Where I've Been for 2 Years & Why I Spent It Training Horses 🦄

Wanted to update you guys on where I've been and why I haven't been posting. I didn't edit the "video" and barely edited the audio for the sake of not filtering myself. (For better or worse! But at least it's something!)

I'd like to write a more focused post or video with the learnings I had over the last couple years, including more specific details than my stream of consciousness rambling can manage. I've spent a lot of time learning how a horse vs monkey vs human brain works, how different cultures and disciplines train horses (what works, what doesn't and what is cultural 'dogma' IMO) how human stress and anxiety work, and how these things changed how I process my day-to-day. I think I spent the year reprogramming the core "OS" of my brain.

It's probably not the 'game dev' content this audience subscribes for, but I think it's all interesting stuff! I made a resolution to create things I genuinely find cool rather than brainstorm tech tutorial ideas to appease an imaginary peanut gallery. I'm still in the industry and I've resurrected some of my old projects so it's not like I'm abandoning that stuff altogether :) It just takes a really long time to make original, technical content.

For now, hopefully this breaks my streak of posting *nothing*, and with quarantine in place who knows if I'll find the motivation to make stuff!

[milton]

Day #65 of Quarantine: TheHappieCat has successfully bred a unicorn.

[StarContract]

"I kept my spendings at a minimum. Anyway, I bought this horse..."

[cannon]

all the content creators I haven't seen in a while have come back this is epic.

[fendoroid]

I like this horse game. The graphics are stunning.

[BennyTheKidd]

Hey! Glad to hear from ya again. You made a video a ways back about how to deal with self-criticism when you are learning how to do something new and it had a pretty significant and lasting impact on me. I just wanted to say thank you and that it's good to hear from ya 👍

[AceTycho]

I haven't listened to the whole thing yet but I did want to say before I forgot that it's great to see you upload.

[dandymcgee]

This is like a podcast.. I'm just listening to you in the background while I do some coding. It's very soothing. So happy you're doing well and have found some new passions. Would love to hear and see more about whatever you're doing, not just indie game dev. Horses, bicycling, work stuff, whatever. The biggest mistake YouTubers make is thinking they can never talk about other topics because their viewers only care about that one viral video. Don't let YouTube define you, let it reflect you. The real you!

[brutalhorns]

Never thought I would listen to one hour about training horses, I loved it LOL. It's so good to see you back <3 If you feel bored please post more, anything really :3

[agentrsdg]

Missed you! I remember this channel from my college days and you really helped me with a lot of dev stuff. Welcome back!

[MaximumR]

Happy to see you're doing well! I remember years ago I would watch your game dev videos, and now I'm finishing college and, starting this summer, going into Microsoft myself as a software engineer! Maybe I'll even see you around there lol

[mossandquill]

I literally just discovered your channel and wow, you like video games, horses, and programming. It makes me so happy!!

[TheIttyBittyGalaxy]

Hi Happie,
just wanted to say I'm greatful for you putting out this video. Besides it being very interseting to listen to, I've also had a history of anxiety/paying too much attention to every little detail at the expense of my own wellbeing, and I found listening to you talk about what you've been through and how you think about it very insightful and useful. I hadn't expected that when I clicked on the video of course, but I'm glad it happened :)

Best of luck to you with whatever you are doing at the moment!

[benrex]

Hi HappieCat
Welcome back. Nice hearing from you.


Cool, horses. I like horses. Thanks for letting your thoughts run wild in this video. I learned a lot.


Do you know that the Swiss military still has horses? There are about 200 of them. And they are mostly used for transporting goods through the mountains. Like the cheap and slow alternative of the helicopter. And I've ended up in one of those units. And why? Is it because I had previous experience with horses? No, not at all. My only previous experience is that one time at a birthday party where I sat on a horse for a minute (I don't remember it anymore, my mom told me it happened) and I've read most books from the author of Winnetou. The real reason is that every male Swiss person has to attend military service. And with some physical restrictions (fitness, body size...) you can basically choose whatever you like. And I looked through all the possible units. All "cannon fodder" units were nothing for me. And since I had a technical education I didn't want to do something technical in the military. My favorite two were 1. horse guide and 2. scout. I went for horse guide and they took me. I love it there even though the military is not really a place where I belong. So far I had 5 months of education "Rekrutenschule" or "RS" in short and around 6x3 weeks of repetition courses "WK". I had two repetition courses so far. I like it because it is work with my hands, we hike a lot in the mountains, we have horses, it's one of the units with the most actual work and there are a lot of farmers there. And those farmers are so different compared to a flatland engineer - office worker. That's also the only place I heard some people sing traditional music ;P
One of the major differences between me and you is, that I see horses once a year for about half a month and the next time it's a different horse. I also spent too little time around them to really get to know them. The horses we use are Freiberger and a bit less than ten percent of our "horses" are mules.


So far I only had one potentially dangerous situation with horses that was in the RS. We had to bring bags of salt to one of the mountain huts. And to get there we had to go through a small tunnel. Freiberger are not really big horses. And when we transport goods we normally have one box on top of the horse and one on each side. And this tunnel was just big enough that every box touched the wall/ceiling. We have very calm and trained horses. So this isn't really a problem. And I had a 11 year old horse named Queen. It was already several times in the RS. _(Most were 4 and had just finished their training.)_ So everything should have been fine. On the way to the hut everything went well besides a bit of nervousness on the part of the horse. But on the way back I was the last person in the caravan. And my horse saw one horse disappear in that hole after an other until everyone was gone. And it got nervous again. I was standing beside it's head. So it made the only rational decision and it ran straight towards the tunnel. And I was next to the head trying to calm it down. A few meters into the tunnel I stopped and after a few additional meters it stopped. The only thing that happened to me was a scrape on my thumb as wide as my thumb and I think I saw my joints. But it could have been worse. To the left of me were the hoofs and passing over me was the side-box. The others heard that and quickly deescalated the situation. The next time we went there again I refused and a farmer guided it through the tunnel. _(They were aware that I'm a total noob and we have always enough manpower.)_ My horse was not nervous at all even though the shovel mounted on the top box had a 90° angle after they left the tunnel. That's the difference between a good guide and a mediocre one. But even after that accident, I never really feared the horse. I treated them like a hot heating plate. I don't have any fear of them, but I always pay attention to what they are doing. At least if they seem nervous. And that together with my normally bad leading skills and my inexperience with animals can lead to some sub-optimal behavior on my part. At least they work in most situations. And I'm learning.
Anther fun story I can add is from my second WK _(I spend the first WK with a different unit because of school stuff)._ After I had to postpone all my WKs during my time of university I hadn't touched a horse for about 5 years. And then at the first WK we got a bunch of horses and we just randomly gave them to each soldier. The horse named star was assigned to me. And for a Freiberger it was quite the lively one. The first thing we did with those horses is we went to the ceremony to get the Swiss flag for the duration of the WK. And my horse just didn't want to follow. It always wanted to walk in front of me. A great first experience after such a long break. And when it was behind me it either tried to overtake me or it wanted to eat my rifle. I was a bit stressed out. Especially since at the ceremony you were basically on your own since everybody had his thing to do. But during the WK I gained a bit of confidence and we got to work together instead of against each other. But I obviously couldn't cure it from it's flaws. And I'm still not a good leader.


You mentioned that your horse had the saddle on it's belly. Whenever we saddle our horses we basically want to avoid two situations. 1. we have to make everything clean and with no folds to avoid blisters and 2. we put on the saddle tightly so that the saddle doesn't turn upside down. Because when that happens on a mountain path the result can be disastrous. And it does happen. I've seen it about three or four times so far. And then the only thing you can do is pull the horse onto the ground (or it does it on it's own because it wants to scratch it's back) and sit on its head. then you open every belt so that there is nothing attached to the horse and you take your distance. If your lucky everyone survives unharmed and nothing get's destroyed.


58:40 I also don't want to look stupid. I think it's because I'm a harmony person. But there is also that feeling that people have an image of me that I don't want to betray.


1:23:00 I wish I had an A in anything at the university of applied science. The only place I had A's was in my exchange semester in Finland. I'm not a competitive person at all. I normally make a decent job, few errors and slow. If it's a job that can be done iterative I can turn on the perfectionist if I want to but most of the time I don't care. And exams definitely are not in the category of where I shine. There I'm average.




Again, welcome back. I look forward to simple and silly videos. Nothing fancy, just the occasional idea you have.
Greetings
Benni

[demonicious_]

This video randomly popped up infront of me and I just had a burst of memories coming through. When I first watched your channel, I was just a young kid who thought I wanted to build games without knowing anything about them. Many years later, I'm still not a game developer but I've published a few indie games, and generally just enjoy the process alongside my professional job as a web developer. Your channel is where it all started.

[rob_meade]

Welcome back! :)

There was a lot of your talk which really resonated with me personally, especially on the perfectionist traits, the over-thinking, and how they can all become really significant blocks and so paralyzing. I will look forward to any future videos you create, as and when you're ready. Take care :)

[ThisuraDodangoda]

I guess you could say you were horsing around 😋

Edit: The video ended and I feel like watched a beautiful story. I learned so much and am so thankful for you to making this.

I hope Nova and you make so many beautiful memories. It was so happy when I heard that you cried on her when she trotted after all those bolts injuries and time you guys put in. Really enjoyed this content. Hope you, your boyfriend and Nova have a safe quarantine time and then happier times afterwards!!

Also this video is going in my Favorites.

[varunsaxena]

Hey Anne ! Your videos made me decide to pursue Game Development as a career ! Thank you so much for that and stay safe !

[JayHere]

Glad you are back, I was still in college when I was watching your tutorials it really help me expand my horizon. Thanks. Currently looking for a job when the human malware is about to get worst!

[Capitaldcp]

I just subscribed today. Thank you for your previous videos. Stay STRONG! I will watch until I learn. And please enjoy your time in this phase! U are an asset to me.

[granatengeorg]

First minutes so far: What I expected: Halo Infinite. What I got: Horses. (Not complaining tho.)