Smelly Mom

One of the things that's different this time around is my tolerance for that horsey smell. When I was a kid I loved the smell of horses. All the smells. But not so this time around. It's particularly strong this time of year the horses are wooly and you can't bathe the manure stains out properly plus with the horses wearing blankets that are caked with ground in poop and it smells like, well.. Ass. It doesn't help that my current barn is barely halfway through the boarder stalls before I leave at 11. They haven't even looked at the school stalls which are pretty foul by then.

The school horses spend most of the morning out in the pasture, so it's not like they're standing in it while they wait for the stall cleaners to get to them. They're fat, well shod and clearly loved, healthy animals. But the smell on my hands and clothes when I get in my car is substantial.

Did some jumping today. I actually rode a small course for the first time since 1992. That's a long time between courses. The horse I was riding was a bit like driving a car with a loose bolt in the steering column. He was brave and honest to the fences, but getting him there was a bitch. I'd be looking over my fence and giving what I KNOW are the correct aids for "turn here" and "Go there" and he'd keep going straight. It was pretty funny. I eventually figured it out. But it was tricky.

But the smell on me afterward is profound. I was thinking of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine can't get the BO smell out of her hair. I get home and I run for the washing machine and the shower. I don't remember needing to do this back in my 20's. I wonder if that's another DNA shift from having two babies is a more profound sense of smell.

Weird.