A stable lick that doesn't make the horse into a walking toffee...

K

kit279

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To perk my black horse up and get him a bit interested in food, he has been having a molasses-type stable lick which is doing everything I hoped with regard to keeping him happy. Unfortunately it is also turning him into a walking menace with a sticky brown nose that he wipes all over you to say how much he loves you..

Is there something I can buy him that will keep him busy in his box without having to wash all my clothes every time he says hello?!
 
i could only suggest either the pure salt licks or the likits, taz has his horslyx and likits dont think he would be happy without them
 
You mean like this? :D

BILD0526.jpg
 
I find it incredible that, given the high incidence of laminitis, people are quite happy to leave their horse with a bucket of sugar to keep them happy!!
Whatever happened to a swede on a piece of string?
My horses never get a lick, infact the two times I have given my horse a likit, she ended up with colic on both occasions.
Horses digestive systems are not designed to cope with large quantities of sugar, and I've seen many a horse get through a lick in a few days, to be replaced by another one by their loving owners.
 
lhotse said:
I find it incredible that, given the high incidence of laminitis, people are quite happy to leave their horse with a bucket of sugar to keep them happy!!
Whatever happened to a swede on a piece of string?
My horses never get a lick, infact the two times I have given my horse a likit, she ended up with colic on both occasions.
Horses digestive systems are not designed to cope with large quantities of sugar, and I've seen many a horse get through a lick in a few days, to be replaced by another one by their loving owners.
Click to expand...

Mine also gets swedes on string, bits of cabbage and other veg leaves dispersed through his hay nets, all sorts of things to keep him occupied if he has to be in. Please don't assume that because people give their horses a lick occasionally, they have them all of the time. Mine had an Uncle Jimmy's lick over Xmas when they were all stuck in 24/7 thanks to having 6in of solid ice outside the barn as far as your eye could see. It was suspended so that he couldn't pin it up against the wall, it moved every time he tried to lick it and it took him a month to eat it. Kept him amused literally for weeks, he adored it. I don't understand why people hang likits in the corner of stables where the horse can just pin them against the wall and eat them, that defeats the object. And for the record, mine never had his Uncle Jimmy's replaced... it was just to keep him occupied when he was so fed up he decided he would refuse to eat any hay or haylage...
 
I hung a swede on a string in Kel's stable and she took a small bite out of it and ignored it. It ended up in her bed because I got fed up with it hitting me on the head! Odd, because swede's in her top five favourite foods.

Her first Horslyx lasted her about three months, and she rarely touches the replacement. She turns her nose up at Likits and flavoured salt licks, so if she's in for any longer than overnight she has apples in her water and carrots and swedes hidden in the straw.
 
Try something called "Rockies". They are salt and mineral licks that come in an assortment of flavours - from mint or apple to garlic. My horse doesn't touch normal salt licks and like yours would demolish a sweet lick (which I agree have too much sugar in them). You may find that Rockies are a good in between. They will encourage the horse to hydrate but shouldn't fizz them up.
 
Well, having weighed up the balance of probability for my particular horse, I just felt it would be nicer for him (a very slender racehorse who's a bit depressed and not very interested in his food) to have something to keep him occupied in his box. He won't eat swede, doesn't really understand carrots and is unlikely to finish his lick in under a month given current rates of consumption. It's for a purpose and when he's happy, has put on some condition, maybe I'll re-evaluate. Horses for courses, as they say. I'd not give it to a fatty at risk of lami FWIW.
 
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