WW: Rico's First Show (Video)

Way back in March 2005, Rico and I did our first ever show together and I have found video of it! This is a bit of the 2003 Training Level Test 3 test. 

It was a cool test, you came up centerline, turned left, and then the video picks up from there - you turned left at E, then at X did a figure 8. Then you picked up canter in the corner, rode a circle at A, then rode a half circle and trotted after crossing centerline at E. I assume after that there was some walk work and then cantering the other way. I don't think you did all that much more trotting. 

Anyway, enjoy! While resting assured that my riding got INFINITELY BETTER once I learned how to have any amount of stability in my body without resorting to rigidity. It'd take a while but now I have new problems. 

TC the Warhorse

I've been introducing TC to mounted archery and it's been great! I mean, I expected nothing less, but he was actually kind of reactive to the thwap of the arrow hitting the target at first. Luckily for him, I rarely hit it. 

I started with a couple of ground work sessions where I just had TC in hand and clicked after every arrow I shot. I also rode around with the arrows and did things like shuffling them around, running them all over his body, and throwing them off of his back. But I hadn't yet shot off of him. 

Over the weekend, I got my field target out and decided to try it out!

Literally the most perfect animal

How he looks at me when I'm picking up arrows

We went into the arena and when he saw the target, he made a bee line for it and tried to bite it. I like to think that what's going through his mind is "I don't know what this is, but she HATES it, so I hate it too and I'll also try to kill it." 

I did one round of shooting from the ground and other than wanting to get his nose in between the bowstring and the bow to poke my face (omg TC seriously, so dangerous, luckily I wasn't trying to be quick about anything so I shoved him away), he was perfect. Just one minor startle when I hit the target and then he got used to it. 

At the trot!

Why you hate this thing so much?

Then I got on with just the arrows and did some desensitizing. No need though, he was super chill about it and the only task at the top of his mind seemed to be to go bother the target again. 

Next, I shot very lightly with my arm through my reins so that I didn't fall off the back. I aimed at the ground so that we avoided the thwap. He was super good about it! So I started to just play with it!

We did a lot standing still, a bunch walking, and I even trotted him and shot off of him! Being bareback, he is SO BOUNCY, so I didn't do it much. But I think I could legitimately canter and shoot off of him in my saddle, next time. 

I also started the process of shooting while standing on him, which I really want to do, mostly because I think it's going to look super cool, not for any other reason. 

Don't look as cool just walking but he is cute

After we do archery we roll

In the most ADORABLE news, my niece watched me practice on TC and was VERY interested in mounted archery. She's kind of in this "anything Aunt Mimi does is extremely cool" phase, which I think is going to get her bullied at school eventually given that she mostly wears leggings with her socks pulled up over them to mimic my boot socks. I am not a fashion icon, she will figure this out eventually. 

Anyway, I ordered her a kid's bow and arrows (with suction cups) immediately. The next time she was at the ranch, I taught her how to use it and she has been completely addicted to it ever since. She practiced for hours when we were at the ranch, told me that she wanted to tell Miss Kate and Miss Kenna (her riding instructors) that she *needed* to shoot arrows off of Ginger Pony, wanted to watch Brave all day, and took her bow and arrows home so that she could practice shooting arrows off of her pony at home. 

Almost cuter was my brother googling "archery for toddlers" which did not bring up much. But he wants to see if we can take her to a range to watch and there's also a mounted archery demo at Horse Expo that we'll be taking her to. 

And of course, when she starts riding TC, she can shoot off of him, although she told me that I'd have to help her because she has to hold onto the reins (would not listen to me when I told her that you actually have to drop your reins to shoot). 

So adorable, and she's so good, you can
literally tell her what to shoot and she
just does it... jealous...

Lots of treats of course

For me, there's a mounted archery clinic in early July that I might go to. It's a bit of a haul and comes at the end of my company's week long July 4th shutdown, but we'll see! 

A Day in the Life: Working in Tech in Silicon Valley

Now that I'm coming up on a year and a half of working in tech in the heart of Silicon Valley, I figured I'd post a day in the life. Maybe it'd be interesting if you're not from around here?

Growing up here, I got used to a lot of what Silicon Valley had to offer, but I was never actually inside one of those big tech companies. I was mostly pummeled by the impact of those companies on the surrounding area: the insane traffic, the unattainable housing prices, and logos on the sides of buildings that people outside the area only see on their computers. 

It was all still foreign for me personally though, until I made the move from academia directly into big tech last year. 

Can confirm: some of this show is accurate

Because I don't want to post photos of my work, I'm using Silicon Valley (the tv show) gifs and letting you know how accurate they are, hopefully that's sufficient lol! 

Anyway, onto my typical day!

I'm super lucky that my schedule is so flexible because I can flex it to accommodate my riding. I usually ride Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday during the week, taking Monday and Thursday off to be at work all day. I flex my schedule to accommodate it, meaning that on the days I don't ride, I usually work 10 or so hours and then on the days I do, I can work a little less. 

6:00AM - 9:00AM Wakeup & Get Ready

I usually wake up between 6am and 8:47am, why the large difference? Because I have insomnia and I never know whether my body is going to be wide awake trying to solve the world's problems at 6am or waking up to my "oh shit you need to get out of bed" alarm at 8:47am. 

If I'm up at 6am, I'm probably exhausted, so I usually lay around trying to go back to sleep and failing. If I'm struggling to get up, usually I'll open my corporate app, which will tell me what is for breakfast and that usually motivates me to get up and get out the door. 

On occasion, I'll do a bit of work early if I'm already up because some of my stakeholders are on the east coast. Luckily everyone knows I'm not a morning person!

Accurate, although we have multiple
scanner things for each building

9:00AM - 10:00AM Breakfast

I leave for work between 9 and 9:15 each morning. It's a 15 minute walk to the closest building with food in it. Yes, I said walk, I normally walk to work because I live really close, like uncomfortably close. Don't get too excited, remember that every time I pay rent, I want to jump out a window. Also my place hasn't been updated since it was built in the 80s, including the dishwasher. 

Breakfast stops being served at 9:30, so I usually make it just in time to grab whatever is being served. 

The food is free and we joke that it's the best restaurant in the bay area. It's honestly more like a cafeteria in that there are a bunch of different stations where you can grab food. For breakfast, they usually have a traditional eggs + potatoes + breakfast meat at one station, some pastries at another, a yogurt bowl, some fruit/vegetables/smoked salmon you can grab, and then there's always some kind of random option, which is anything from french toast to a breakfast burrito. 

If the weather is nice, I'll usually eat outside and use the time to answer teams messages and read emails. I also use this time to look at my calendar (which I also do the day before just in case I have a 9am meeting) and update my schedule + action items on my iPad, which I keep my entire life on.

The people in the cafeteria being like please just
pick out your breakfast

10:00AM - 12:00PM Work

I usually have at least one morning meeting. Sometimes I'm back to back all morning though. Either way this time is usually reserved for meetings and working in between. 

We have an open office with desks that we can be assigned or we can just hot-desk. I have an un-assigned assigned desk aka I put a post-it on it with my name. I sit with my other local teammates, although most of the team is based in the SF office or remote, but usually I see at least one other team member when I'm there. 

If the office is too loud or if I have a meeting, there are meeting rooms scattered around the building. Everything from big rooms to accommodate like 20 people down to tiny phone booths for just one person. 

And during this time, I try to make myself drink water. We have a ton of fun types of water (and sodas/coffee/tea/etc) in the mico kitchens. We have one per floor so you can stop by and grab food and drinks whenever you want. For my first few weeks I ate SO MANY SNACKS but now I'm used to it and only grab them when I actually want them.

Me the first week feeling like I was
stealing food 

12:00PM - 1:00PM Lunch

Sometimes I have lunch meetings, which is fine because while I try to get lunch around noon, lunch is served from 11:30 to 1:30 every day. So even if I have a meeting that ends at 1, I can still grab lunch. 

There are even more lunch options than breakfast options, so we always check the app/website to see what is being served in each building. While my building doesn't do breakfast, they do lunch so that's super convenient if I only have a half hour. If I have longer, I'll usually go wander around to find something I really want. Each building has slightly different food, but we have basically everything you could imagine. There are specific cafes for Indian food, BBQ, a general Asian cafe, ramen, boba, pizza, mexican, salad, and so on.

Not yet accurate

1:00PM - 3:30PM Work

More work time and usually at least one more meeting. Very occasionally I'll wander around campus with a coworker, especially if we have something to talk about, we've found some cool places, such as a meditation room, a massage room (you have to pay for that though), a music room, the gym, and all sorts of other things. Also all micro kitchens have slightly different snacks. If there's a bunch of us there, then we have used the game room! But that's happened like... twice in the last year and a half. 

Not accurate, they did bring these bikes around on campus for
a bit but they were used for transportation between buildlings,
not for meetings lol

3:30PM - 4:00PM Coffee Break

In addition to the cafeterias, we also have a few cafes which are open from like 7am to 4pm. These are where you can grab coffee or tea from some of our amazing baristas and they have some snacks that are pre-made. If you accidentally skip lunch, the cafes usually have some sort of sandwich to eat. But we make sure to get in the door around 3:30 because they're really good about closing on time and then after that you just have micro kitchen foods (which are like chips and chex mix type of food). 

Not every day but a lot of days lol

4:00PM - 7:00 (or whenever) PM Work

After 4 it's pretty much whatever else needs to be done, this is usually my heads down time since we don't usually have meetings after 3 or 4. Sometimes I'll walk back home right after lunch if I have an errand or laundry or if I just feel like being at home instead. Or sometimes I'm at work late finishing stuff up or hanging with one of my coworkers who also works late sometimes. 

We don't get served dinner, which is fine. It means that I usually eat dinner at home. And honestly on the days I stay at the office all day, I don't usually want much for dinner! Sometimes if I plan ahead, I'll grab something from lunch or from the cafe to save for dinner, but that happens very rarely. 

Every c-suite at every tech company in the area lol

Riding Days

On the days that I ride, the schedule starts the same, but I usually do one of the following: 

1) drive down right after breakfast, work for the rest of the morning at the ranch, ride over lunch, work until 5 or 6, then drive home and finish up work later.

2) work from the office until 11ish, drive down over lunch, work for the rest of the day at the ranch, either squeezing a ride in whenever I can.

I'm super lucky that my schedule is this flexible. It's a perk of I think most of my work being somewhat independent outside of meetings and my team and company culture. I also will do anything to get my work done on time, meaning that I have worked a LOT of weekends and evenings. So I figure that as long as I get everything done, I can ride at a time where it makes the most sense. I've run that by my manager and gotten a "I don't care what you do, work when you work best and just hit your deadlines and go to your meetings" speech. Luckily he flexes his schedule too and has kind of realized that if he just lets me do my weird thing, I'll produce a lot more work than I would if I were forced into a 9-5 schedule. 

I also have rules around riding during working hours. I must always be 10-15 minutes from my computer (which like, at the office I'm often further from my computer lol), meaning that if I get 5 minutes into my ride and someone needs me urgently (and it's legitimate and not just like, someone weaponizing urgency), I can tell them that I'll be right there.

I also try to do my quicker rides on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I'm more likely to be needed. I can do a trail ride relatively quickly and I will also often have my computer at the barn so I can keep an eye on things (run processes, respond to emails/teams) while I'm tacking up. 

You've reached the end of a post about work! Hopefully it was interesting enough

Working Equitation Clinic

May has turned into quite the month for TC and I. The first two weekends of the month were spent doing obstacles and then this third weekend was working equitation! He's going to be disappointed when this coming weekend is a dressage clinic (biomechanics for me because I am ~crooked~ as per usual). 

I was wondering if TC was going to be excited about another outing or annoyed about it. He nickered at me when I went to get him and happily loaded into the trailer, so that was good! We used to haul out all the time for trail rides and clinics and lessons at our old barn. When he moved to the ranch two years ago, we stopped hauling out for trail rides, and last year we really didn't go anywhere. I'm glad he's enjoying all the outings! 

My gray horse waiting his turn so he
can show off how completely okay
he is at reining back

We got to the clinic, which was right around the corner at Kate's barn, a bit late because, well, I have no real excuse. I've been so unbelievably exhausted on weekends lately, maybe that's my excuse. Also the clinic was 3 hours long and TC is still not in as good of shape as I want him to be (he's carrying around some extra chonkiness from his pasture right now). Honestly it worked out, because we missed a side passing exercise and as I mentioned last week, TC is weirdly amazing at side passing these days.

But despite being a bit late, it was so much fun! The clinician hadn't seen him in FIVE years, where she vividly remembered him kicking down her obstacles. I told her no promises that he wouldn't destroy them this time, but that he hadn't kicked anything down in a while. 

The pen with a little piggy in it!

We started with the pen, where we were told to be more forward through it. Honestly, like how? He is a very large horse. Then we did some apparently acceptable walk pirouettes, which I haven't schooled in a long time. 

We then went to the bending poles (WE people, please don't judge the words I'm using to describe these exercises lol) and got to do half pass and leg yield for the first time in a long time too! He was very good at it, so good that we were told to do it one handed and at the trot. He's not great at like, a super slow trot, so the trot was tough, but I can say confidently that I can do half pass (at the walk) with one hand!

I took very few pictures

Because there were so many of us, we had some downtime while some riders got extra help. TC took this time to stare at the pony club lesson next door. I told him "that'll be you in a few years" because I'm thinking that he might like to be a pony club horse for my nieces when he's in his later teens. 

Also during downtime, I found him inching towards and then straight up following a couple of the horses around in a move I'd like to call "chaos recognizes chaos" because did he follow the most perfect Flounder around? Or the sweet lesson ponies? No he did not. He found Kate's most chaotic training horses in the group and decided to inch toward them. One of them was not a fan and walked away from him and TC pursued him. The other was like FRIEMBDS??? And I had to pull him away like no not you two. Then he saw Duende, his most favorite chaotic gray friend and I thought I might lose him over there. 

Creeping on the pony club

The rest of the obstacles went well! I even got in some ETS practice both undersaddle and on the ground playing over the bridge. And TC got to jump over a cross rail for the first time outside of jumping at home and he was shocked when the jump appeared under him so it was not a graceful moment. 

Our reining back could be improved, but I did discover that he does it best when I'm holding the reins in one hand because that's what I do when we're opening gates. We also apparently open the gate in a way that would let some cows out. TC has his own way of opening gates and I have zero influence over him. Oh well. 

And that was it! 

My helmet camera's SD card was full
booo it would have been so cool

When we got back to the rig, TC hesitated for a second getting on the trailer. I think he misses living at a boarding stable a little bit. It's a better life for him to be at the ranch out in pasture of course, but he loves the activity of boarding stables and all the different horses/people there. 

Luckily for him, we're going to be doing a lot this year now that I've stopped trying to return to dressage. We've got a few more ETS's, several playdays, and maybe we'll try a WE show. I dunno, I feel like it's a bit stuffy in comparison to the ETS's, but if there's a local one that I'm around for, I think it'd be fun to try not to get eliminated from!

Stories About Rico Pt 2

I decided to write another post about Rico! All of these I think I've shared on the blog before, but they're still fun 

Very early 2000s moment: my mom accidentally
turning the camera to sepia tone LOL

Rico the Combined Driving Horse

I bought Rico in 2005 when he was just turning 9 years old. He'd been at the dressage barn for training/sale for a couple of months and had probably 60 days of actual dressage training on him. Before that, he *was* ridden, but not as his primary career, because he was a Combined Driving horse! 

His previous owners imported him from Germany as I think a 4 year old alongside his partner, Limbo. He was apparently the calm lazy one, while Limbo was the hot, less brave one. Limbo would jazz Rico up and Rico would be like "dude, slowing down would take more effort" whenever Limbo would get nervous. 

The driving training was definitely interesting, I feel like it made dressage a little challenging for him since he'd been taught to pull. But I also think it set us up super well for him being a good boy in the show ring because despite being green to dressage, he wasn't green to crowds or warm up arenas or travelling. 

Literally one of two photos I have of him driving,
he is on the left of the cart, right of the photo

Rico Hated Trail Rides

He was green to trail rides alone on narrow trails with me riding him bareback though! I was kind of an idiot and thought this was a great way to relax with my horse. Early on, he would frequently spin and head back home. 

He did get over it and was eventually probably my best trail horse aside from TC at this point. And actually, honestly, the only thing TC has over Rico is that TC walks faster and is not afraid of pigs.  

I even got to ride him on my childhood trails, somewhere where I am going to take TC this year. Rico and I rode all over those trails in the late 2000s and they were so much fun! 

Cantering up a trail in 2006 I think?

Rico at Pebble Beach 2005

So this show sucked because I was an overconfident teenager. I basically didn't memorize my tests enough so my trainer had to read one right at the last minute. Rico then tried to murder me in the warmup arena by bucking SUPER big and I landed on the saddle and cracked my back pretty good. I then insisted on riding in my next test and got a 59 because my trainer read me off course (given that she wasn't prepared to read at all, I don't blame her). Then I ended up scratching and my trainer rode him in the show and scored way better. 

I'm still bad at scratching but this is definitely a show I think about frequently when I think about scratching for the good of myself/my horse. Just ridiculous! Glad I grew out of being an idiot, well, kind of. 

I also think of that show when I remember that for the most part, my worst injuries have happened when I cling onto my horse like a spider monkey rather than falling off like a normal person. Sometimes hitting the dirt is better. 

This was pre launching buck

Ended up hurting myself at that show so I had to take
some time off of riding, very dumb

I love reminiscing about this wonderful horse! He is the best.

Trying Out the Side Pull

TC and I took it easy on Sunday and I just brushed him and did some light stretching/bodywork for him out in his pasture. Then on Monday, I decided to take him on an easy trail ride to just get a leg stretcher in. 

He handled the hauling well, but he was definitely worn out and a little body sore in weird places. Poor guy! It was 6.5 hours of hauling total that day with not a huge amount of time between the drive up (3 hours) and the drive back (3.5 hours). I decided that less time in between was better than hauling in 100 degree heat, and I'm glad I did it, even if it was a lot of hauling! 

Heading up to the trails!

On Monday I opted to put him in the side pull for the first time. I've had it since the winter, but haven't trusted him enough in it to willingly ride in it yet. But now I have my sweet summer horse back! So it was time to try the side pull. 

He was honestly SO GOOD in it! We were mostly on a loose rein out on the trails but I felt like I had plenty of control out there. 

Looking down at the ranch afterwards

I think next, we'll try riding in it in the arena and see what happens. I really want the horse to be able to do his job bitless and with a bit (and bridleless), not for any reason in particular, just because I feel like it opens up doors if he ever needs to go without a bit for a while! I guess he's been ridden in my weird flower hackamore, but the side pull definitely feels like more his style. 

WW: Got My Trail Horse Back

TC takes a few trail rides at home in the first part of the year to remember that trail riding is about relaxing and taking in nature, not snatching at grass and spooking at nature. And finally we have hit our stride where I can go out on the trails bareback and be on a loose rein the entire time. 

Already, the hills are turning brown from the lack of rain this spring. Oh well, it's still beautiful! 

Looking down on the ranch

We call this the "bowl" 

TC says "I can see my house from here"

We finally got the trails mowed so that
TC can't snatch at grass so much