Horslyx Original Lick - 15kg

Horslyx Original Balancer – 15kg Field Lick

Fifteen kilos of Original is the field tub: about sixty days for one 500kg horse, or a fortnight or so for a group of four. It is the size that stops a yard opening a new tub every three weeks, and the one Horslyx design around their 15kg Holder.

Nothing is added to it. Original carries the vitamin, mineral and trace element package that every other Horslyx lick is built on, without peppermint, garlic, menthol, glucosamine or slippery elm, which is why it is the cheapest per kilo way to balance a forage diet across several horses.

Performance & Benefits

• 15kg — about sixty days for one 500kg horse, proportionally less across a group.
• The base Horslyx package: vitamin A 25,000iu, D3 5,000iu, E 1,200mg, B12 220mcg, biotin 12mg per kg.
• Copper 600mg and zinc 1,200mg per kg, each part-supplied as a glycine chelate.
• Manganese 800mg, iodine 6mg and selenium 5mg per kg.
• Weatherproof, and designed to be used with the 15kg Horslyx Holder.
• Crude ash 23% and crude protein 6.5% — the reference analysis for the range.
• No artificial colours or preservatives.

Suitable For

• Fields and groups of horses sharing one lick.
• One horse over two months, where a 5kg tub means monthly reordering.
• Yards balancing forage across several animals at once.
• Older equines with poor dentition that struggle with hard feed.
• Too much lick for a single pony trying one for the first time — Horslyx Original Balancer 5kg is the sensible starting size.

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 15kg tub is roughly sixty days for one 500kg horse; across four horses it is nearer a fortnight.
• Horslyx design the 15kg tub for the 15kg Horslyx Holder, which is weatherproof and can also be stood as a floor feeder.
• 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.
• 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 also make Original in 650g, 40kg and 80kg. The 80kg is for mechanical handling only; the 40kg can be handled manually.
• 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.
• In a shared field one horse can dominate the lick — a second tub is usually the answer rather than removing it.
• A 15kg tub is heavy; site it before opening it.