Horslyx Original Balancer Lick Horse Supplement – 5 kg

Horslyx Original Balancer – 5kg Tub

The 5kg Original is the tub most horses start on: one horse, roughly twenty days, small enough to carry to a stable one-handed and to lift out of the way when the bedding is done. It is the size that suits a single stabled horse rather than a field of them.

Original is the formulation the whole Horslyx range is built from — dehydrated cane molasses, monocalcium phosphate, vegetable oil, salt, prairie meal, calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide, carrying the vitamin, mineral and trace element package. Nothing is added for joints, airways or the hindgut; if you want those, they are separate licks.

Performance & Benefits

• Crude protein 6.5%, crude oil and fats 6%, crude ash 23% — the range's reference analysis.
• Vitamin A 25,000iu, D3 5,000iu, E 1,200mg, B12 220mcg and biotin 12mg per kg.
• Copper 600mg and zinc 1,200mg per kg, each part-supplied as a glycine chelate.
• Selenium 5mg per kg as an antioxidant alongside the vitamin E.
• About twenty days for one 500kg horse at the expected intake.
• Weatherproof, and free of artificial colours and preservatives.

Suitable For

• A single horse or pony on a forage-based diet.
• Stabled horses, where the licking helps break up a long night.
• Older equines with poor dentition that cannot chew hard feed.
• Owners wanting to balance grazing without adding a bucket feed.
• A field of horses will empty it quickly — Horslyx Original Lick 15kg or the 4 x 5kg multipack suit a group better.

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.
• A 5kg tub is roughly twenty days for one 500kg horse.
• 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.
• The 5kg Horslyx Holder keeps the tub off the bedding and takes a detachable restrictor grill for a greedy pony.
• Feed alongside forage and fresh water; the lick balances forage rather than replacing it.

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.
• Watch the rate over the first week; a tub emptied in a few days means the horse has had far more than the expected 250g a day.