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At the country park where I used to work, they have an annual army themed event. It goes on for four days; Thursday to Sunday, and during said army event, they have the Red Arrows; gun salutes; displays and various other stuff going on, as well as people selling memorabilia on market stalls. A lot of people come and camp for the full four days. Some of these people are just families and couples come for a fun weekend camping and enjoying the shows. Others are rabid army groupies, who are obsessed. And I mean, obsessed.
The army event was on over this weekend and just ended, and it reminded me of a few things that happened during the time I was working at the country park during said event. I will take this opportunity to say that I am not prejudiced against the army, or army fans. The vast majority of the hundreds of campers were perfectly well behaved; it was just, as usual, a badly behaved minority who ended up giving all the others a bad name.
Shower Power.
At the campsite, there's a shower and toilet block. We also had those above the stables. As a general rule, we allowed people who were camping at the country park to use our showers and, also as a general rule, the campers tended to leave the showers in a clean and tidy state. We'd had the bikers in for their own annual event a few months earlier, and they'd been extremely well mannered; even cleaning the showers afterwards, which they didn't have to do. So, we assumed that the army fans would do likewise.
How wrong we were. The first day that we allowed the army groupies to use the showers, they not only left said showers in an absolute mess; water on the floor, spilled shower gel, soap smeared over the mirrors; but they left one shower running and the shower room was flooded. The water fell thru the ceiling and landed in a surprised shire horse's stable, soaking him to the skin. After we'd rehomed in a dry stable said horse, and dried him off with towels, we locked the shower room up and announced that we were no longer going to allow campers to use the showers.
This caused a massive uproar. All the army groupies who'd used the showers denied being the ones to cause the mess or leave the shower on, but we ignored their tantrums. Bottom line was, they'd abused our generous offer, and had to pay the price. We did let other campers in other events, such as the agility dogs event or the horse show use the showers, and they all managed to behave themselves. It really was just the army groupies who wrecked the place.
Army Invasion.
I previously mentioned the hundreds of people who came to camp at the country park during the army event. They were given a selection of fields to pitch their tents in and park their army vehicles, all save three which we stable staff had reserved for putting the horses and animal farm inhabitants in. There was plenty of space for all; however, a small group of army nuts decided that they deserved a private field, and they moved into one of the reserved fields like a small army of occupation, obviously thinking that once they were there, we couldn't shift them.
This was the field that we had earmarked for putting six shire horses in, and to say that we were annoyed about the occupation was an understatement, particularly as we only found out once three of us, myself included, had gotten to said field with two shire horses each. The head groom, let's call her Julie, spoke with the leader of the group and told him to shift himself and his friends out the field. He refused and smirked, saying that he and his friends were staying right there. It was the tone of his voice that got me, Julie and the other girl, let's call her Nicky. He was acting as tho we were just silly little girls, so I acted accordingly.
"In that case," I said. "Julie, Nicky and I are going to let these shire horses loose in the field. If they trample your tents to pieces, that's just your tough luck." Please note that I had no intention of actually doing this, only cuz the horses might get hurt in the process rather than any concern for the invasion. But it did the trick; they hurriedly packed up their tents and shifted, giving us glares of hatred as they passed. XD We didn't care, cuz we could finally let the shire horses into the field and rest our aching arms; said horses had been fussing and pulling at us for ages.
Tank You!
Now, some of these army groupies had working tanks. Yes, tanks. Yes, tanks that worked properly, had working guns (tho they weren't allowed to use live ammo) and actually could be driven. One such army groupie is the star of this story. Now, one rule that we stable staff had laid down was that our dray route should be kept clear of obstructions. Twice a day, we did dray rides, where people could ride around the country park in a dray pulled by two shire horses. It cost 50p for kids, £1 for adults and they got a tour with it, too, done by yours truly. The dray route went thru the fields, doubled back in a loop and ended back where it started.
On the Saturday, I was walking the dray route (picking up horse poo if you must know why) when I saw that it was blocked off by a tank. These people had parked their tank right slap bang accross the dray route. I asked them nicely to move it. They refused and laughed in my face. I went back to the stables, dragging my barrow and told my boss. He went to find the big boss, the guy who owned the place. Now, Big Boss was an okay guy... unless someone pushed his rage button by breaking one of the rules laid down. BB did not like this one bit; the dray rides brought in a lot of money, and we could not start them while the tank was blocking the route.
BB then asked Julie and I to get the dray ready, and to take him to the tank. We did so; harnessed up the horses and hitched them to the dray, then we went down the route til we got to the obstruction. BB then got down and went to the tank owner. BB then told this guy in no uncertain terms that he had a choice; he could either move the tank off the dray route, or he could move himself, his tank and his family out of the park. Tank guy chose the first option, and we were able to take the dray back to the stable and start the dray rides.
Note: If you think you know where it is I used to work, please PM me rather than posting it in a message.
The army event was on over this weekend and just ended, and it reminded me of a few things that happened during the time I was working at the country park during said event. I will take this opportunity to say that I am not prejudiced against the army, or army fans. The vast majority of the hundreds of campers were perfectly well behaved; it was just, as usual, a badly behaved minority who ended up giving all the others a bad name.
Shower Power.
At the campsite, there's a shower and toilet block. We also had those above the stables. As a general rule, we allowed people who were camping at the country park to use our showers and, also as a general rule, the campers tended to leave the showers in a clean and tidy state. We'd had the bikers in for their own annual event a few months earlier, and they'd been extremely well mannered; even cleaning the showers afterwards, which they didn't have to do. So, we assumed that the army fans would do likewise.
How wrong we were. The first day that we allowed the army groupies to use the showers, they not only left said showers in an absolute mess; water on the floor, spilled shower gel, soap smeared over the mirrors; but they left one shower running and the shower room was flooded. The water fell thru the ceiling and landed in a surprised shire horse's stable, soaking him to the skin. After we'd rehomed in a dry stable said horse, and dried him off with towels, we locked the shower room up and announced that we were no longer going to allow campers to use the showers.
This caused a massive uproar. All the army groupies who'd used the showers denied being the ones to cause the mess or leave the shower on, but we ignored their tantrums. Bottom line was, they'd abused our generous offer, and had to pay the price. We did let other campers in other events, such as the agility dogs event or the horse show use the showers, and they all managed to behave themselves. It really was just the army groupies who wrecked the place.
Army Invasion.
I previously mentioned the hundreds of people who came to camp at the country park during the army event. They were given a selection of fields to pitch their tents in and park their army vehicles, all save three which we stable staff had reserved for putting the horses and animal farm inhabitants in. There was plenty of space for all; however, a small group of army nuts decided that they deserved a private field, and they moved into one of the reserved fields like a small army of occupation, obviously thinking that once they were there, we couldn't shift them.
This was the field that we had earmarked for putting six shire horses in, and to say that we were annoyed about the occupation was an understatement, particularly as we only found out once three of us, myself included, had gotten to said field with two shire horses each. The head groom, let's call her Julie, spoke with the leader of the group and told him to shift himself and his friends out the field. He refused and smirked, saying that he and his friends were staying right there. It was the tone of his voice that got me, Julie and the other girl, let's call her Nicky. He was acting as tho we were just silly little girls, so I acted accordingly.
"In that case," I said. "Julie, Nicky and I are going to let these shire horses loose in the field. If they trample your tents to pieces, that's just your tough luck." Please note that I had no intention of actually doing this, only cuz the horses might get hurt in the process rather than any concern for the invasion. But it did the trick; they hurriedly packed up their tents and shifted, giving us glares of hatred as they passed. XD We didn't care, cuz we could finally let the shire horses into the field and rest our aching arms; said horses had been fussing and pulling at us for ages.
Tank You!
Now, some of these army groupies had working tanks. Yes, tanks. Yes, tanks that worked properly, had working guns (tho they weren't allowed to use live ammo) and actually could be driven. One such army groupie is the star of this story. Now, one rule that we stable staff had laid down was that our dray route should be kept clear of obstructions. Twice a day, we did dray rides, where people could ride around the country park in a dray pulled by two shire horses. It cost 50p for kids, £1 for adults and they got a tour with it, too, done by yours truly. The dray route went thru the fields, doubled back in a loop and ended back where it started.
On the Saturday, I was walking the dray route (picking up horse poo if you must know why) when I saw that it was blocked off by a tank. These people had parked their tank right slap bang accross the dray route. I asked them nicely to move it. They refused and laughed in my face. I went back to the stables, dragging my barrow and told my boss. He went to find the big boss, the guy who owned the place. Now, Big Boss was an okay guy... unless someone pushed his rage button by breaking one of the rules laid down. BB did not like this one bit; the dray rides brought in a lot of money, and we could not start them while the tank was blocking the route.
BB then asked Julie and I to get the dray ready, and to take him to the tank. We did so; harnessed up the horses and hitched them to the dray, then we went down the route til we got to the obstruction. BB then got down and went to the tank owner. BB then told this guy in no uncertain terms that he had a choice; he could either move the tank off the dray route, or he could move himself, his tank and his family out of the park. Tank guy chose the first option, and we were able to take the dray back to the stable and start the dray rides.
Note: If you think you know where it is I used to work, please PM me rather than posting it in a message.
But it looks like you didn't have to resort to that...darn it...
That reminds me somewhat of 
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