Lick its/Sugar Rush?

J

joyalexandra

Member
Joined
5 September 2010
Messages
17
Visit site
Just bought a new horse a delightful 14'3 Welsh Section D. Had her about 4 weeks. She is always bright and forward going (hacking out), however today complete nightmare. Bought her in from field, put her in stable where I'd hung a Lick It. She scoffed the lot!. Tacked her up, left yard, and by this time she felt like 18 hh, she then pranced sideways through our village, cars moving out of her way. Felt like I had no contact or communication with her, and had to get her into a friends driveway in order to get off! Could this be a 'sugar rush'? Anyone else experienced a similar problem please.
 
Ye the colourful nice flavoured ones are basically just straight sugar! They are really bad for making them hyper.

Maybe try the Uncle Jimmys Sugar Free balls - or just only give her some when she's with you holding it so you can limit it. Or stick to the good old salt lick!
 
Yup, I'd say so! The main ingredient in them is glucose, a whole likit contains around 500g of sugar (I think!). The recommended feeding rate is 1/2 a likit a day (300g), so I guess a whole one in one sitting may well be enough sugar to make her a little lively ;)

Could you try hanging a swede up to keep her occupied, as an alternative? :)
 
Two of mine are the same - loves them but turns then into flame breathing dragons if I let them even have a sniff at one ! it's the high amount of Glucose and a whole one would be an overdose !

Normally mine don't get them - just they were Christmas prezzie to the ponies from Clients - normally a swede does a better and cheaper job !
 
:mad::mad:Thanks Flamehead. Can't believe I've been such a moron. She's very playful, so just thought "Oh I'll get her one of those, black cherry, that smells nice. I'll hang it up in her stable so she can have a lick and play with it" Absolute nightmare! I usually use salt licks but in my stupidity thought that the nice smell was just to make it interesting, not that it was really all sugar. What an idiot I am.
 
At a recent show my daughters very well behaved cob turned into a complete monster. There was going to be quite a long wait between classes and to occupy him we thought he could have a Likit ball complete with a mint and cherry Likits. He worked out how to get his teeth over the edge and scoffed about half of each one before we'd really noticed. Never again, he was hyper and would not settle at all for his next class. She had to leave the ring as he was upset by everything and he is never bothered usually so it must have been an overdose of sugar. I really don't like the design anyway if they are able to bite off chunks its hardly worth calling it a Likit.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies, what a nightmare. Anyway she seems ok now, though wouldn't have fancied riding her for all of today. Will try again tomorrow and hope the wretched stuff is out of her system. Like you Scrat I didn't expect the whole thing to be so easily crunched, let alone sugar laden. NEVER NEVER AGAIN!
 
Lickits are great for "bribe treats" ie for the first clip/ shoe with a youngster. Other than that I don't like them.

Two of mine will scoff a salt lick in one go too, so be careful with that as well!
 
Nothing to do with being an idiot! Some horses are really good and self regulate - our mare is totally uninterested in them and has licked hers about 3 times in a year (in fact, it is now mouldy!!!).

I've been told the uncle jimmy sugar free things are really good. I also love the likit bars that you can break cubes off of for snacks - my yearling loves them and they're a really handy way of feeding them as you can manage how much they have!

The likit tubs work quite well (taste like **** though - don't lick them!!) but our two just smashed the plastic so we had to leave it out of their field in the end!

Swedes are also really good.

You'll live and learn! Hope she comes down off cloud nine tomorrow =]
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nativeponies
i call them "lammiliks"

i detest the damned things.

get a hymalayan salt lick

Agree 100%

Me too, d*mn things are a menace
 
Mine don't like the lickits but I do use the big 15kg vitamin licks in the winter, I put several out for the herd in the field - they get bored of them quite quickly though and they last a good couple of weeks. Although we did have a new mare that we had no idea she would be such a pig - but she ate the whole 15kg thing in 2hrs!!! - Dear god it was like owning a sticky rocket with hooves - luckily she was a broodmare and not ridden at the time - but I've never seen a friesian horse in humming bird mode - it lasted a couple of days and she had no ill affects!!!!:D Needless to say we had to split her off when we put them out and take them away when she went back out with the herd!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top