Wash them in Borax. It gets the smell out of almost everything.
It’s bacteria. When my students do surveys of microbes (sampling stuff and characterizing the colonies) they find that bacteria smell as different as they appear. The ammonia smell -commonly described as smelling like pee - is more than likely bacteria.
Paula
these are expensive but supposed to resist the smell and I love slip ons hate to tie shoes. They last a long time!!
http://www.muckbootsandshoes.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50
I used to use the Daily Garden shoe which is lighter but does pick up the smell. Last time I bought them they were $52 retail… maybe 5 yrs ago http://www.muckbootsandshoes.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=46
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;6993433]
During the summer I do all my barn chores/cleaning stalls first in a pair of shorts and sneakers with no show socks to attempt to not get a “horse people tan” (although my stark white feet don’t look so good in sandals).
My sneakers always end up smelling like pee after a couple weeks, like can smell them from several feet away smell. I do use whatever pair of running shoes I’ve downgraded to “barn” shoes but I’d really rather not put on the pee shoes.
Any way to prevent/cure this? I’d really rather not wear paddock boots and shorts.[/QUOTE]
I’m just giggling over this thread. You mean, you stand in dirty stalls (soaked with urine and manure) and yet your shoes smell like urine? What do you expect??
Throw them in the washing machine with some Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda or Borax; let them dry in the sun; etc. But they are your barn shoes, right? So who really cares? If they smell too badly to keep in the house, then throw them away and get another pair, or just leave them in the barn.
Obviously, having a pair of sneakers that you don’t use for cleaning stalls is probably a good idea. I rotate mine - new, good sneakers for running and public viewing get turned into barn sneakers when they get old and yucky. After barn tour, they are “retired” to the garbage. 
Equestrian Factory Outlet (in Canada) sells the muck boots linked above for far less money than that. I have had a couple of pairs and they are - shall I say - slower to absorb the odors. They are designed for people who work in dog kennels.
I found that they soon mold to fit your foot, but they are rubber with the usual problems associated with footwear that does not breathe. Last for years.
I’m bad. I wear my stinky poo shoes with pride. I would go to work and prop them up on my PCs and let the warmth from the fans waft the smell of horse around the cube farm.
I turned myself into a Scentsy.
my pee shoes live at the barn… I don’t dare drive home in them, they would stink up the car horribly! I let them be stinky, I wear them for stall cleaning only, paddock boots for riding, and my regular slip ons for driving / walking to and from the barn.
I don’t dare wash mine, they would disintegrate! About due to be replaced with another pair of wore out sneakers.
I can’t believe you guys can stand to clean stalls in short shoes. The shavings get in them & drive me nuts. I used to get those short LL bean mocs from my mother & I hated them!!
Hydrogen peroxide? I took some sofa cushions that came out badly in the epic cat wars to a carpet/furniture cleaning place and they said they used hydrogen peroxide. The trick is to get the concentration (%) high enough to be maximally effective without destroying the fabric. For sofa cushions this was about 9%. I suppose you could get the concentrated stuff from a beauty supply and dilute it. Although if you destroy the shoes it’s probably not a huge crises. I’d seal the shoes up in a bag with the solution.
AntiIckyPoo might work. It did a pretty nice job on some pee-saturated leg wraps. I just added it to the bleach container in the washing machine.
No solutions here…I leave my barn shoes outside on the porch for this reason.
The thing I don’t Understand is how my shoes and, often, clothes smell so vile when my barn doesn’t really smell much at all. Maybe scent sticks low to the ground and my barn would smell vile to a midget.
If so, i feel bad for my little kids. I could be unknowingly subjecting them to horse urine odor torture, which must be sort of like “smelly perfume coworker” torture for me.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;6993462]
However, the pee shoes still have to ride home with me in my car and sit in my shoe closet.[/QUOTE]
Is there any way you can put them somewhere else?! I do the same thing, rotate my older shoes into barn shoes, and clean stalls in them. I too bring them home, but they stay in my garage, along with all my other boots/barn footwear.
It’s bad enough to smell them as I pass through the garage, but to have to have them in my house…in a closet with my clothes? No way!
I have found that any shoes made of leather or fabric are absorbent and you just can’t do much to prevent them from smelling. I’m lucky at home that my guys mostly pee outside in their paddocks, so stall cleaning is mostly manure. But I still would be inclined to use the short rubber shoes like those from Muck Boots as those don’t pick up odors and are easy to hose off daily. If I have to wear other shoes, I just look at them as disposable…like tennies on their last legs, I’ll wear til they are nasty and toss. Sometimes you can wash them and they’ll get better, but a few washings usually kills the shoes, I have found.
If I went to the barn in paddock boots I’d probably just wear them to do stalls in! For some reason leather paddock boots don’t pick up the smell at all. I am washing them in vinegar, purex, and hot water and we’ll see if that helps.
I’d leave them at the barn or in my trunk but last summer when I got them wet after tracking through a soggy part of the pasture my socks went home smelling like pee.
I’m looking at the Muck Boot Daily shoe, how is the pee retention factor with those? They look low cut enough to not make ridiculous tan lines. They’re $30 on Ebay.
http://www.amazon.com/Original-MuckBoots-Daily-Garden-Shoe/dp/B000WH4SWM
Bumping this up…
I have a pair of Dublin Pinnacle’s that I got this past winter. I have worn them a few times this summer because they are comfortable and waterproof - nice for mornings when the grass is dewy.
Anywho - this morning I wore them to work, and when I got here and took them off (to put on my clogs) I realized that the insides of my Dublin’s smell like cat pee. It’s not strong enough to make me believe my cat actually peed inside them, but it does have a lingering aroma of cat pee. I’m actually fairly certain that the cat did not pee in them; the outside of the boots do not smell like cat pee, and the cat would’ve had to be pretty darn crafty to only pee down inside a tall boot without tipping the boot over (they were still upright this morning when I put them on).
I can’t put these in the washer obviously; I do have inserts in the foot bed (not the Dublin ones, they are ones that I added) that I can take out and air out, but any other suggestions for the boot smell??
I think you should hang them out to air out on your new solar lights, enjoytheride. Just saying.
You could try giving them a good spray with Lysol and then putting them on a boot /shoe dryer ( low heat lots of moving air).
Get some crocs
Ariat clogs kind of balance the leather part up above the pee, and only the resistant sole is in it, they fit tight enough to keep most shavings out too.
Anybody tried sprinkling their shoes with Sweet PDZ, leaving them for a day or so, then vacuuming or knocking the PDZ out of the shoes? It’s supposed to be safe for animals to come in contact with, so … or maybe a liberal dousing with Anti Monkey Butt powder?
I was all excited someone else had a smelly shoe problem when i realized this thread is two years old. And started by me.
I am wearing Ariat hiker/paddock boots right now with leather uppers. No pee smell so far although my sock tan line is out of control.
