay!

Flexible Schedule: Once my training is over I will be moving to a four day work week. I will go from driving over 300 miles per week to only driving about 160 and I get a whole extra day off!

So those are the highlights of my new job. In this economy I am very thankful to be employed, but even more thankful given my new working conditions!

4 Years and Counting!

February 18th marked our 4th anniversary. We both agreed that it feels like we just got married yesterday but at the same time feels like we have been married forever, if that makes any sense!