I have fun… crack a couple jokes, some people laugh.
WHO: Wild Horse Adventure Tours
WHERE: Corolla, North Carolina (The Outer Banks)
WHAT: Off-Road Vehicle Tours
Today you’ll learn about one of the best tour companies in America, Wild Horse Adventure Tours. Voted by TripAdvisor as the #1 tour company in the United States, as well as winning Excellence Awards seven times, Wild Horse Adventure Tours takes guests off-roading through almost 7,000 acres of beach, dune, and maritime forest looking for the wild horses of the Outer Banks. Find out what makes the company so great, how they give back to make a positive impact, and see a little of the banter that keeps the team having fun.
(Find a short Instagram video about life as a guide for Wild Horse Adventure Tours here)
That’s the tail wagging the dog.
I spoke with four members of the team: Rich, the founder; Pete, the general manager; Charles, the office manager; and John, a tour driver. Here’s an abbreviated version of our conversation.
Me: How did Wild Horse Adventure Tours start?
Rich: It just evolved. I decided to start my own tour company because I wanted to put money and time into my business. It started in 2008, and I just kept putting money in, a lot of hustling, trying to keep it going through for the guests and my employees. The first few years of the business were hard, but that was my focus. And bit by bit people like Pete, like Charles came along, and it started to evolve and change and become sustainable, become the thing that it is today.
Pete: One of the most beautiful things about the tourism industry and these tourism companies in general is that they tend to be fairly small, and to sustain that long term and to get a good reputation with your customers, your guests, it has to be employee focused. It’s been that way from the beginning. When you’re starting a company, it’s so important to get good people and treat them right so that energy continues to ripple out to the customers. And that’s how reputations form.
Me: Sometimes, when you’re going for more than just money, you can really have success.
Rich: And that was never my intention either, to just make money. I focused on having the best business and creating my own tour company that’s the best that it can be. People that focus on just making money is backwards. That’s the tail wagging the dog.
Me: I think people want to buy into that, people buy into when you are just trying to be better. So why do you think Wild Horse has been successful? What sets it apart?
Rich: It started with the marketing and the people. We were definitely on the forefront of technology like TripAdvisor.
Pete: That’s one thing that Rich was really good at from the beginning, promoting online review sites. That kept people coming in the door and kept the place running.
Rich: Yeah TripAdvisor was barely a thing when we got started. We got in there early and got the snowball rolling.
John: I remember exactly when they started because I was out there working for someone else, but these guys were the most respectful people out there [on the 4×4 beach]. This company is great at delegating, dividing and thriving. We’ve got all the right people, from payroll to management to making reservations, even the guys that keep our Hummers always moving.
Charles: Using Hummers was a great idea too.
Rich: And that was an evolution as well. We started with replica Hummers, but slowly replaced them with the quality vehicles we have now. But those first ones, no matter what, you’re catching air in the back row.
(Want more from the Outer Banks? Check out the Worst Things to Do)
Me: Tell me about how Wild Horse Adventure Tours gives back.
Rich: I do the best I can, but I felt shameful for polluting with all these diesel hummers, so I called American Forests and asked how many trees, or how much money I needed to donate to pay for the equivalent trees, to offset our impact. We did the math to work out generally how much CO2 we produce a year and how many trees we need to plant to offset it. But we do it every year, and because the trees offset our CO2 every year, and we’re always planting more, we’re making a positive impact, because each tree contributes each year multiplied by the number of years we plant. And with a portion of every ticket going back to the [corolla wild horse] fund, we’re one of their largest yearly contributors.
Those are weird looking deer man.
At this point, it’s important for me to note that I work for Wild Horse Adventure Tours too, but when talking with these guys, my coworkers, I remained impartial, pretending to be an outsider for the whole chat. However, with my own experiences within the adventure tourism industry and being an outdoor adventure guide, I absolutely love what I do, I never feel like I’m at work, and I’m passionate about getting people outdoors, experiencing nature and the world around them. In our conversation, we started talking about passions, why we do what we do, and how that matters to us.
(Spend a Day in the Life with Wild Horse Adventure Tours)
Me: So what do y’all find fun about working for Wild Horse?
Pete: I truly enjoy going to work because I love interacting with people. I can do the spreadsheets and analyzing things in the office, but my constant trips outside, talking to people, is one of my favorite things. Even during uneasy, uncomfortable conversations, the skills I’ve learned through relational aspects, I’m grateful for being able to develop those skills.
John: I like coming in and being great at what I do and then getting to exit. How do I say that more humble? The teamwork means I get to go have fun, teach people a few things, keep em safe.
Pete: Things are set in place to be the best tour guide on the beach always.
John: Exactly. I have fun, keep people safe, crack a couple jokes. Some people laugh.
Charles: And you appreciate all two people that laugh!
John: Stop it! I can’t say too many nice things to Charles, it’ll go to his head. But I’m passionate about the horses. I got a library card when I first started so I could learn more. And I’m choosing this because I love this lifestyle of travel, the lifestyle of living free. I mean, I get paid to go have fun.
Charles: And most guests come in with high spirits, excited to take the tour, ready to have fun. People I’ve known for a long time ask me what I’m up to, and I tell them I go take people to have fun for a few hours. What could be better?
Me: I get paid to go have fun, on an adventure, and you never know what’s going to happen.
John: We’re out having fun, but then you never know. Tree might drive by you and say, “those are weird looking deer man.”
Charles: I love that. I love to be weird. I also like that I’ve had the opportunity to meet people I wouldn’t have ever run into. I’m with different people, and I enjoy that.
Me: What are some of the funnier or more interesting things y’all have experienced on a tour?
Charles: I had a grown adult ask me how I can tell the male horses from the females.
John: I saw something awesome this past week, the wedding proposal. Everybody on the tour knew the proposal was coming, except her.
I truly believe we can live in harmony with wildlife.
As we finished up the night, we dove into some of the responsibilities that tourism businesses have in respecting everybody that shares the same spaces. In this particular business, there are some private residences scattered among the acreage the wild horses have to roam and, conversely, the spaces that the business occupies to go see those same horses.
Me: What else should readers know?
John: Something I think that’s important is, when we’re out there, we show respect to the wild horses, to the local community, and to the tourists on the beach. That’s important.
Pete: We work in an industry with a lot of people sharing the same space, and we need to respect each other. We need to always take the respectful approach. We need to be the people that show others how to treat the horses.
Charles: One problem with being so notable in the hummers, we get a lot of flak. Leading with being respectful is important.
Me: How do you deal when people have problems?
Pete: Listen. Always listen. When people are trying to be helpful, the ones that are honest, I love those conversations. I tell people we aren’t perfect, but we address problems right away. We always try to improve. And the beach is a place where a few different parties all have duties, so the best-case scenario is when we’re all on the same page.
Rich: Which is a huge thing. The horse fund has really grown and evolved, and it’s so cool to work together with them.
Pete: It’s so important. And sometimes there are problems, and there are people that just don’t care for us, so we just meet people where they are and try to come to an understanding.
Me: The biggest opponents of the company, what would you want them to know?
Pete: I would want them to know that they can call us any time, we’ll work on it together. As long as we share this space, we can prevent misunderstandings and correct things that need to be fixed. We work together.
Charles: I understand people, but we just want to go see these wild horses before they’re gone.
John: We bring education and awareness. I truly believe we can live in harmony with wildlife and each other. Oorah. And I stress it every tour. There can be tourism, there can be wildlife. Oorah.
It’s easy to see why Wild Horse Adventure Tours is a leader in their corner of the adventure travel world. With passionate employees and passionate guests, it’s truly an event worth seeing for yourself.
And it’s a fantastic company to work for.
Wild Horse Adventure Tours can be found online at wildhorsetour.com. You can read all about their great reviews on TripAdvisor here.
To learn more about The Corolla Wild Horse Fund, the non-profit working to protect the wild horses, follow this link. You can find information on American Forests here.
