Mineral licks

[Penny Less]

Horse has had a mobility lick, Horslyx, for a couple of days, out in paddock. First day he mullered the plastic box so I took it out of the box and put in a trug, second day lick has disappeared totally, presumed eaten ! at £15 ish a go this is a bit expensive , any ideas short of me putting it in the paddock when I poo pick then removing it .

 

[be positive]

A quick read of the website makes interesting reading, they don't give a full list of ingredients, I knew they were molasses based and something I have never used, they have now branded the licks as a balancer, probably trying to make them more acceptable and go on to justify the 33% sugar content as fine because a horse will only take 250gm a day, if left with them how do you regulate their intake, a greedy pony will find a way of taking more, if only given when they are supervised it defeats the object of free access and not giving a feed.

I would not get another one, your horse knows he can get the lot, a decent supplement given in a token feed would be safer, cheaper and probably more effective.

http://www.horslyx.com/feeding-zone/sugar-what-you-need-to-know/how-much-sugar-does-horslyx-contain/

 

[Auslander]

It's basically just a giant lollipop! There are better ways to feed a joint supplement

 

[criso]

My tb threw and bashed the plastic box about till it broke and the lick came out. That meant he could then bite off huge chunks at a time. It wasn't even his but belonged to the horse next door. It had been left outside the stable with the lid on. Did I mention he can also get lids off various tubs.

 

[Penny Less]

Righto he will not get another one ! Was quite concerned about sugar content but didn't think he would pig the lot down in a short time

 

[supsup]

I'm also not a fan. Apart from the sugar levels, anything that is provided free-access will have pretty dilute mineral concentrations because the manufacturer does not want to be liable for overdosing your horse if they gobble the whole thing down in one sitting. But some minerals have a pretty small margin of error (e.g. Selenium), so it will only be added at very low levels, not enough to really make a difference. (BTW, also applies to salt licks "fortified" with minerals - the mineral levels are quite low).
Also, their noses get annoyingly sticky with sugary syrup. One of my fellow liveries used to bring a lick into the field while poo picking (letting all our horses have a go), and while I wasn't thrilled about the extra sugar, what really annoyed me was that everything - tack, clothing, grooming kit - ended up with a sticky sugary coating from a very brown horsey nose.