Last night I walked into the horse field to the smell of skunk.  I thought, ‘gee, a skunk must have been snooping around the barn last night.’  And I went on into the barn, and the smell vanished.   ‘Oh good’ I thought, ‘it didn’t get into the barn.’  And I went out the back to let Simon in.  And with him came the smell.  Which is when it dawned on me, that a skunk didn’t spray the fence or the field, it sprayed Simon. 

Awesome.

Dogs get sprayed by skunks, not ponies.  And try as he might, Simon is not a dog. 

I had vague images of Simon standing in my bathtub with a shower cap on his head while I poured buckets of tomato juice over him.  But I suppose I was lucky (???) and it was *mostly* on his blanket. 

We are –roll with the punches – types, so we went for a pleasant little ride around the field, keeping an eye out for any stomped skunk carcasses and enjoyed the brisk weather. Then I put a different blanket on Simon and prepared to de-skunk his good one.  Luckily (???) I had a mostly full bottle of skunk odor remover from when Ash, my husband’s dog, had rolled in skunk a few years ago, so I soaked his blanket in it, per the instructions.  You are suppose to let it sit and evaporate and its suppose to take the smell with it. 

Not surprising, I applied the do-odor-er outdoors after dark last night and it froze.  So I am going to have to see, scratch that, smell, how it did later this afternoon.  When I walked outside this morning it hit me like a good morning sucker punch to the face and made my eyes water.  I have a feeling Ill need to purchase another bottle, reapply and then wash his blanket in hot water and then reapply the water proofer.  If it were an old crappy blanket I would just toss it because all this cleaning and water proofing adds up in cost, but it’s a relatively nice, purchased late last winter, heavy weight Amigo that wasn’t exactly cheap, and it fits him so well (praises to Horseware Ireland and their PONY CUT line!!!). 

The joys of having a mischievous pony. 

My "artists" rendering of Simon in the shower