You'd think that he could just, I don't know, record an actual horse going to town on a salt lick, but you're not thinking it through. Bullseye is not a real horse. He's a toy. Those must sound differently from real horses. And what's the real-life equivalent of toy horses, in the mind of a sound effects artist? That's right, cows. Rydstrom therefore took the only action that was reasonable in his mind: He had a volunteer smear their face with peanut butter and then got it slurped off by a hungry cow. That was in no way a joke. I have no idea how the crew explained their plan to the cow's owner, but they probably just assumed it was better not to ask any follow-up questions.
In any case, once the sound designer had all the licking sounds he needed, he separated, enhanced, and mixed them until they sounded exactly right. And then literally nobody who's ever seen the movie noticed or cared.
Related: The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible
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