国产吃瓜黑料

MEET OUTSIDE DIGITAL

Full access to 国产吃瓜黑料, now at a lower price

JOIN NOW

Image
(Photo: Tatiana Zanon/Unsplash)

Iceland Has Trained Horses to Respond to Your Work Emails When You鈥檙e on Vacation

Yes, you read that right. Iceland is encouraging tourists visiting the country to disconnect, and it trained a few horses to type on a giant custom keyboard.

Published: 
Image
(Photo: Tatiana Zanon/Unsplash)

New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! .

With its glaciers, fjords, volcanoes, Northern Lights displays, and distinct culture, there鈥檚 no question Iceland is a bucket list-worthy destination. But regardless of how amazing a trip is, many travelers don鈥檛 pay the full price for their vacation until they get home and have to wade through an overflowing email inbox.聽

Visit Iceland, the country鈥檚 tourism bureau, has a new offering to sweeten the deal: Out-horse your email. It鈥檚 exactly what it sounds like: outsourcing work emails to a real Icelandic horse that鈥檚 been trained to type on a gigantic, horse-sized keyboard. 鈥淒isconnect from work and let the horses of Iceland reply to your emails while you are on vacation. (Seriously),鈥 辫谤辞尘颈蝉别蝉.听

The three equine writers-for-hire have different strengths. The all-white Hr铆mnir and black-and-white maned Hekla both sound like consummate professionals, with r茅sum茅 descriptions like, 鈥淎ssertive. Efficient. Shiny hair,鈥 and 鈥淔riendly, trained in corporate buzzwords.鈥 But personally, I would probably hire brown Litla, who, like me, 鈥淭ypes fast, but might take a nap.鈥澛

(Photo: Joshua Earle/Unsplash)

In , Visit Iceland shows the horses clip-clopping their hooves on a gigantic custom keyboard. While the animals have no trouble operating the keys, they don鈥檛 appear to have refined it to the point of actually spelling anything鈥攚hich could be an issue.聽

Certainly, we would love nothing more than to enlist a talented horse (or personal assistant of any species) to take care of things at work while we鈥檙e on vacation and spare us any interruptions or dreaded slew of unread emails. But there鈥檚 a kernel of wisdom at the heart of the irreverent offer. A horse pawing at a keyboard to spell out 鈥8io:l:;l:oiipP鈥 is silly, yes, and imagining sending that as response to a colleague asking you about a 鈥渄eliverable鈥 is even funnier.聽

But, if you think about it, it also makes the idea of someone on vacation interrupting a dip in one of Iceland鈥檚 famous hot springs to check in on a work project seem just as ridiculous. While a horse can鈥檛 really write an appropriate email, they also sort of could, because how important could the contents of such an email really be when you鈥檙e visiting somewhere totally unique?

Leave it to Iceland to crush tourism marketing with this hilarious way to encourage travelers to log off and be present.

is an assistant editor at 国产吃瓜黑料, where she writes about travel and adventure news. While she has not been to Iceland, she hopes to go soon鈥攚ith or without a horse to take care of her inbox.

Filed to:
Lead Photo: Tatiana Zanon/Unsplash

Popular on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online