Horselyx

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Equi

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Just wondering if they are safe to leave in?

Got my stallion one today and put it in about 8PM. Been watching him on CCTV and he has not left it alone! Could it make him ill at all? Possibly colic with all the licking? Should i take it out?

Also, anyone lick theirs before? Holy moly that is some minty flavour.
 
I put one in for my youngster for about 10 minutes a day while I am pottering around the stables in the evening

The only time I left one in overnight he went hyper and I arrived to a trashed stable in the morning, he obviously had barely left the lick alone and it was a lesson learned for me and a three day climb down cold turkey for him
 
FfionWinnie said:
They are full of sugar aren't they? Wouldn't feed them to any of mine personally
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I cannot think of any reason mine would ever get one, even for a short while, full of sugar with no benefit whatsover, I suspect they could induce laminitis and would be more concerned about that than colic.
 
be positive said:
I cannot think of any reason mine would ever get one, even for a short while, full of sugar with no benefit whatsover, I suspect they could induce laminitis and would be more concerned about that than colic.
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They are made by caltech who make molassed sheep licks. I buy these licks for my sheep. I once bought them for the sheep along with some horse food and the guy in the shop, Carrs billington, who are owned by caltech laughed and said "you've discovered the secret have you then". What he was getting at, is the horslyx and the sheep blocks are the same thing in different packaging and vastly different prices.

They are useful for sheep and cattle (who can but very very rarely do, suffer from laminitis) to prevent pregnancy toxaemia and grass staggers as magnesium is not palatable by its self. But no, for me, this is not horse food in any way shape or form. There isn't even an easily found list of ingredients on the site.
 
On the same sort of line - i have another lick (pure garlic salt lick) i got for my mares who tend to itch a bit more.

Safe or not safe?

I know they always say you should have a salt lick for horses but do they really need one all the time? I had a big massive one i left in the field, was never touched. Just melted away....
 
Garlic is not recommended for sweet itch as it encourages the reaction to the bites so I would be very careful with garlic for anything a bit itchy in case it makes them worse, I try and keep a salt lick in each stable, they go through phases of licking it, I don't bother in the field as they use it so little they just dissolve and it is wasted.
If they are in harder work I feed salt daily in summer but otherwise only if I notice them using the licks more than normal.
 
Neither have sweet itch, but are the ones who get stuck in the poor paddock to try and keep weight down, and unfortunately it is sheltered and has a waterway so more bugs. Ive never fed garlic, or a lick with it, so not sure if it really works as a deterrent?
 
equi said:
Just wondering if they are safe to leave in?

Got my stallion one today and put it in about 8PM. Been watching him on CCTV and he has not left it alone! Could it make him ill at all? Possibly colic with all the licking? Should i take it out?

Also, anyone lick theirs before? Holy moly that is some minty flavour.
Click to expand...

I have left it in over night many times and the only issue is a molasses horse covered in the morning
 
be positive said:
I cannot think of any reason mine would ever get one, even for a short while, full of sugar with no benefit whatsover, I suspect they could induce laminitis and would be more concerned about that than colic.
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Is that so???? Where are your facts????

According to this page and I don't assume anything I read the article to get the facts.


There is 33% sugar in Horslyx and when feeding a 500kg horse at the recommended daily intake of 250g, just 82.5g of sugar will be added to his diet in a 24hr period. This is a very small quantity when compared to the daily intakes of fresh grass which equates to around 2000g of sugar!

Molasses is unrefined sugar and is the same type of sugar found in grass and hay; which is why your horse is efficient in digesting it. One of the advantages of feeding Horslyx rather than a bucket feed is that intakes of molasses are little and often, replicating that of natural grazing behaviour.




Every Horslyx contains anti-oxidants to support a healthy immune system and high oil content for healthy skin and coat.
Every Horslyx product contains the unique Healthy Hooves package, which contains Biotin, Methionine and Chelated Zinc. This negates the need for further hoof supplementation in many horses.


All products are based on the Original Horslyx formula which supports all round health and vitality; whilst added ingredients in Respiratory, Garlic and Mobility Horslyx provide additional support allowing owners to target nutritional requirements with just one product.

One should not second guess
 
HGA-12 said:
Is that so???? Where are your facts????

According to this page and I don't assume anything I read the article to get the facts.


There is 33% sugar in Horslyx and when feeding a 500kg horse at the recommended daily intake of 250g, just 82.5g of sugar will be added to his diet in a 24hr period. This is a very small quantity when compared to the daily intakes of fresh grass which equates to around 2000g of sugar!

Molasses is unrefined sugar and is the same type of sugar found in grass and hay; which is why your horse is efficient in digesting it. One of the advantages of feeding Horslyx rather than a bucket feed is that intakes of molasses are little and often, replicating that of natural grazing behaviour.




Every Horslyx contains anti-oxidants to support a healthy immune system and high oil content for healthy skin and coat.
Every Horslyx product contains the unique Healthy Hooves package, which contains Biotin, Methionine and Chelated Zinc. This negates the need for further hoof supplementation in many horses.


All products are based on the Original Horslyx formula which supports all round health and vitality; whilst added ingredients in Respiratory, Garlic and Mobility Horslyx provide additional support allowing owners to target nutritional requirements with just one product.

One should not second guess
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I'm amazed you don't know "the facts". Your "article" is an advert by the manufacturer for their product.

Sugar, is not good for horses. It's not good for humans either.

There's no second guessing here - if you have a scientific study that says horses need added sugar in their diets I would be *really* interested to read it.

Low sugar and starch diet is best for all horses. That's a fact.

Unmolassed mineral licks are available.

If you want to "break the boredom" for a horse, give it more hay. That's what they need to do with their lives, eat more hay.
 
FfionWinnie said:
I'm amazed you don't know "the facts". Your "article" is an advert by the manufacturer for their product.

Sugar, is not good for horses. It's not good for humans either.

There's no second guessing here - if you have a scientific study that says horses need added sugar in their diets I would be *really* interested to read it.

Low sugar and starch diet is best for all horses. That's a fact.

Unmolassed mineral licks are available.

If you want to "break the boredom" for a horse, give it more hay. That's what they need to do with their lives, eat more hay.
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Adlib hay is provided. It does nothing for the boredom when they are not hungry enough to eat it 24/7.
 
I dont like giving horses boredom breakers they tend IME to make them fractious .
However I gave my horse who had KS surgery one go those snack balls made up of lots of triangles filled with grass cubes .
It was to get him lowering his head and moving his back it worked really well.
 
Goldenstar said:
I dont like giving horses boredom breakers they tend IME to make them fractious .
However I gave my horse who had KS surgery one go those snack balls made up of lots of triangles filled with grass cubes .
It was to get him lowering his head and moving his back it worked really well.
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I had one of those for a while but my gelding just pawed it in frustration. It was like the size of his head though, so i don't think he wanted to be nosing it about. Miniature horse troubles! I considered a dog treat ball, but never got around to trying out one.
 
I'm not a fan. Sugar may be a natural part of the diet, but arguing in favour of horslyx on the basis that there's sugar in grass is the same as arguing in favour of giving a child a snickers because there's sugar in apples.

The tubs also crack and break, and I have seen one horse with a bloody mouth as a result. Hopefully no horse would be stupid enough to actually swallow the broken plastic, but these are horses we're talking about!
 
Personally I wouldn't use one at all, unless it was for very short periods of time to distract a horse from a procedure that was being done on it. I wouldn't leave one permanently in the field or stable. I do know of a pony than went through a molassed pasture lick very quickly and went down with laminitis afterwards - it could have been a coincidence but personally not a risk I'd like to take. Yes there is sugar in grass and hay, but there is also tons of fibre too, which slows down the rate that sugar gets into the system. Whereas sugar from a lick isn't accompanied by any fibre at all. Plus the horse doesn't read the packaging so you can't guarantee they are going to stop licking once they have ingested the 'recommended daily rate' for the product!

There are lots of ways to prevent boredom without resorting to sugary licks.

As for salt licks, I just use a plain Himalayan salt lick in the stable - I find the horses prefer these to the rectangular brick-like salt licks, but they don't get addicted to them like they do with sugary licks. I don't put them in the fields as they do dissolve in the rain. If the horses are doing a lot of fast work (hunting/eventing) they get electrolytes as well.
 
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HGA-12 said:
Is that so???? Where are your facts????

According to this page and I don't assume anything I read the article to get the facts.


There is 33% sugar in Horslyx and when feeding a 500kg horse at the recommended daily intake of 250g, just 82.5g of sugar will be added to his diet in a 24hr period. This is a very small quantity when compared to the daily intakes of fresh grass which equates to around 2000g of sugar!

Molasses is unrefined sugar and is the same type of sugar found in grass and hay; which is why your horse is efficient in digesting it. One of the advantages of feeding Horslyx rather than a bucket feed is that intakes of molasses are little and often, replicating that of natural grazing behaviour.




Every Horslyx contains anti-oxidants to support a healthy immune system and high oil content for healthy skin and coat.
Every Horslyx product contains the unique Healthy Hooves package, which contains Biotin, Methionine and Chelated Zinc. This negates the need for further hoof supplementation in many horses.


All products are based on the Original Horslyx formula which supports all round health and vitality; whilst added ingredients in Respiratory, Garlic and Mobility Horslyx provide additional support allowing owners to target nutritional requirements with just one product.

One should not second guess
Click to expand...

Considering you run a professional yard and have previously lost a horse to laminitis I would expect you to be more careful with feeding any form of sugar and not believe everything the manufacturers claim, I would never use one as there is no need for extra sugar in a horses diet I actively look for low sugar products for ALL horses in my care as they are all potentially at risk from sugar related conditions, just as we are.
As for my suspicion that having free access to one bringing on laminitis that is based on the fact that it has been induced by feeding polos during experiments, a whole lick would be far more than a few packs of mints.
 
I have one as my last resort if I need distract her ie. Vet or clipping. It's only used every now and then and not for longer than about 5 minutes. It's handy when nothing else (hay, haylage, pony cubes) work as a distraction.
 
be positive said:
Considering you run a professional yard and have previously lost a horse to laminitis I would expect you to be more careful with feeding any form of sugar and not believe everything the manufacturers claim, I would never use one as there is no need for extra sugar in a horses diet I actively look for low sugar products for ALL horses in my care as they are all potentially at risk from sugar related conditions, just as we are.
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How do you know what I do or don't do on my yard, or how careful I am with sugar things as I have not said anything about my yard or what I feed. I just quote from their web and what they told me, my livery owners know exactly how I feel and what I feed to mine to reduce the risk of laminitis.

Just for the record every precaution here is in place.
 
I think the small ones can be handy if you need to keep the horse occupied, like say for clipping or the vet but I wouldn't use one all the time.

I really like the look of the Uncle Jimmys stuff and I know the boys would love it but again its full of molasses :-(
 
HGA-12 said:
How do you know what I do or don't do on my yard, or how careful I am with sugar things as I have not said anything about my yard or what I feed. I just quote from their web and what they told me, my livery owners know exactly how I feel and what I feed to mine to reduce the risk of laminitis.
.
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You have posted many times in the past on threads about Horslyx and similar sugary licks how you feed them to your horses, how they get covered in molasses and how quickly they devour them. And how it makes you feel like 'a caring mummy' to provide them for your horses.

I have to agree with be positive, I find it alarming that anyone should actively promote the use of these sugary licks on the forum, let alone someone who has already lost one horse to laminitis and so should be fully aware of the risks.
 
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I've always wondered who on earth buys these things nowadays. 20 years ago I fed pasture mix, molassed beet pulp and barley rings along with lickits no doubt.

I've learnt a lot since then, thankfully.
 
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