For the horse girls

So I ride horses. They smell. Kinda nice in my opinion, it takes all sorts.

Scents that both survive and compliment the olfactory onslaught of horse in my experience are thus far limited to:

Chergui Eau de Parfum

Original Musk Blend No. 1

Dzing!

Any other contenders? I don't tend to like leather dominant fragrances very much so those are iffy.

Untamable

Galop d'Hermès

Derby

Ribot

Maison d’Etto is a niche fragrance house inspired by equestrian culture. The brand’s founder channeled her deep love for horses and the equestrian lifestyle into the brand’s identity. The perfumes are named after specific horses and are designed to capture emotions, memories, and the sensory experiences associated with riding, nature, and the bond between humans and horses.
Rotano smells like horses (it's the animalic one of the bunch). And there's also a hay-centric fragrance. Just test them all...

Another horse girl here! 😁 Galop d'Hermès definitely. And Ombré Leather (2018) Eau de Parfum smells exactly like a new saddle leather to me, absolutely gorgeous. You could also try "Stable (Cologne) | Demeter Fragrance Library / The Library Of Fragrance".

@Lempi horse girl high five!

Interesting picks! I quite like Hermès as a house, but somehow I haven't come across Galop d'Hermès yet.

Maison d'Etto has no retailers in Europe yet, boo. I'll keep an eye out for samples.

Since you dislike leather and most of my ouds are leathery, I can only think of "Luxor | XerJoff".

Fits the bill nicely with some enveloping myrrh sweetness to boot! 🐴❤️

Ive heard Equipage Eau de Toilette but haven’t smelled it myself.

Anubis has an awesome dry suede that imo feels quite horsey

Try this Arabian Horse

Ruade . i recently had the opportunity to test it in a local niche shop. It's incredible, the smell of a stable (old saddle, hay, horse sweat), and the sudden apparition of the narcissus.

And also another one from the same brand, Equistrius. I didn't smell it, but i heard it is described as a horse's breath.

Unfortunately, Ruade is very expensive (like VERY).

GOOD LORD @ Ruade - it sounds amazing though. I know some of their line (Ambre Russe most notably) but those prices sound positively reasonable in comparison.

Actually come to think of it, Ambre Russe might also be horse proof

Thanks for mentioning Ruade. Seems absolutely awesome. Will have to get a sample at least. Comes in 1.7oz size to get the price down.

Hi Everyone, 

I'm late to the horse party. I have a friend who used to do horsey sports and I'd like to gift her a small decant of something that would remind her of horses. However, she does not wear any perfume. She's not against the idea, but until now has thought perfume was for special events only. 

Can you help? Which of the above mentioned horsey scents would be light enough for a first perfume? I think she would be put off by anything "beast mode" or heavy as a non-user. 

And if anyone would like to help me with how I can acquire said decant in Germany, I'm all ears, private or public message. Thank you!

To me, Galop d'Hermès and Derby are the most approachable ones. They're at different ends of the price spectrum, so depends on how much you want to spend. Derby won`t be above the 103 eur mark, so it seems like a safe bet for someone just starting out on their scent journey. You can have samples shipped to you from the Milani Fragranze website.

I could swear I saw a similar thread over on the German forum not too long ago, let me search for it 

Oh, I somehow overlooked this thread, but funny that Blue Grass (1989) isn't mentioned yet!

It is composed for Elizabeth Arden to illustrate the feel of horse stables in Kentucky. (there's even a horse on the bottle ) It is very cheap (so for that matter, a safe blind buy), but many find it lovely. Light scent, but with strong projection and sillage.

How about Corpus Equus by Naomi Goodsir? It literally means the body of a horse. It’s a beautiful fragrance.

edit: whoops sorry I misread that you liked leather. Still it would be nice to know what a real horse-person (which I’m not) thinks of it.

Riders has a mild leather note, but is more of a green-animal smell to me

I meannnnn. It can go both ways for me. I quite like certain interpretations of leather, but the ones that lean hard into the tarred/smoky aspect can go a bit astringent/sour/unpleasant or generally be Too Much. So it's very much hit or miss

eta on the perfume page, I'm seeing it compared to 3.1 Arabian Horse and that one i liked a lot. So who knows.

One that actually is hard to find but seems to have a lot of success in one of my fragrance circles is Paddock . I am not sure if the 2025 version is still available as it is supposed to be a limited release

That might actually work! Let's see if I can source a sample for her.

LOL - it lists horse hair as a note. Can't go wrong there!

Echoing @Lempi ’s suggestion of Ombré Leather (2018) Eau de Parfum - that’s the same thing I wrote in a statement to describe it! It’s like breathing in a lovely leather saddle with deep-berry nuances, or a horseback ride on an end-of-summer evening. I’m normally very cautious with leather, and this is a leather even for the leather haters!