Well, as I have already been ranting about the way they did things in previous posts, I will now submerge myself deeper into situations that led to the moment when a tiny comment from the extra guide made me launch a verbal rocket attack on the company. That happened on the 19th of June. It is going to be a long and probably boring one because I feel the need to rant right now so bare with...or don't. You do you.
From the beginning when I walked into the company and saw three horses in one box, no saddle pads, and horses with wounds from saddles and girths, I had constantly tried feedbacking the manager about different problems (which of course his little brain could not process). The usual response was that they have AlWaYs done it this way (the most ridiculous sentence in the whole universe), the horses are fine and the infamous Icelandic way to deny everything by repeating “NEI, NEI, NEI, its okay!"
We were forced to help horses in a way that did nothing for them and wasted our time but we also tried to ease their suffering on our own initiative by letting them graze after tours besides other things. The only thing they used to treat the wounds of the horses (like the ones in the picture) was antibacterial cream. At one point it seemed like this cream was a remedy for everything. I was tempted to smear it on the extra guide's head so that it would help them grow some brains (the manager and the boss would have been next in line). The saddest part was that the horses obeyed and endured the tours while being wounded which gave the manager and our “lovely” extra guide even more confidence to continue this way. That frustrated me every day because I could not be happy and talkative with customers when I knew that the horses were suffering. I saw no progress and our messages were fighting against greed and stubbornness. I felt that I am destroying my soul by earning my living off of these amazing creatures.
Normal amount of horses in a DOUBLE box.
Normal amount of horses in a double box for OUR company (+ mostly we couldn't match all the horses with suitable box companions, so they were fighting for food and space)
The ideal amount of horses in a double box for the company if it was allowed (they didn't have to stay like this, but were in the mood to play tetris with their bodies)
Not to mention how sorry I felt for each horse that had to serve the extra guide. The extra guide wasn't fat or anything, but the way they rode looked brutal which means that it must have felt even worse. Soft rains - they didn't know what that meant. They were always riding a horse named Mola when I arrived and within three weeks, Mola became unrideable, and her lips were split on both sides. No wonder why... I think the problem was initially her teeth but then I also saw her torn and wounded mouth immediately after rides which provided me with proof that her rider had zero problem-solving skills. The extra guide's only way to deal with a horse acting weird was not to figure it out, but to be as harsh as possible to show them "who is the boss". Funnily girls were always forced to ride the most uncomfortable and crazy horses (bc the extra guide had back injuries which meant that they got the most comfortable ones, and for some reason, not another job). But as soon as the manager or our favorite guide were not able to handle a horse (usually the same ones that girls had managed like superstars) that horse was taken away. I might be a psychopath for saying that I was majorly amused when I saw our favorite guide fall off a horse or a horse taking off with them, but I was and so be it.
In addition to treating the horses poorly, the guide in question grew this weird frustration towards us. I tried to understand them in the beginning when these snappy comments appeared because they were going through some hard times. But at one point I realized that I am feeding a monster by not stepping up for myself. We can snap, we can hurt each other, shit happens, but you apologize and try to be better next time. There was no sign of regret ever coming from them. I felt like a low-paid slave that was forced to work 3x more so that this extra guide and our manager and boss could live a luxurious life without giving an F about the guides and the horses. Can you imagine someone not shoeing their horses properly, not calling the vet, but can afford to get a tractor for their birthday? There was no excuse, their business was booming.
This horse had been on the field for the whole day like this and I had asked the extra guide to take her shoes off to which they responded that these will fall off by themselves?!?!
I removed the shoes myself without proper tools because it was almost impossible to make it worse.
In the end, the only thing that matters is how we have treated all living things. Look at them, they are amazing creatures and deserve so much better.
The extra guide never greeted us (not that I desperately longed for it but still, little things). It was always their way of bashing in, checking the bookings, making mean comments, asking stupid questions, and giving stupid orders that were not theirs to give, AND 90% of the time were also part of THEIR tasks (which they continued to forget). One time we were having a chat in the coffee area, this guide bashed in, took a cup of coffee which was the last one, and then ordered us to do more although they themself possessed two totally functioning hands that were also still attached to their body. I regretted not saying anything at that moment but I sure gave them an intense but inefficient death stare.
They also had a weird fetish with power washers which I have talked about before. When they saw the opportunity to bring the darling power washer out (which usually meant that something was slightly covered in dust) they started powering away all day. It was like looking at a great artist who is losing contact with the real world while painting (but not in a good way). In one situation, when I was cleaning shit, Axelle called me because she was having trouble with her guide horse (totally safe right?) and needed to switch. I went to said guide because it was easier for them to take a break from playing around with the power washer and taking a new horse to Axelle than me, who I had to make the stable look nice before customers came back from the tour. Of course, they stared at me with their narrow eyes and said:” No, you go!” while turning back to the love of their life and continuing with the cleaning that made like a 5% difference. I speed-tacked up a horse, rushed to Axelle, brought her horse back and I didn’t finish with the boxes before they arrived so I had to power-sweep the floors (no, I didn't use the power washer), put things away, and take them out again later to continue cleaning, sweep the floors again and finish my cleaning after the tours.
The boxes after our favorite guide or our manager had cleaned them.
When I started working for the company, I was taught that when I stay back and the boxes are already clean, then I have to clean and wax the saddles, which was a totally reasonable job and I actually enjoyed doing it. But every time the guide in question didn’t have any compulsory obligations after the first tour, they either skedaddled or just sat in the coffee area talking on the phone. One time they only cleaned their own gear which almost blinded me with its shine after I arrived from the tour and I found them talking in the coffee area as usual. Despite the manager emphasizing that there is always something to do or clean, this guide somehow always lost their hearing during that sentence. And I realized that although I like cleaning the saddles, I like sleeping more and after that, I and Axelle always used our free time to take a nap. Lisa, our loveliest soul, always tried to do as much as she could, bless her but I also considered tieing her to a lamp post or locking her in the bathroom, so that she would not waste her energy.
Letting the horses graze after tours and just chilling there with them luckily felt like a therapy. BUT ACCESS TO GRASS SHOULD NOT BE DEPENDING ON THE GUIDES WILLINGNESS TO DO THAT AFTER WORK.
Me trying to hakuna ma tatas by drinking my coffee with the horses on the field, so that I would not murder someone.
Furthermore, this guide's favorite communication method was clapping their hands in our faces. (which was mentioned in of the previous posts) They gave Axelle orders to clean the small wall behind the coffee thermos, which she wisely ignored to see what happens and what happened was that they repeated this order three times instead of taking the f-ing 30 seconds that was literally the maximum amount of time to do the task and just do it themself. Also considering the fact that they were actually a guide just like us, but got much bigger pay, worked two times less than we did, and still had the audacity to boss us around. In addition to not doing tasks that were the same for us and them, at one point they failed to do tasks that were only their responsibility because we were not allowed to drive the tractor. For example, they didn't bring hay to the field and told us that horses have to eat what is there (leftover hay mixed with dirt and pee), in that moment I asked them if he eats food that has fallen on the ground and has been stepped on. They got hilariously offended and asked what they had done to me and I responded that they are an asshole to which he left. That was a good feeling XD.
I tried to bring our conflicts into discussion during our team “meetings” which mostly meant that our manager was bullshiting and shutting us off while this guide was sitting next to him with a stupid smirk on his face knowing damn well, that we girls can’t do anything about the way how they run their business and being arrogantly proud of that. So what happened next did not come as a surprise because I had tried hinting the manager about the problems with this guide and the horses.
Peep our social media team hard at work too. ^
All of this led to the grand finale that took place on the 19th of June. We had a normal morning tour where nothing worth mentioning happened, but I was asked to bring two horses for a photo shoot right after the second tour which meant that I needed help. THE guide and I went on the second tour and Axelle stayed back and took a well-deserved nap because during the last few weeks said-guide had also successfully sneaked away from cleaning the boxes. Our fav guide also hated being in the front because it was boring although it would have been the same as they were literally doing nothing no matter where they were. I was in the front of the line sitting there with a grumpy face fed up with everything that was to do with the company and not speaking to the customers because they also had chosen this company (because of the low prices). I sent messages to Axelle regarding the photo shoot, so that we could take off right after the tour. The guide appeared next to me from the back of the line and asked why I was on my phone. I said that I had to contact Axelle about sth we have to do, to which they inquired: ”What is Axelle doing?” to which I jokingly replied:” I don’t know, maybe sleeping”. And then they replied without blinking an eye that they had noticed already before that we are sleeping when we stay back but we should be working and there is always something to do (apparently they hadn’t lost his hearing during these talks). I turned my head away, stared straight ahead, didn’t respond to them and they went back to customers.
I was so fed up that I considered hopping down from my horse and disappearing into the forest. It wasn’t a tremendously big deal, right? It was just a small and slightly unfair remark from a colleague that could have been solved in a calm and collected manner, but I was done being calm and collected. I came back from the tour, luckily I didn’t have time to work myself up, we had to go to a photo shoot. I and Axelle took off, it was raining, and the photographers had a blast while we were soaking and I was giving Axelle a short overview of what happened. We started heading back at high speeds and Axelle managed to fall off for the first time from a slow kid horse. That kinda felt like karma doing its job in a positive way taking into consideration that Axelle laughed her ass off and mocked us every time that happened to somebody else. It was my turn to laugh this time and I sure did use it.
She loved riding bareback but was terrible at getting on the horse which was hilarious.
We arrived back to the stables and my emotions started to kick in. I also had some personal problems in addition to everything else which resulted in me taking my leftover half a bottle of vodka, my mandolin and giving a full-blast rage concert for horses who luckily neither fancied nor hated it. Only Setta and Biggi seemed a bit concerned as to what was going on. Such sweethearts they are. Considering what they had to go through every day, it wasn’t the worse thing to be stuck with. Luckily the girls didn’t hear my solo band or they would have called a certain institution.
This video is recorded the previous day, but intensify my playing by 3x and add some loud and off-key singing and you get a glimpse of what the horses had to endure.
I finished my bottle and everything became clear, I found my inner voice and realized that the smartest thing to do right now is to just quit and I messaged my manager. I joined the girls, who were a little bit shocked by my condition and a bit offended that I didn’t invite them to my little drinking party but I seriously needed some alone time with these emotions. As I said, they would have called somebody. I sat behind the table, the girls were comfortably on the sofa and the manager tried to call me several times, to whom I didn't reply because I knew that shit would go down and I didn’t want that.
On second thought I did, I did want shit to go down for these assholes. With a little encouragement from my dream team, I called the manager and started my second rage party mostly about the extra guide because by that time I knew that the conditions of the horses do not matter to them although I made remarks about that as well. It's not my business at the end of the day. But girls leaving on short notice posed a threat to them losing money, which made them nervous. I do not remember much about that call other than me swearing more than I would have been proud of but I had to emphasize my point somehow and my fussy brain only came up with swearwords. My manager stayed silent at one point and said that he understands me. We finished the call and Ölfus girls arrived to whom I also gave a bit calmer overview of things that just had gone down and them patiently listening to me as always, but I believe at this point Axelle’s and Lisa’s ears were totally done with my constant ranting.
The next day the manager came to the stables and I found out that he, the boss, and my favorite guide had a conversation that lasted almost the whole night (if that wasn’t an exaggeration which I think it was) where the guide was threatened to be fired unless they changed their ways. The manager expressed his utter sadness about me leaving but I didn’t feel compassionate at all because HE HAD ALL THE SIGNS and he didn’t react. And his sadness meant that they didn't want to lose some good reviews because I sure knew that I was capable of entertaining the customers pretty damn well. Sorry, not sorry.
Also, I loved that my absolute favorite and sweetheart guide sent their apologies through the manager and didn’t dare to tell me directly that they was sorry. But after that the extra guide was a changed human, they started greeting the girls, saying compliments, and praising them for their good job. On my last day, they also helped us to clean AND put away the saddles which almost made me pass out because that had never happened before. New girls who came to Reykjavik were totally obsessed with this guide (who is still there) saying that they are so nice and polite. I can pat myself on the back for that. When we went out for dinner together with the girls and I told them stories about the “old” famous guide, they looked at me like they didn’t know who I was talking about, which was very entertaining.
But I found a new place that treated horses and staff with respect and with my additional free days and better pay I felt like a decent human being again. I had the energy to do stuff on my free time and go out to see Iceland or go to competitions and I felt happy working and going on tours because the horses were happy. So in conclusion I think me and the guide of 2022 made a favor for each other and I hope Reykjavik girls now have at least one problem less to deal with.
Me happy with my happy horses and happy people.
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