This is a 2012 Ford F-150 EcoBoost with 360 HP and a big 36 gallon gasoline tank. It is made to tow about 11,000 lbs.

My intent is to use this vehicle to tow a gooseneck horse trailer so that our horses Max and Maximiliano can travel with us wherever we have to go. A gooseneck trailer is hitched to a ball located in the bed of the truck. That way the trailer sits on the rear axle of the vehicle, which provides more stability than pulling a trailer hitched to the rear bumper.

Besides towing, which isn’t something I have to do every week, this vehicle is also for daily driving. In contrast to Europe parking lots in the U.S. are quite large and even parking garages are made for vehicles such as this one. So there should be no problem with that. The gas mileage isn’t as bad as one might expect. When I drove it yesterday for the first 90 minutes on the highway at slightly more than 100 km/h the dashboard computer indicated an average of 14.2 l/100 km. That’s a lot but still acceptable.

Inside it has a lot of space to offer. The rear seats can be folded and that provides room for stowing a few boxes or suitcases in the back. Then of course there is the bed where a cover can be attached to and thus I have more than enough room to take all our stuff from place to place. However, once we have the horse trailer the bed is being used for the gooseneck and then the stuff goes into the trailer. Those horse trailers usually have a “dressing room” separated from the space for the horses and there is more than enough space to basically transport a whole household.

It’s going to be an interesting experience.

After calming him down a bit I walked him up the driveway very slowly. He was nervous and ready to flee but somehow he also trusted the human at his side (me) enough to stay. I took a while to get to the barn. We did several stops to look around while I was trying to talk to him in a calm voice. His stall has a small run outside. For the time being he prefers to stay outside looking over the adjoining hay field.

Maximiliano is black with a touch of chocolate in his mane. Right now he is wearing his winter coat. I’m expecting him to get very beautiful for the summer. He is also quite curious about other creatures like the barn cat.

And of course Maximiliano and Max, the Haflinger, made friends the same day they met. Here is Max nibbling his new friend.

Although I have ridden Maximiliano briefly I don’t intent to get up his back just yet. Instead I want to figure him out a bit more and do some groundwork first to establish our relationship and respect. I’ve also ordered a custom saddle all in black that has to arrive first.

Max is usually a nice and obedient little guy. He makes space when someone cleans out his stall. He waits until his hay is in the right place. When he first came to us he was a bit weak and since then has gained weight and strength. It appears that now step by step he is coming out of his shell and does show all the traits that one would expect from a two years old horse.

Right now it’s pretty cold and although Max is getting quite a lot of feed (grain and hay) he is always hungry. That’s quite normal for a horse. They basically like to eat all the time. We left the barn area and he started to look for grass under the snow. Of course that created a conflict. He wanted to eat grass and I wanted to walk down to the training area. What happened? He refused to continue walking and as soon as I pulled on the lead rope he started to buck and express his discontent. It went so far that he jumped really high and even did a few playful strides in the air with his front legs. Quite impressive and good to have a long lead rope ;-)

My reaction to him saying “no” in a horsy way was to have him run in circles around me with me not moving any feet. That’s the important part with horses. Who moves his feet looses. Who stands still while making the other run is the boss. Quite simple and effective.

So there he was running in a circle. That had some effect. After a few minutes he got the message and we were able to continue our walk to the round pen.

We arrived, I took off the lead rope and raised my arm. He immediately started to walk in the indicated direction and when I raised the same arm again he picked up speed. Just as he learned to do. I stepped in front of him and he stopped and gave me two eyes looking at me and waiting for more instructions. I sent him off in different directions a few times and everything was just perfect.

A little bit later in our training session I jumped up and down next to him while holding tight on to him with my arms. That’s the exercise to prepare him for a riding getting up on his back. Somehow he didn’t like me doing that. His mouth came to my boots and legs and he started to nibble. So I gave him a slap on the nose. Still he was repeating this a few more times and on both sides. He clearly wanted to let me know that he doesn’t like this exercise. That’s not ok. He has to learn to tolerate these things, because when a rider mounts him jumping up is part of the activity.

After we were done and when I stepped away he raised his head playing with his tongue and exposing his teeth. Not in an aggressive way but I feel that I got the message. He was still discontent and basically wanted to let me know that he does have teeth. So… That’s a big issue and totally not acceptable. I raised my arm to make him go in circles. He did but stopped after a few steps. He was testing me. To figure out whether I’m really sure about it. That’s a horses way to question one’s authority. No. Wrong answer. So I used the stick and the attached string to whip the ground. That made him go. Good answer. I raised my arm again and he went faster. He was still trying to test me but each time he slowed down I responded by raising my arm with the stick and string ready to hit the ground again to reinforce my command. I told him to change direction and he refused. By hitting the ground and clearly making him understand the new order I got him to comply. We did this a few times and after a while he was breathing hard and ready for some air. So he got to rest a while and think about how’s the boss.

The next exercise went right by the book without any questioning on his part.

Now that we had established our pecking order we were able to do a few more things and then ended the session with some desensitizing exercises and a lot of rubbing for good behavior.

The walk up to the stable was completely uneventful. No pulling on the lead rope. No searching for grass under the snow. He walked with the same speed as I and kept his relative position.

Good boy!

We then arrived at Wheaten Point Farm where we met Maximiliano. He is a tall black Peruvian Paso gelding.

Here is Maximiliano with Carlos Gallegos, his Peruvian trainer.

After a demonstration of Maximiliano’s gaits by Carlos I was allowed to ride him. He is energetic and arrogant as a Peruvian Paso horse should be. To some people that might be a bit intimidating but it’s part of the breed’s characteristic. These horse just want to to go and perform. Initially I had to establish a bit my role on Maximiliano’s back but then we did understand each other well. He was born in 2006 and got some basic training, which is just enough to start riding him. It will be up to me to continue his education and carefully get him exposed to all the spooky things this world has to offer to horses.

Thanks to Rob Park, who is also a LeanDog software development coach, I am learning more and more about Clinton Anderson’s training method of natural horsemanship. There are some differences between the Peruvian training methods and what Clinton does but the basic ideas are pretty much the same: teach the horse respect and respect the horse to form a mutual relationship.

Maximiliano now has to wait a couple of days for his ride from Virginia to his new home in Ohio.

We are on our way back to Ohio. Yesterday we just crossed through a part of West Virginia again and then spent the night in Frostburg, Maryland. Today we have another 5 hour drive ahead of us, which will take us partially through Pennsylvania. All in all it will be about 1100 miles (1700 km) when we arrive.

Haflinger is a horse breed that was developed in Austria. These horses are supposed to be very calm and docile so that basically even the youngest member of the family can handle the horse safely. They can be ridden, pull a cart or even be used for some farm work pulling a light plow.

So far Max has been with us for two weeks and his character has shown to be just the calm horse as a Haflinger is supposed to be. Initially some at the farm have been worried that he might behave a bit pushy and aggressive because when he got there he had been a stallion. By now he went through the “procedure” and is now officially a gelding. He has not changed a bit since then. So that’s a good sign.

There was no problem loading him onto the trailer. He walked right into it. He leads very well and is really a people horse. I also discovered that he seems to understand German better than English. Saying something like Nein, which means No in English, appears to have a better effect. We don’t know nothing about where he was born. However, I assume that he was born on an Amish farm somewhere in Ohio, because the Dutch dialect the Amish speak is very close to German. I may be imaging all of this but somehow it feels about right.

I have started his training program, which really is me being trained on how to communicate with a horse. With the help of Terri Kucera Max and I have learned to move and stop, turn towards the human and to release the hindquarters all based on body language and a few words. It’s impressive how far that gets you. I can now walk up to him or into his stall and indicate him to move his butt around and face me – just by a small gesture.

As Max is only two years old, he is still too young to be ridden. According to the veterinarian he should be developed and strong enough by March or April for that. In a little while I will be shopping for a saddle so that I can start him getting used to all those things on his back and at the sides of his body. As he is a light draft horse I will need to find a saddle with a wider tree that fits well with the shape of his back. However, it is too early for that as he needs to get a bit more flesh onto his bones. Due to his history his nutrition wasn’t the best and he needs to recover a bit more before his body shape becomes more real.

As I write this we have officially left Panama.

A work related opportunity has made it more stressful to continue living in Panama. Staying would require too much travel back and forth with too much time away from the family.

The other reason – and it’s the thing I would like to say a few more words about – is that I consider my attempts to solve the legal problems regarding the land purchase a failure. On paper I am the owner of 128 ha of land in the Chepo district in eastern Panama. The office of land reform has refused to confirm my right of possession despite the fact that the former owner signed it over to me and then breached the contract he signed and causing damages to me. The office of land reform is even violating written Panamanian law to a certain extend but that doesn’t really matter much unless someone would care enough about it and has the power to apply legal pressure. By now a new entity has been established to replace the office of land reform. The name is ANATI but right from the start there has been a few bigger scandals of more valuable land than the one in question in my case. The initial director of ANATI had to resign. There are a lot of games being played and if you are interested in knowing more about crazy Panamanian politics you may read more about it at the Panama Guide website.

To assess the situation I had a few longer talks with different lawyers and learned that I can force the seller to leave the land he officially signed over to me and take possession in a matter of a few weeks. However, that doesn’t make me the legal owner. I would still have to fight for that in court and in the very end I do need the recognition of my ownership by ANATI, which is uncertain and can be in limbo for many years. I would be investing in improving the land, putting up infrastructure and even build a house without being sure that all of that is really mine.

As I don’t look forward to paying a huge amount of money to a lawyer and still have no legal security, I decided to stop right here and abandon the project “farming in the rainforest”. It has been a tremendous adventure. I learned many things and did many things that I would probably never have learned about or done without coming to Panama. The experience has enriched my life.

There is another problem with doing business in Panama and it is of social and cultural nature. It is something that shows human weaknesses.

While I was doing software development in my own office in Panama City I provided opportunities to a few Panamanians to learn about modern software development. I have been happy with their personal development towards becoming software craftsmen and they certainly were happy with the compensation received. However, after a while it turned out that due to comparisons to their friends working in more sales oriented companies a high salary became more important than their professional development. I am talking about 24 – 26 years old who were still living at home. Eventually some switched to the higher paying regular job or were pulled back in from their parents to help in the home business (subsistence agriculture). In retrospective I have to say that they themselves or their parents clearly did not understand the huge opportunity that were presented to them. I don’t blame them. It is likely that they were not believing in it because it’s not offered by anyone in Panama.

Later when I was pursuing the idea of setting up a farm in the rainforest I met a few good young people who worked for me in different capacities being it harvesting teak, building an off road trailer or a transmitter tower to bring Internet to a village. I have been very happy, we had a very good relationship and I helping them and their families here and there when the need was huge. However, after a while of enjoying the good life, they wanted more than the proverbial fair share and things went sour. In looking back it is probably a good thing that the farm project did never really start due to the land dispute. From at least two wealthier Panamanian acquaintances I was told that – despite the poverty in rural Panama – it is extremely difficult to find reliable people.

It appears that the pattern I have observed myself is a huge problem for many businesses. Panama has what is called locally a juega vivo culture. At its core is to be smarter than the other guy and have no consideration. Politicians and other elected officials demonstrate this behavior in front of everyone and so it is no wonder that it influences behavior.

Still – and I would like to stress that – I enjoyed living in Panama. There are many positive things that one can enjoy. Running a business is not one of them but other than that it can be a very relaxing and quiet place to enjoy life. Especially if one’s income comes from outside Panama.

Today I’m very a very happy person. The picture above shows the new paddock right in front of the house. This is the first 2000 square meter piece. More will follow further to the right. Now I have my horse always in sight and just about 25 meters to walk to catch them and go for a ride. This is all brand new and a few details are still missing. One thing is to have water there. For the moment we have to use a bucket but then it’s not far away. The next step is to install some water pipe and then use a garden hose to wash them and provide drinking water.

There is a team of 4 programmer pairs, 4 testers and 3 analysts. The organization expects production code to be written in pairs. They do a three amigo practice which requires the three amigos (analyst, tester, programmer) to talk about each user story before and after the implementation. User stories are reasonably sized. Most are about 2 or 3 points which in this organization translates to 2 or 3 days of work for the programmer pair and tester.

The organization standardized on a modified Scrum process. They expect the project team to provide a fully estimated and fine grained backlog for the scope of the whole project before actual development work begins. The detailed backlog is shared with the contracting entity within the same organization.

Before each iteration the team performs an iteration planning meeting and re-estimates the user stories that have been scheduled for the iteration. The iteration manager together with the analysts, the test lead and the technical lead on the team selects the stories from the backlog that should go into the iteration. During the iteration planning meeting each story is presented by the analysts, discussed and estimated using planning poker.

At the end of the iteration planning meeting the iteration manager looks at the capacity the team has and asks the team whether they want to commit to the points assigned to the scheduled stories. The capacity is determined by how many team members are available during the iteration.

The organization has made it clear that missing the commitment will affect the performance review for each team member.

Observation

During the iteration planning meeting analysts present story after story to the rest of the team. Programmers and testers have a brief conversation about each story and then present their estimate. During the three amigos meeting before the implementation of a story the three participants discuss the story briefly and then the programmers go off to implement it while the tester prepares or refines Cucumber scenarios and writes Ruby step definitions to automate the scenario.

Programmers do some limited modeling. There is communication between all three roles during the implementation of a story. Programmers are focused on delivering all the stories scheduled for the iteration.

Code quality as measured by Sonar is deteriorating.

Conclusion

In my opinion the extreme focus on making the points leads to less focus on code quality. There is fear. From the perspective of each team member not making the points is far worse than code of low quality.

User stories are not being used to enhance a system step by step with new features. They are used to form some kind of project plan in the form of a story backlog. Then an attempt is made to follow that plan. The programmers treat user stories similar to tasks. Because of the focus on making the points the team does not want to engage in too much mutual problem solving but instead time-boxes this in order to make their commitment.

PS: I wrote this post in this format as part of an experiment. All comments are greatly appreciated.

Well… This morning we found one:

Somehow over night it sneaked into the house and found an open moving box to sleep the day away.

Using a broom with a looooong stick I closed the lid of the box, moved it outside and then turned it over. First the snake didn’t want to move so I pushed it with the broom and eventually it woke up and got angry at the broom pushing it. With a few more strokes it finally got the message and started to leave.

I don’t know whether this visitor was a poisonous or not. There are enough poisonous ones out there that you are usually well advised to assume they are. I will ask around and update this post once I know what type of snake we had in the box.

Update: I was told that our visitor was some sort of viper and poisonous. So it was a good idea to be very careful in moving the box to get the snake out of the house.