When I was a kid, we had a pet skunk. It lived in the house, like a cat. He was de-scented, but always had an odor. Not too strong, but definitely there.
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Just leave it alone. They move on pretty quickly. The visitor I had never sprayed or bothered anything. It would scurry about and was quite funny watching it. The skunk stayed less than a month.
The stomping thing is darling.
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Skunks are pretty easy to catch in a live trap. We caught one in our barn last year and I paid $400 
to have a local critter control company come and relocate him. The tech told me that skunks really only spray as a last resort, and if you can get them in a covered cage they are usually pretty quiet and okay with being moved.
My suggestion would be to use a live trap and mostly cover it so that when you catch the little guy it is easy to fully cover the cage. Then it should be pretty easy to relocate him and release. They like canned cat food 
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They like sardines also.
Everything likes sardines. 
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Several years ago a skunk took up residence in the crawl space under our house. I soaked some cotton balls with ammonia and tossed them in the crawl space. The next day I found the cotton balls in a pile in the yardāthe skunk had removed every single one! One night after the skunk came out from under the house my husband put a piece of plywood against the opening and secured it with a rock. When the skunk came home he managed to move the rock and plywood and went back under the house. I finally set up a live trap where the skunk was entering the crawl space. I attached a 20 ft. length of rope to the door so I could let him out without getting sprayed, and I put a tarp over the trap. That night he entered the trap and was caught, but he pulled the entire 20 foot length of rope into the cage with him. I used a tool with an extension handle (a saw that you use to trim tree branches) to drag the trap away from the house and turn him loose. Last I saw him he was waddling across the field.
I donāt mind skunks as long as they donāt try to live under my house. Theyāre welcome to get a drink out of the catsā water dish and forage about in the yard. The dog has learned to leave them alone, so itās been a while since Iāve had to deal with skunk spray. Theyāre nocturnal, so when theyāre active Iām asleep and we donāt cross paths. I know they can carry rabies, but so can bats and cats and dogs and any other mammal. I would not kill any animal just because it could carry rabies unless that animal was behaving abnormally.
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Clearly you have never arrived home to a sprayed cat. āWTF did you do to piss off your best buddy? Guess whoās getting a bath, dumbass.ā That was a fun night. He got to stink up my house for 20 minutes while I ran for peroxide and a bigger container of baking soda.
And, yep, that cat and that particular skunk were buddies. Theyād hang out in the back laneway together. More than once I started to drive in, saw them sitting together and threw it in reverse, drove around the block and then took the other laneway entrance to my driveway.
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Thank you to everyone who shares a storyā¦itās not nice to laugh at othersā misfortune, but sadly, I am. That said, Iāve had to deskunk a dog more than once.
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Yeah; Dogs and Skunks donāt mix well, and Doggy generally comes out the loser.
But we have had Skunks living under our stall/tackroom building off and on for years (no Dogs allowed), and never had any problem.
Iāve had reasonable luck using lemon juice; bottled, or just 1/2 of a cut lemon (several cut lemons) to get the stink off of a dog, but nothing Iāve tried really works-works. You get used to the smell after awhile, and only gag a little when said Dog comes up to show off his new perfume :-P.
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I have a skunk who has her babies in a hole she dug under my hay pallets every spring. Aside from some skunk smells when the babies are learning to be out and about, I donāt notice them. They enter and exit from under the side of the barn, and are not inclined to hang out in the main area. Iāve gotten used to them 
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We had a skunk family under our barn. We put orange peels at the entrance of the tunnel they dug. Apparently they donāt like the smell. Once they left, we blocked the hole. You can also use the coyote urine repellant. They donāt like that, either.
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You could try one of the ultrasonic devices, especially if the horses arenāt close to that part of the barn. They can be set for rather close range. I donāt know that I would put one right next to a horse in a stall but if the horses are out they can be pretty effective. Not always, I have one in a bark box for the dogs and 2 of the 5 donāt seem to mind it at all. My bark box is on the fritz somehow and goes off every few minutes for no real reason; this works great for keeping the dogs away from the corner of the property that they bark at the neighbor but I also noticed that when itās going the deer and squirrel wonāt come in.
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Tell that to all the vets in the west that recommend rabies vaccines for horses. And all the the county extensions that find rabid skunks.
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ā¦ Itās not just the west.
But not every animal thatās a rabies vector is carrying rabies. Do you shoot every bat you see?
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Around my area, rabies vaccine is dropped by planes every year because rabies is an issue in foxes and raccoons and bats and skunks. I donāt know the drops do anything for the bats, but they have helped in the other species.
Where itās an issue itās an issue and livestock can be in danger and itās foolish to pretend it isnāt. That said, offing an animal that is acting perfectly normal would be ridiculous. The majority of wildlife in my area are not running around rabid.
I have no idea where the OP is located, but they could very well be located in a rabies problem area. Or not.
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Here in the spring the first confirmed rabies cases are in skunks, already had some.
Local TV warns every year and mentions for every one confirmed rabies there are more around, to everyone be sure their animals are vaccinated, especially dogs and cats.
Every so often there is a horse also, why veterinarians try to vaccinate those also.
Our horses have been vaccinated for decades.
The problem as to how to know how many wild animals are affected is that TX wildlife testing budget is limited, counties may only send so many for testing, mostly those where exposure to humans is possible.
Is important for everyone to try to keep wildlife away as much as possible and then at least your premises are safer.
So is wildlife safer, it doesnāt need to be disturbed to go find some other place to roam than around humans and their pets if it is not permitted to make themselves at home there.
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Thank you, everyone, for your ideas and suggestions. I thought I had deterred the skunkā¦and maybe I didā¦ for 2 days, but he was back last night. It didnāt saunter around like it had been doing- made a beeline for the out going tunnel. Iām going to put moth balls out today and see if I can position the trap tonight.
Yup. Iāve known a horse or 2 in my lifetime that couldnāt be vaccinated due to severe reactions. I could never imagine how their owners could sleep.
Skunk -1, NH-0. The skunk sprayed my dog last night. Now my house smells, I smell, and my dog smells. I think I will try to trap it this weekend. I even bought some fancy skunk repellant pellets. Nope. I already smell so why not?
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Thank you for both suggestions!
Not just the West.
Iām Midwest & when I moved horses home, I read (forget where) skunks could transmit rabies.
I asked my vet to vaccinate for it & he was skeptical, but complied.
Next visit he brought me an article from AJVM advising rabies vax was suggested.
Now itās included in the PHF vax horses get each year.
ETA:
@sascha I had a horse react poorly to rabies vax.
Couldnāt lower his head for 24h.
Solved the problem by injecting his glute. Seemingly no reaction at that site.
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