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Favorite horsey smells

The other day I noticed that my SUV is a bit smelly - a combination of mare pee from a blanket that was in there, a faint whiff of cat pee (how?) and the mustiness of turning on heaters that haven’t been used in 9 months. Hmm.

Then a quart of vetrolin fell over and spilled in the back and wow! My car smells great! No need to clean it now :joy:

Other horsey smells I love: fly spray, Venice turpentine, fresh hay, good quality leather.

You?

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So many….

Horses in general
Tack stores
Murphy’s oil soap
Fly spray
Good hay
Absorbine
Orvus
Show sheen

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Mine is Farnam Swat fly ointment. It reminds me of how excited I was to get my very own horse way back when I was 13 years old. I put Swat in her ears before every ride and off I would go down the trail by myself sometimes for hours at a time. No worries, no fears just me and my horse.

I admit to now keeping a jar of Swat in the barn just so I can open it once in a while when I’m stressed out and take a deep whiff. It’s crazy how it can instantly take me back 45 years.

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Alfalfa hay. Good fresh western alfalfa hay. Freshly cut grass hay too but nothing smells as good as alfalfa.

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The aroma surrounding a horse that has been eating pasture, fresh sweet grass aroma.

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The sweet smell of hay
The woodsy aroma of fresh shavings
The citrusy odor of citronella based fly spray
The deep smell of leather and saddle soap

All offset when my lovey boy farts for a full 5 Mississippi in my face while I brush his freshly shampooed tail lol

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I’ve been away from the barn a couple of times for several weeks allowing fractures to heal. Orthopedic surgeons can be so picky. When I finally returned I was overwhelmed by everything. Hay was the strongest because so much is stored inside. Boarders are at the far end and it’s a 200’ walk past the stalls. I got a healthy dose of manure, pee, and shavings. The tack room smelled terrific, all that nice leather. It doesn’t last, though. You can always smell the hay but the rest of it fades into the background.

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Brand new pine shavings definitely are one of my favorites.

A load of good hay…heavenly.

Vetrolin liniment

Flysect Super 7 fly spray

clean, good leather tack

Passier Lederbalsam

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Barn full of hay, ready for Winter is near the top of the list.
Freshly-bedded stalls :heavy_check_mark:
But I think the Best is the horses themselves.
My 3 each have their own scent & burying my nose in their coats is a pleasure.
Especially now, when they’re wearing Winter Plush.
Kind of tricky getting to the mini, but worth it :sunglasses:

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Different colored horses have different smells. My dark bay smelled much different than my current pinto. My gray smelled sweet and the bay smelled smokey.

Hilton Herballs
Source
Manely Long Hair Detangler
tack shop leathery smell
hay
Cornucrescine hoof ointment (haven’t used it in years but it smells great)
Chlorahexidine cream–this came in a tub years ago. It was light blue and smelled like Fruit Loops!

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I love this smell too. It’s pine-ish.

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I mean, swat.

Apart from the typical things like leather and hay:

I love the smell of the old ooey gooey sweet feed mixes. It’s a shame we now know how bad they are for most horses.

Also, I love the smell of tack stores in general— a mix of all the good horse smells like leather, sprays, and ointments without the less pleasant ones.

I really want a spin-off thread of horse smells you hate, like thrushy, abscessed hoof, Excalibur sheath cleaner (it smells worse than the smegma!), Koppertox, Strategy Feed, Eco-Vet, horses jugged with DMSO, whatever they put in pelleted supplements like Horseshoers Secret…

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:thinking: My current 3 are all bays, each smells different.
Former buckskin & sabino strawberry roan had their own scents too.

Hoof oil, Vetrolin, Cowboy Magic Rosewater shampoo.

My old mare has a sweaty musk to her. It’s very obvious. I don’t think it smells bad but not great. Does not smell like a horse. One of my old trainers LOVED to smell her neck after a lesson. She thought it smelled so good.

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All of these, and I love the smell of Pepi shine spray. It was highly coveted by all us 4-H kids for showmanship, so it reminds me of early mornings getting ready for shows.

Not really horse related, but similar, one of my favorite smells is mint compost - minty and earthy at once (yes, that is a thing for anyone who hasn’t lived in a mint farming area).

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Foal breath.

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At first glance I thought this said Hilton Hairballs
(I have a cat)

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Earthy smell of a sun-warmed coat and breath that smells of sweet grass.
Fly spray. Leather. Hay. Cowboy Magic.

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As evidenced by the comments from those around me, I have lost all ability to smell anything horse-related.

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