Horslyx Original Balancer – 4 x 5kg Tubs (20kg Total) | Horse & Pony Lick

Horslyx Original Balancer – 4 x 5kg Tubs, 20kg Total

Four 5kg tubs, twenty kilos in all. At the 250g a day Horslyx expect of a 500kg horse that is around eighty horse-days — a winter for one horse, or a month for a yard of three with a tub in each stable. Buying the multipack is a yard decision rather than a single-horse one.

The advantage over one 15kg tub is placement: four separate 5kg tubs go in four stables, or in four corners of a paddock, so a bullied horse is not shut out of the only lick on the field. Original is the base formulation — no peppermint, no garlic, no joint or airway or gut additions.

Performance & Benefits

• Four 5kg tubs, 20kg in total, so roughly eighty days for one 500kg horse.
• Four separate stations rather than one, which stops one horse guarding the lick.
• The base Horslyx Balancer package: A 25,000iu, D3 5,000iu, E 1,200mg, B12 220mcg, biotin 12mg per kg.
• Copper and zinc part-supplied as glycine chelates for absorption.
• Weatherproof, so tubs can go out in the field.
• Each 5kg tub fits the 5kg Horslyx Holder, which takes a detachable restrictor grill.
• No artificial colours or preservatives.

Suitable For

• Small yards running three or four horses on forage-based diets.
• One horse over a winter, with a tub opened at a time.
• Fields where several horses need their own lick to avoid squabbling.
• Older horses with poor teeth that struggle with hard feed.
• Overkill for a single pony trying a lick for the first time — Horslyx Original Mini Lick 650g is the tub for that.

Feeding

• Horslyx give an expected intake of 250g a day for a 500kg horse, 200g for a 300kg pony and 300g for a 700kg horse.
• 20kg at 250g a day is roughly eighty days for one 500kg horse, or about twenty-six days across three horses.
• Open one 5kg tub at a time and keep the rest sealed and dry.
• Introduce it slowly and monitor the intake rate; Horslyx note that consumption usually falls once a horse has got used to having a lick available.
• Put out one tub per horse where horses compete over a lick.
• Feed alongside forage and fresh water.

Composition & Analysis

• Composition: dehydrated cane molasses, monocalcium phosphate, pure vegetable oil, sodium chloride, prairie meal, calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide.
• Analytical constituents: crude oil and fats 6%, crude protein 6.5%, crude fibre 0.25%, crude ash 23%, sugar (as sucrose) 33%, calcium 2.5%, phosphorus 1.6%, magnesium 0.4%, sodium 2.5%.
• Additives per kg: vitamin A 25,000iu, vitamin D3 5,000iu, vitamin E 1,200mg, vitamin B12 220mcg, biotin 12mg.
• Trace elements per kg: copper 540mg from copper (II) sulphate plus 60mg as copper chelate of glycine, zinc 1,080mg from zinc sulphate plus 120mg as zinc chelate of glycine, manganese 800mg, iodine 6mg, selenium 5mg.
• Sugar (as sucrose) is 33%, which at the 250g daily intake works out at the 82.5g of sugar per day Horslyx themselves quote — less than a kilo of hay supplies.
• Horslyx describe the whole Balancer range as extremely low in starch but publish no starch percentage, so none is stated here.

Care & Caution

• Horslyx state that their Balancers are suitable for horses and ponies susceptible to or suffering from laminitis, introduced gradually with no more than ten minutes' access at first.
• If the forage ration is being restricted, Horslyx say not to allow free access to the lick — a hungry horse is more likely to over-consume it.
• With four tubs out at once it is easy to lose track of intake — count the tubs used over a fortnight rather than guessing.