Rider kicked out of store for being too smelly!

[Jumphigh83]

One mans stinky is another mans perfume...which reminds me THAT is what I can't stand...princesses doused in whatever scent du jour they find pleasurable...gack! Same for men steeped in whorsrus cologne...I'll take the horse smell any day! Couldn't the stinkee sue for discrimination?

[Teach]

I do wonder what my house smells like to the non-country people --- on the other hand, who cares, they wouldn't keep coming if they did.

This is the root source of one of our family's longest-standing jokes--NEVER buy 'country-scented' airspray--who wants their house to smell of compost & tractor exhaust!

Now if they made one that was fresh-mown hay, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Mmmmmm!

[Trixie]

It's pretty common around here to see people in the grocery stores in their riding clothes. Mostly I'm just asked where I ride.

I did once accidentally attend an impromptu outdoor spring BBQ/Party in show clothes. I warned them ahead of time, since there was no way to drive an hour from my farm to my house then out to the party, which was out by our farm. Though I was a twee bit out of place amongst the other girls in their sundresses, again, everyone just asked about the horses.

It would be beyond silly for me to drive home, shower, and change before going to the grocery store. I just don't have that kind of spare time.

[goeslikestink]

Wannabe Essex Man trying to pimp up his day.

ha ha coreene that be right- you know what they say about essex girls dont you haha

romford tesco's i know the one they talking about, i used to call on that as a client haha

but in all due respect tesco is a food store as with any food store it has health and safety poilices which is and does incorporate hygeny protocol so it would be deemed as correct

myself i alway change my shoes as i have boots in my car ie riding boot or muckers and then trianers so i alway change my foot wear before entry into a supermarket if calling as a customer from my yard

oone perosn against many users of tesco, she can have her say ie but wont win
as its is deemed a health hazzard

[MistyBlue]

This is the root source of one of our family's longest-standing jokes--NEVER buy 'country-scented' airspray--who wants their house to smell of compost & tractor exhaust!

Now if they made one that was fresh-mown hay, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Mmmmmm!

LMAO...too true about the real smell of "country" being compost and tractor exhaust.
Yankee Candle does make a fresh grass or mowed grass or something like that scent. At least they did a few years ago, I sniffed it in one of their mall stores and it wasn;t the nice smell of freshly mowed grass but more the smell of the mowed grass you forgot to dump out of the bagger when you mowed last week. Blech.
But in late spring/early summer whenever I drive by a hay field with rows of tetted hay or with the mower still in there I lean out the window and take a great big sniff! And then I pull over and start checking out the hay from the road to see what type it is and if it's anything I'd be interested in. (and I like to watch the hawks swoop in front of the mower and the coyotes pouncing in front of it too) And usually I'm not the only horse person checking out the hay as it's being mowed. Freshly mowed hay draws horsie broads better than Chippendale dancers, LMAO!

[lilblackhorse]

i have a problem with that--I used to walk into stores (mainly Costco and Safeway) after I rode. I see people in the library all the time wearing riding clothes. Unless you're tracking horse shit all over the floor, I don't think these places have any call to kick a rider out. I'd rather smell "horse" on someone than cigarettes. Or too much perfume. I find that MUCH more offensive, and those people don't get a lecture.

And how about the new trend of these Paris Hilton wannabes who carry their stupid dogs into stores? I'm sorry, I don't want a dog at chest level near my food. Most public stores have exceptions for service animals, I don't need your stupid toy poodle or chihuahua in my food store.

And who is to say that riding boots are dirtier than other boots? I tend to step in dog crap more in my tennis shoes than my riding boots--I'd take horse over dog poo anytime (not that I walk around with either).

Very odd--you would think that UK would be pretty liberal towards riders. We're a rural area, and I see farmers in stores often. I never had an issue in the grocery store in Middleburg either. Loved how I could be in my work clothes-after a 13 hour day, reeking, and walk by a high brow carrying their LV bag driving a Jag. It's horse country, get used to it.

Their PR will suffer I would bet.

[vacation1]

The only place I've really wanted to kick people out for being smelly was a) people who brought fried food onto a bus, and b) the reeking creepy man who inhabits every library in the nation. On the other hand - horsey smell in the barn is wonderful, but strong horsey smell in a non-horsey space is pretty intense and unpleasant.

What would be the grounds of your lawsuit? Stinkiness isn't a protected category under the civil rights law, last I checked (assuming you would be suing in the USA).

You could get creative and claim it was your culture or religion. For example:
"As an Irish-American, I am naturally drawn to horses" and "I worship the horse as my totem animal in the Native Peoples Earth Mother religion."

[Event4Life]

Haha, I went to tescos just last Monday right after a lesson. It's either that or go all the way home, change, then go back out again. No thanks! At college in PA (small town, middle of nowhere - lots of farms etc) I always used to go grocery shopping right after riding - again easier than going home first, so when I moved to Edinburgh I didn't think twice about it.

Yesterday I had to sit in a pub in the middle of nowhere for a few hours waiting for people to return from walks. I'd tripped falling down a hill so was covered in mud. I got some looks, which I was surprised about becuase said pub is in a popular walking area. I don't know if it was the mud or the ice ax attached to my backpack that warranted the looks though...

[GilbertsCreeksideAcres]

You could get creative and claim it was your culture or religion. For example:
"As an Irish-American, I am naturally drawn to horses" and "I worship the horse as my totem animal in the Native Peoples Earth Mother religion."

Now you're talking. At least you have a plan for the lawsuit! That's the kind of creativity that keeps the American judicial system churning, and keeps lawyers in nice cars and fine drink.

[kookicat]

Why don't stores throw out customers dragging babies and children around with godawful horrible smelly leaky diapers? They stick those brats into shopping carts and leave a real honest to goodness health hazards behind. No pun intended.

Plus, it just plain stinks. And often they also leave one hell of a mess in the bathroom on those changing tables.

I'd rather smell a bit of horse manure than vomited baby food and smelly drippy diapers.

Bleh.

Agree. It's just nasty.

Tesco tend to be a little more... 'picky' than say Asda. I go into my local store wearing horse clothes at least three times a week. Nothing has ever been said to me. Personally, I'd have told that guard where to go, finished my shopping and then left.

[BelladonnaLily]

Well, we really don't KNOW HOW SMELLY she really was. I suspect this wasn't just run of the mill barn dirty. I have a pair of Ariat Terrains that reek of horse pee. I will wear them to the barn, or to a schooling show when it is a muddy and nasty out, but I wouldn't dream of wearing them into a grocery store. A normal ride isn't going to make you stink, I wouldn't think unless you have BO issues. This woman probably had horse urine on her boots, or other personal hygiene problems, IMHO.

I wouldn't want to grocery shop with someone like that either.

[BelladonnaLily]

One mans stinky is another mans perfume...which reminds me THAT is what I can't stand...princesses doused in whatever scent du jour they find pleasurable...gack! Same for men steeped in whorsrus cologne...I'll take the horse smell any day! Couldn't the stinkee sue for discrimination?

I have to agree! I was at the gym a few weeks ago when a, ahem, gym princess (I have a more colorful term but won't use it here ) showed up. Hair fixed, 3 inches of makeup, you know the bit. 20 frikkin' treadmills in the joint and she jumps on the one beside me (strolling along, doesn't want to break a nail). Now, these treadmills have fans to cool you off...so I got a steady blast of some cheap Walmart perfume that almost made me pass out.

What is up with bathing in that crap? I'd rather smell horse urine....

[crazy gray horse]

I can't count the number of times I've been in a store - or even a movie theater - and had to hold my nose because of someone nearby who took a bath in an ungodly smelling perfume or cologne. You can smell them aisles away.

Last year I went to the Animal Planet Sport Horse Cup and a woman sat several seats down the row from me and she had on a very strong perfume. I sat with my hand over my nose most of the time I was there to keep from sneezing.

Give me the smell of the horse any time

[farmgirl88]

i agree with it being an "urban" thing. People in the city often think of farm folk as being smelly, dirty and not showered, uneducated, white and poor.

i agree that it could be a biosecurity thing if manure is being tracked all over the place...but this was not the case here.

Ive gone from a dairy barn...being clean and rinsing my shoes off before leaving the barn...and going out to lunch with a bunch of friends in a small town but more urban area where folks just arnt used to the smell of cow...and you should've seen the looks. i really seriously practically cleared out the small resturaunt in 10 minutes because they just couldnt stand the smell of dairy cow.

Ive done the same with smelling like horse. I dont ever track manure anywhere, frankly im embarassed to do so, but my boots and pants and jackets have and will always smell like horse or cow...its gauranteed.


I go to a university where agriculture was the start of the school, and still is a big part of it, but most of the kids that go there think that because there are cows and farm animals on campus, means that this college is out in the middle of nowhere. I go into class reaking of the barn all the time...because thats where ive been, thats what i go to school for, and im damn proud of it,

you should see the looks from some of the students in my classes, i must make them want to throw-up.

I live in an area too, where small farms where once prominant and now the developers are moving in, boosting up taxes, and buying out the family farms that have been here forever. the city folk that come here, love the are, love the views, the small town feel, the view of the farms...BUT..they dont want to see a tractor, or tractors driving down the road with dirt from the fields flying off them, or cows out in the pasture "because they smell" or fencing, or ANY of that because - i quote "it would ruin their view from their back window"

---its sickening and extremely frustrating to half the folks that live around here and love it for what it is

[Sue from Auckland]

Even if there was manure on the shopper's boots (the store's contention, although she contends not), presuming that she did not intend to dance along the deli counter, and presuming that Tesco does not store uncovered (or even covered) footstuffs on the floor, there would be no transfer of any contamination so how could that be a food safety issue. Everyone (barefoot or shod) who enters a building has been walking elsewhere in who knows what (animal urine, bird droppings, etc) which may not necessarily be visible but which they can then track into the premises. I wouldn't have thought that smell alone (unless indicative of the presence of gas or something that could actually contact the food) could cause any negative food safety issues.
In terms of all the things that are likely to be transferred to shopping trolleys, I would be insisting that Tesco install some sort of disinfecting bath that the trolleys had to go through between EACH use not to mention all the muck which the trolley wheels must track in from outside and, by virtue of their circular motion, spray up and around (muck on feet would tend to stay much lower and be less likely to contaminate footstuffs).

[equinelaw]

My initial reaction was not that she was "smelly" but that there is a lot of resentment in the UK of "upper class riders" and tensions between classes? I actually do not know, but I sort of thought it was more of a personal attack then a really valid concern that she smelled.

OTOH, I thought riders were actually treated like sports stars over there too. Its obviously rare enough and outrageous enough to be newsworthy or we wouldn't be reading about it over here, so I think it was one guy with a chip on his shoulder and a minimum wage job.

I may be completely off base. My view is distorted as I have lived in a place where everybody shops in barn clothes or riding clothes all the time. Its perfectly normal and acceptable. We may change before a trip to Wal-mart, but only because we don't want to be seen shopping there for liberal lefty reasons.

I have only heard one person say we were "smelly", but she didn't think the men smelled bad, just the slim. pretty women that looked good in breeches and boots I sort of read that as envy. Plus, she said it to me not knowing I was one of "those horse people" so clearly her nose was not as accurate as she believed

[morrisfan1]

Wow....


But really, you should check out my blog!!

[galwaybay]

I often go to the grocery store after riding - there is one grocery that is best as there is usually at least one other person/child in riding clothes shopping as well - which helps.

But getting kicked out for smelling - geez what about auto mechanics, asphalt workers on a hot summer day, joggers and bikers who waltz in to stores for a break from their workout - last time I heard human sweat could be pretty stinky too...

Apparently the UK is going a bit over the top on some issues - I heard on the radio the other day that they were forming a Food Task Force of some kind who would be going around to people's homes to check their fridges and amount of Leftovers because apparently the folks in the UK are throwing out too much leftover food - Now I don't know if this story is true or not - heard it from a pretty reliable reporter but.

[BelladonnaLily]

galwaybay, thats exactly where socialism will get you. Lots of slippery slopes...

[mandalea]

I wore my jods and chaps to the shops the other day..

People were giving me funny looks, because of what I was wearing - I hadn't even fed my horse! I was there getting him some munchies, and stuff for his b'day cake (which it is his 18th tomorrow )

I picked up some apples, and put them back, because they were bruised, and some lady grabbed them and put them in the bin, like I was diseased!

I hate it. It's stupid. And we are one of the most horse populated towns in our Shire!

And the people at the produce barn know when I need more feed or molasses or something like that, because I always wear my jodhpurs there (don't know why, but I always mange to go there when I'm planning on riding..?)