Fenwick Liquid Titanium Mask?

[JustJump]

Saw that Paul O’Shea was using a Fenwick “liquid titanium mask” last night in the Nations Cup.

http://www.fenwickfarm.com/products/products.aspx?id=19

Someone said it’s like putting a thunder shirt on a dog. That makes sense to me, but I hadn’t seen them before (well…I’d seen them in photos of Standardbreds but never looked at or focused on them). Searching on these forums found a thread from a few years ago consensus there was that it’s baloney. Anyone use one?

[Jackie_Cochran]

I use them. I got one for every horse I ride, some horses I no longer ride who have problems, and I am quite pleased with the results.

I also use the BOT poll cap, with good, slightly different results, but the difference with the BOT poll cap was a lot more subtle.

Of course I am facing considerable scorn on here for using them.

I have MS. I ride “thrown-away” horses, some with major problems arising from a lack of good schooling and a hard life of carrying bad riders. If these horses had not had major problems there would be no way I could afford riding them (I no longer own horses.)

Two horses committed to ear shyness, even after months or years of humane handling of their ears, after we started using the Fenwick Face Mask with Ears (the face mask with ears is a little more expensive but in my opinion is well worth the extra money) are now at the point of actually enjoying their ears cleaned. After a month or two of using the Face Mask with Ears we no longer have difficulties cleaning their ears (or bridling), these horses who COULD NOT STAND having their ears touched at all (violent head flinging) now cooperate actively when I brush their ears, inside and outside. Since I have MS and I am very unsteady on my feet these horses never had any difficulty in refusing to let me do their ears, now I have no problems at all. Since I do not clean the horse’s ears until around 10 minutes BEFORE I put the face mask on, the favorable effects, after a while, can last over a week since I only tend to ride a horse once a week.

When I first read about them I was “no way”. But then I realized that one of the horses, my riding teacher’s rescue Arab with serious mental problems, probably from PTSD, was an ideal animal to see if these face masks could do anything at all, and I did not really believe the promotional material, I was just getting worried about my riding teacher’s safety (I treasure my riding teacher.) So I asked her if she would let me get her horse one, and she told me that she saw NO WAY it could work but she was willing to try it out.

Now I get tales of how wonderful her horse was out on the trails and in unfamiliar places so long as he has his face mask on. Without the face mask (she forgot it a few times before she got to believe in it) I get the old, often repeated tales of woe of super reactivity to anything around him and his dangerous reactions from panic. My riding teacher went from doubting it to believing in it, because her horse has become so much more rideable and MUCH safer to ride. My riding teacher is not a beginner, she has been training ponies and horses since she was a child, owns a stable with almost 50 horses and has a thriving lesson/4-H/state level show program. She often has a waiting list for boarding.

The more normal horses show every sign of enjoyment when I put it on, their heads come down, they start licking, their jaws relax, and their eyes go from being hard and scared to soft and confident.

I do not care about HOW it works, all I know is that for the 7-8 horses we’ve tried it on it has helped them become more relaxed and cooperative and none of the horses ever “told” us that they did not like the face mask, horses that are in the habit of vehemently showing their displeasure for anything they don’t like.

And no, the fly bonnets DO NOT give the same results, because we used fly bonnets on all these horses without the same results.

Now I will probably get even more scorn and slurs about my horsemanship but I do not care. I have tried quite a few “miracle” pieces of tack, many which were recommended by lots of people on this forum, from which I did not get any positive results in spite of all the promises on their web-sites or positive statements on this Forum. I HAVE gotten positive results with the Fenwick Face Mask with Ears and I plan on putting one on each horse I ride for the rest of my life (riding school horses that I do not own.)

This Face Mask makes my riding a LOT safer for me in spite of my horrible balance, incoordination, involuntary limb movements, and lack of a strong seat, my MS has seriously crippled me. The horses are more patient with me and forgive me my faults a lot more readily.

I just want to go on riding until the day I die. The Fenwick Face Mask with Ears will help me achieve my rather limited dream.