Saw one of these on Paul O’Shea’s horse last night in the Nations Cup. Someone said 'it’s like a thunder shirt." That makes sense to me and I did a search.
An old thread here says it’s baloney. Anyone use one?
Well, titanium is a liquid at 1670 degrees C (roughly 3400 degrees F). I’m pretty sure you are going to burn the horse.
15 Likes
I use one on the 3 school horses I ride, horses that were sort of “thrown away” by ex-boarders who bought too much horse for their riding abilities. I bought the one with ears so I would not have to use a fly bonnet.
I love it. The horses really, really like it. They relax in the cross-ties when it is put on. The horses are more relaxed during the ride and they forgive me my riding faults and mistakes better.
I gave my riding teacher one to use on her Arab gelding with PTSD problems from his previous life. She tells me that she always regrets it when she forgets to put the mask on because her horse no longer pays attention to her–he is so busy looking out for imaginary dangers waiting to kill him.
It seems to work a little bit better at settling the horses down than the BOT poll cap.
The horses I ride have “told” me that they want both on (the Fenwick face mask and the BOT poll cap), but my riding teacher just uses the Fenwick face mask with ears on her problem horse, with great results (this horse has more than one screw loose in his head.) My riding teacher is quite capable and able to ride her horse without any extras, but both she and her horse enjoy their rides a lot more with the Fenwick face mask,
It being called “liquid titanium” is the first major indication that it’s snake oil.
Unless they’re incredibly tight, I doubt the thunder shirt thing too.
Just the latest fad of things with no scientific backing but have a placebo effect on the rider, IMO.
8 Likes
Rather a silly thing to call it, I agree. I’d think the term would keep people from buying it, since it is an obvious impossibility.
Agreed. It’s amazing how much money people will dump into fads with zero evidence that they work.
4 Likes
It always surprises me how little skepticism there is of new products and treatments that claim to be cure-alls for any sort of behavioral or soundness issue… otherwise intelligent and educated people fork over cash by the truckload as soon as the person selling it claims it’ll work.
And then insist that there’s no other explanation for the subjective improvement they think they saw.
1 Like
I’m an African prince, and I want to send you all my money…SCAM
Take this diet pill, you can lose 50 pounds in 2 months …SCAM
Buy this doodad, potion, gizmo, and your horse will be sane, sound and sensible tomorrow, …reaches for credit card
7 Likes
While I didn’t name the product when I wrote the article, I did a “deep dive” into the marketing claims on this product one night when I couldn’t sleep & saw an ad making nonsensical assertions. Although, at the time, it didn’t claim to be an equine thunder shirt, I got a good laugh out of that, thanks. I might have gotten a little snarky in my sleep deprivation, but the science is still there, heh:
https://www.teamflyingsolo.com/2014/11/misleading-marketing-madness-lesson-1.html
3 Likes
The Liquid Titanium thing seems pretty bs-y. I have a feeling that calmness is sometimes transmitted via the person who thinks the expensive product they bought is working.
I will say, however, that our adopted dog Clyde, who was a really bad abuse/neglect case and lived his life before us outside on a chain, is petrified of thunder. His Thunder shirt, or a really snugly tied pair of tights wrapped around him crosswise, helps quite a bit. 
1 Like
There is actually some science behind the hug type action. There’s the Madigan foal squeeze, although the application is fairly specific. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5615300/
Like those acupressure “patch” things that were all the rage in my area a couple years ago that were actually just really expensive stickers that adhered to the horse’s coat hair … claimed that they “balanced electrolytes” or something.
I joked that I was going to bring some ECG electrodes home from work and stick them all over my horse and see what happened.
I haven’t seen the patches in a while, but plenty of other fads have stepped up to take their place.
3 Likes
Yes, dummy foals are quite a different clinical problem than are dogs that are terrified by fireworks.
3 Likes
I know nothing about this particular product, but some horses with head shaking syndrome, (which is thought to be associated with irritation if the trigeminal nerve) are more comfortable when wearing a fly mask or ear bonnet with dangling tassels.
It’s theorized that the stimulus of something touching the horse’s face overrides the random firing of the nerve that irritates the horse and prompts it to shake.
If some of these ‘unfocused’ horses are mild or subclinical headshakers the Fenwick hood might actually be helping with that…but so would a $10 fly bonnet.
3 Likes
It looks a bit like a sleazy.
Is this like the Hidez things that all of the western people were into last year? I noticed that they’ve all but disappeared now.
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/demystifying-jativias-superhero-mask
I knew COTH did an article on this mask.
Don’t knock the Hidez socks. I bought a pair for my draft/TB cross to help with a leg with chronic lymphedema. They didn’t fit her, but they were AMAZING for the accident prone 17 TB for keeping hind legs from stocking up on stall rest while keeping the legs cool and for keeping wound care wrappings in place. The full length pocket for dumping ice down was an additional benefit. I sold them because the TB wasn’t mine and they went off to help a lovely broodmare with swollen ankles in late pregnancy.
I’d rebuy in the right size for my 16h TB in a heartbeat if I had the spare cash. Now the bodysuits? Ummmm, not so sure about those.
1 Like
I’m not talking about the socks. What I mostly saw at western events (I’m a photographer) were the full face hoods/masks and a few body suits. Those hood/masks were everywhere late 2018-early 2019, but in the last 4-5 months, I don’t think I have seen a single one.
1 Like
Maybe they all wanted to be superheros and it just didn’t work out?
2 Likes
