Interesting suggestion of the fragrance! I just ordered a sample of this! Now I’m really looking forward to it.
Yeah my “office” is currently an ancient, semi-level, semi-weatherproof construction trailer lol where my office chair randomly sinks to the shortest setting a couple times a day
and it smells a bit doggy because my dogs get to come to work with me everyday. AKA no one cares what I look or smell like (well other than me haha)
I can’t imagine as one person on here said- wearing flats for part of the day but having to put heels on for meetings or having to put on makeup for work, etc
I hope you like it! I’m a big fan of most of the santal type stuff. No.04 Bois de Balincourt by Maison Louis Marie is another one to sample!
I’m really impressed with your dedication! I hate riding when I am pressured for time, like before work when you absolutely cannot be late. But since I was a kid, I’ve more often than not had to do barn chores before school or work and the smell problem is the same.
I agree with most of the suggestions here. I’ve been known to wash my hair with the barn hose when necessary.
Hopefully the recommended scent works well. I don’t tolerate most fragrances (Fe breeze is deadly). I can’t do the new Pinesol (loved the old formula). Unstoppables kill me. What the heck sort of chemicals are they using if they are bragging about the dog blanket smelling “fresh” after 4 weeks?
I don’t have time to ride before (or after) work, but I do keep horses at home and do feeding/chores both before and after my long (87 miles each way) commute four days per week. This is the routine that works for me:
3 am wakeup; prepare/eat/clean up breakfast & pack lunch/snacks for the day
3:30 am workout
4:30 am shower & dress for work
5:30 am feed horses, cat & chickens; do morning barn chores
6:00 am leave for work
7:30 am arrive at work
4:00 pm leave work
5:30-6:00 pm (depending on traffic) arrive home; feed & do evening barn chores
6:30 pm prepare/eat/clean up dinner, do minor household chores, prep next day’s food & clothes
8:00 pm bed
Now, I do thankfully work in agriculture, so I wear jeans and boots to work most days, and I work with people who aren’t offended by a slight animal odor. I keep a package of baby wipes in my truck to do “damage control” when I get to the office. And I don’t sleep much.
I ride on weekends and on my one work from home day, weather permitting. I have to haul ~6 miles each way to ride at my trainer’s barn, as I don’t have an arena or even flat ground at my house. Luckily, I own/raise very sane ponies, so even the green youngsters manage to stay sane and make progress on this crazy schedule.
I feel tired just reading your schedule.
I used to do this on occasion on the weekends when I was super busy. (Weekdays I still rode after work.) I would shower before riding, wear my riding clothes to work, and change there. By the time I got to work, I had cooled down and wasn’t sweaty. Use a true body wipe - not just a baby wipe - and dry off. Then deodorant and get dressed. Hair pulled up or back. Use dry shampoo as needed. Makeup last. All done in the handicapped stall of the office bathroom.
Everyone at work knew I rode so it didn’t matter if people saw me in my gear. I swear the half chap/breeches look was deemed somehow appropriate for a law firm in a way that gym clothes would not have been.
The office I sat in briefly in the same location was much like that (less the dogs). Now it’s 4? Boxx spaces, 12 offices and a large boardroom, with a big screen we can connect our laptops to for a meeting (which really makes me want a bigger TV for my home god help me) a little kitchen/lunchroom and two loos. Unfortunately dogs aren’t allowed, I asked if my puppers could come into work with me when we first moved in, but that was declined by the partner who owns the space who had bought another office in an industrial area 10 minutes away.
I ride before work, though the pony lives at home so it’s not as tough as your situation. But I also only take about a 30 second shower, so I’m not that far off, by choice.
I also have curly hair—having a friend in the office to pick out a random piece of hay or shavings is essential. I ride with a bandana over my hair, which I change often and it’s easy to throw in the wash.
Everyone at work knows I ride; if they notice my chipped and broken nails with dirt under them, they don’t mention it. Random dark stains on my hands, from bluing or iodine, ditto. In the summer I’m more likely to smell like fly spray (mildly pleasing) than anything, which is an improvement on rainy-day hair, which seems to absorb the smell of urine from the stalls. The shoes I walk in the office door in are not what I wear in the office—I keep shoes at work and change them when I arrive and when I leave.
I’m not above a shock cold shower in the wash rack for 10 seconds.
A wintergreen chewing gum is a good companion. It adds a nice smell in your wake
And I save my hard rides for remote days and weekend—my pre-work rides are light hacks. My pony is nicely well behaved now, but as a fresher OTTB I made sure to not start any fight I couldn’t win in an easy 5 minutes.
My favorite part of riding before work is… the inevitable phone call to my boss, “Sorry, I won’t be in today. I fell off the horse and am at the ER.”
I have been using a homemade helmet spray of Isopropyl alcohol with tea tree oil and a little lavender. Today it thought I’d better change out my helmet liner as I’ve been pretty sweaty. I was surprised, the old liner really didn’t smell. So +1 for that, though I did put in a fresh one and wash out the other.
Good ideas in this thread. I have to go back from remote to full-time in office next month, which will coincide with my summer schedule of morning riding, so I’m taking notes. At least I work with outdoorsy type people, so they won’t mind a bit of eu de stable, but I’d rather not look like a total wreck when I show up at work.
I am loving all these suggestions - I can only flex my work hours 1 day / week, and any hours I’m late coming in, I have to make up during the week. I support manufacturing - the shift starts at 6am - so on the day I flex, I don’t get there until 9:30am and have 3.5 hrs to make up during the rest of the week.
I get to the barn early and am off the horse by 8am latest, spend next 15 minutes getting horse put up, then a quick wipe down/body spray /get dressed and in the car by 8:30am for my 1 hr drive to work.
Winter is easier for me than summer - I get out of work by 2/230pm so can ride many days of the week.
Seriously! I know I am probably older than OP, but I feel tired on the occasional days when I get up at 6 AM to do a 7:30 or 8 AM lesson before work (and fortunately for me, my barn has a shower)
Pre-pandemic the barn had a bathroom with a shower but it was not air conditioned. (I live in a hot, humid climate.) I learned to take a cool shower, dry off quickly before sweating again, and dressing in a skirt. Putting on dress pants with a lining was a struggle. I then cranked the AC in my car to put on makeup. I pulled my hair into a ponytail & was cooled off by the time I got to work.