Hi there, Vee.

I messaged you last year regarding the purchase of a Guardian Mask for my horse, Chico, in South Africa, who had a very bad case of Uveitis, and was already blind in one eye.

Unfortunately, I don't bring good news as he had to be put down this year, but without that mask, it would have been a lot sooner. I received the mask in August, but a week before, he had a bad uveitis attack which lasted about 6 days. After this, the Guardian mask arrived, and I wore it even when riding. The first time I tried to jump him again, he refused to jump, and he began jumping shadows on the ground, thinking there were jumps which were not there. At first we thought it was the mask, but within minutes realized he had lost a lot of vision. I decided to try do purely flat work and relaxed hacking, but after 2 days, even this was out of the question, and I decided to retire him down the road at a very quiet stable with 24 hour care. We looked into having an operation done and brought a specialist down to Cape Town to see him, but he did not think my horse would make it through the operation, and he doubted it would help. We figured what was best would be to continue to treat him and continue using the Guardian mask. The eye specialist as well as my vet who he was seeing on a weekly basis were both fascinated by the mask!

Unfortunately, about a week after I got the mask, Chico got yet another attack. This one lasted over a month and led to complete loss of sight in him, and he was on so much medication, but somehow, he was still happy and fat as ever! Without the Guardian Mask, Chico would not have made it past August. I say this because due to the medication he was on, his eye was not allowed to be exposed to the sun, but thanks to the Guardian Mask, he was able to go out in the paddocks all day and graze and have his best friend in the paddock right next to him, and enjoy his last few months with me. Without the mask, he would have had to stay in his stable all day, and what kind of life would that have been? The mask also stopped him from rubbing his eye (we replaced it with a racing mask with full cups on during the night), which before was causing ulcers in his eye and even more pain. He would have had to be put down in August had I not had the Guardian mask, when he lost his eyesight and had to go onto permanent medication... Instead, he had a really lovely time resting for 5 more months, with limited pain and lots of love. We made the decision to put him down this year in January, when he began to not move in his paddock and shock himself on the electric fencing which we had to switch off, which resulted in other horses escaping. In the last week of his life, he was so afraid at night he would bang and bang on his stable door, and in the morning have gashes everywhere, and he had to have someone sitting by his stable all night as well as be on calming paste. In fact, it has been exactly 2 months today since he was put down. I was there when it happened, and he was the calmest I had ever seen him, as though he was ready to go. He, being blind, was genuinely cautious and would rarely put his feet on strange surfaces. But when he had to be put down, the vet lay a big plastic sheet on the grass outside his stable, and as I led him on, he lowered his head, took one sniff and walked straight on and stood there very calmly, as if he knew.

I just want to say thank you so much for your wonderful services and product, even though it was too late to help my boy, it gave us all a chance to prepare. I was not ready to see him go in August, and I don't believe he was ready to go. So thank you so much for giving him that extra shot, and adding a few months onto his life. It was those last few months that I shared with him which where my best and most important times, and he even got a first place rosette when we dressed him up as a Bumble Bee for our stables yearly show, in the fancy dress class. He just went around that arena with the happiest of plods, regardless that he was blind and oblivious of all the commotion around him. He gained this "bumblebee" nickname because of the mask - I have attached a few pictures so you can see :)

I did promise feedback on how I found the mask ages ago when I bought it, and though you must have loads of customers and it may have slipped your mind, I wanted to let you know anyway, because I am so, so grateful. I am going to sell it on now to someone else who needs it just as much as I did.

Again, thank you so, so much,

Kind regards,

Amber