Terrifying Coworkers: Flashback

I worked alone for most of my time as a guide but I occasionally had coworkers, some were good (they didn't stay long) and most were just alright. But one in particular was awful. She was the typical snotty, 16-17 year old who thought she knew everything about horses. Despite not owning a single one. The only reason she got hired was because I was on a long vacation. When I returned she kept trying to tell me how to do things, all of which were wrong, and she kept mixing stuff up. Like all the tack that I had spent hours figuring out which ones fit which horse better.

The problem came when she wasn't willing to accept that the way she'd been doing things wasn't going to continue now that I was back.

Me: *flipping the sweaty saddle pads upside down over the saddles*
Her: "No, we just stack them in a pile like this." *flops it on the floor sweaty side down*
Me: "No, they get moldy and gross if they don't get a chance to dry out. Plus this way they can stay with the saddle, and horse, they fit best on."
Her: "Whatever, that's not how we do it."
Me: "Why don't you ask the boss then?"
Her: "Fine!"

Shockingly her way was wrong..

Our boss had recently bought a little mare from the auction who was incredibly hard to catch, because of this and because she wasn't ready to be a guest horse yet, catching her was the last thing on the 'tacking up' list.
I was just getting the regular guest horses brought in and tacked up when my coworker said she was going to go catch the new mare.
Me: "Why don't you wait until all the horses are ready?"
Her: "No, I'm just going to go get her now."
Me: "She's not easy to catch and it will work better with two people trying."
Her: "It's fine, I got this."
I gave her a weird look but decided not to say anything, since I could actually get things done faster with her out of the way.

Well, when I was getting them ready I saw the little mare running wild up towards the barn. On the road (it was never busy) and happily chomping down on the neighbors yard and flowers along the way. I figured she'd probably had more than a little trouble and bitten off more than she could chew. I also figured that I didn't have time for this nonsense and had horses to get ready. So I left her to deal with it.  After all, she said she had it.

I continued tacking up and watched, with a fair bit of amusement (I know, shame on me) as she chased that little mare around in circles getting more and more frustrated.

Finally she seemed to give up and stomped over to me.

Her: "Aren't you going to help me?!"
Me: "Nope, not until I'm done tacking up. I have horses to get ready, horses that are actually going to be used today."
Her: "We need to get her in!"
Me: "And we will. Once I'm done tacking up."

After I was done I hopped up on my lead horse and helped her chase/guide the mare into the round pen. It was a damn waste of time, since no one was riding her that day, but at least it was a heck of a show.

Another day she was "helping me" groom, feed and tack up the horses and I noticed she was putting a saddle pad on brownie. Who was literally caked with mud.

Thinking that maybe she forgot and wasn't paying attention, I took the pad off and started currying her.
Her: *carrying the saddle* "Did brownie's pad fall off? Can you put it back on?"
Me: "No, I took it off. She's filthy and has to be groomed."
Her: "She looks fine! Just put the pad back on so I can put the saddle on!"
Me: "No. She needs to be groomed or the mud will rub and cause saddle sores and discomfort all day. Just set the saddle down and I'll put it on when she's clean."
Her: "Oh my god, she's fine! Whatever, I'm going to go get Penny ready.."

 I checked all the horses after that. This was actually the final straw for me and I told my boss he needed to fire her, because that was not okay. Also she didn't stay by the guests on the ride, didn't communicate with them, she couldn't ride for beans (she rode one of our oldest, calmest horses as her guide horse) and she refused to listen to any other way of doing things. Not the ideal worker.

It's hard to find good trail guides that will stick around after you train them. At least it's hard to find them when the pay isn't great, the ride's not that exciting, and once they've realized it's actual work.