Fencing woes

[Tiempo]

I'm at my wits end..my horses keep getting out at night.

They are busting right through the fence, tearing it to shreds.

I have 1/2 inch tape right now, last week we knew we had a grounding problem, the digital fence tester was reading in the 5-7 kv range, but hubby touched the fence and there was no shock at all.

He jiggled with it, adjusted some stuff, touched it again (what else can you do when the tester is lying?!) and it knocked his hat off.

We thought we were good to go, but they were out again when Hubs got up to check at 5 this morning.

We just bought some rolls of Dare products best quality Equi rope, 6mm, with 7 strands of steel, which will get strung today.

If they bust through this I just don't know what else to do.

I know who the culprit is, he has always had a knack for escaping..if the bottom strand is too high he will lie down and roll under (not the case here..he is just plowing through it).

If he were a lesser horse I would get rid of him..too much trouble, but he's fantastic, I plan on showing him next year...plus he''s a lovable thing except for this.

[Ohiogal]

I sympathize. I have one that will eat through the strands and pull them down when there is a perfectly good large round bale right in front of him! If it were me, I'd confine them to a mudlot or barn during the night, or in a smaller corral which is newly wired (secure) and then take your time figuring out what part of your fencing isn't working right. Its worth the effort. I don't know where you live, but where I am, an "at large" fee is $100 per horse, first offense. 2nd offense? JAIL.

[beccachow]

I had one escape artist...it was so frustrating, every morning he'd be found trotting down the lane yelling, "the BRITISH are coming..." He'd just get out, go socialize with everyone along the lane, then be eager to get back in and share his tales of wandering with his buddies. I dreaded the early morning bang-bangs on the door...I'd just pull on my boots as I answered the door, lol. I never figured out how he did it. We also have three strand electric. I have moved him up to a neighbor's pasture, and he only gets out when the huge mare knocks down the wooden fence.

Now this is probably a stupid question, but do you throw a good amount of hay at night? I have "heard" that one reason they get out is they are hungry, and this time of year the browsing inside the pastures is pretty slim pickin's.

[painterswife]

My horses escape a few times each year. Ususally our fault for leaving the electric off.

We do have more problems in the spring and fall when they see greener pastures. The only solution at those times is having a paddock or area that does not rely on electric that that they can be in over night.

Of course after saying that I do have to tell you that I have one mare that will go over a 5 - 6 foot fence if she really wants too. The good thing is the others will not follow her and she stays close to them.

[just_sawing]

Been there got the teeshirt. When you fence fence above the hoy and below the hot with a wire connected to your ground. This will hit them hard enough to change there mind. The nice thing is that the ground being so close it jumps and gets them before they tear it down.

[Jim S.]

You need new horses, is all. Hobble the durned things hard! That's one thing I won't keep, a fence-jumper or an escape artist. I don't care what type animal it is.

[agmantoo]

I control more than 100 animals each and every day with a fence charger. Problems containing animals typically are a result of a cheap low output energizer/charger and ones with a poor ground. A good high output charger with a decent ground will create a condition where the animals would starve before escaping. Fix your fence and use high end high output energizers and you can sleep at night.

[Tiempo]

This is the model fence charger we're using, and right now we've only got a one acre paddock fenced..it should be plenty.

http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/A10045.htm

[ace admirer]

the tester may not be lying, if its one of the neon bulb things, they only measure voltage, they cannot directly measure current flow. so a poor current path might have a high voltage, but little current available to power the "hurt". they cost but,,,,for a little over a hundred, you can purchase one of the smart testers, they measure voltage, current flow, and the direction of the major fault....that function alone makes the tester worth the money,,,,,if you have bunches of fence.

[RosewoodfarmVA]

Neighbor keeps his in with 2 strands of sharp barbed wire stretched tight. Never needs to worry if the fence is on or grounded right. One good cut on their face or neck and they'll quit pushing through the fence.

[ArmyDoc]

For electric, I have heard that high tension wires work best. - five strand high tension with the top strand electrified. (some electrify all of them...) It's smooth so it wound cut them.

My friends who raise horses used 5 ft horse wire, similar to this:
http://www.redbrand.com/guides/horse_fence/
But they used a split rail on top instead of a board, to keep the horses from leaning on it.

We had, well, less expensive horses and a much lower budget. We used barbwire, because the horses were often in the same fields as the cows. We didn't have problems with barb wire, but I've heard of other horse owners whose horses didn't respect it and got cut up pretty bad.

[crisco41]

Be warned about high tensile and horses.It can be extremely damaging...acts like a cheese slicer and I have heard some terrible horror stories. I probably will us eit myself when i start fencingin our acreage,..,,but do be forwarned

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by RosewoodfarmVA

Neighbor keeps his in with 2 strands of sharp barbed wire stretched tight. Never needs to worry if the fence is on or grounded right. One good cut on their face or neck and they'll quit pushing through the fence.

Please don't use barbed wire with horses unless they are on hundreds of acres. The damage it can cause is heartbreaking. I know my horses wouldn't learn a thing from a "good cut" to the face or neck. Cuts don't train and it would have to be a doozy for them to even to feel it...which would mean needing a vet. Not worth it imo.....

[RandB]

Do you have only the electric fence, or do you have a wooden or wire fence in addition to the electric?

We had originally a 3-rail wooden fence with a strand of electric running inside. This has worked pretty well. Over the years, we added box-wire fence inside the wood, still with the electric wire running inside of that. Our horses have never gotten loose from this, nor have the sheep.

[Alice In TX/MO]

That charger is only .25 Joules output. I use 6 Joules on my goats.

[rambler]

I have a solar fencer similar to that. The solar are nice as you don't need 120v plug in, but they are not very strong.

Livestock learn about rewards vs annoyances. Yours have learned that there is a reward on the other side of the fence. The minor annoance of getting zapped lightly for a few seconds is worth the reward.

You will need to do something different to change the equasion in their head.

When my cattle break out, I put them in a different pen for 2 days or so - so they 'forget' where & how the down fence was - so they forget the reward they got.

The livestock think crossing a path where the wire is means pain. So they don't cross that path.

Once yours have learned there are new & different & fun things on the other side of the wire - now they are not scared of it.

Dry weather, or cold weather, can insulate a lot more, and the critters don't get much of a shock even from a good fencer.

A small area gets boring for horses especially. You have several in a 1 acre pasture with only a single tape around it?

Typically electric fence tape is good for 3 situations:

A temporary fence you move often - every week or more - to get them new places to graze.

As a marker around a real fence, so they feel & see the fence edge, and do not often bother the -real- fence made of wood or wire. This makes your real fence last a long time as the electric keeps then from picking at it.

For fencing a very large area - typically one uses a wire rather than tape, but - the single strand of electric wire keeps the livestock in because they have such a large area to explore, and plenty of feed and shelter, that they really don't care to go anyplace else. I have my cattle running most of the winter on 40 acres of cornstalks & such, with only a single strand of wire with step in posts and a fencer much like yours keeping them in. They have food & water & shelter. They have enough room to fight & run & do whatever livestock do. I plow once around the field where the wire is, so they have to walk through the furrow & black dirt to get to the wire - this stops them from running or not noticing the fence edge. They have little reason to push on the fence.

I would not expect one tape to keep bored horses in a 1 acre yard. They are just plain bored with their surroundings. You need a bigger area, or move them from place to place, or put up a much better fence to handle the 'testing' they will give to the fence.

--->Paul

[Tiempo]

Well, wish us luck!

Last night my friend brought over some of her spare round pen panels and Tucker, who I think is the main offender spent the night and most of today in there, Diamond the pony spent the day in the dog yard, Norman we left in the pasture as he's a good boy, he's been staying in even when the other two are out wandering.

Hubby replaced the top two lines (we have 3 lines) with the heavy duty braid this afternoon.

We have plans to fence in another 2 acres or so in the spring, we just don't have the funds for the posts needed for that right now.

Rambler, you're right, they figured out there is lots of good grass and alfalfa under the snow in the unfenced portion.

After we put them back in, I tempted Diamond and Tucker over to the fence with cookies, and they both leaned in and and got good zaps and jumped back, so hopefully we're ok now.

We'll see.

[RosewoodfarmVA]

Sad to hear folks think that barbed wire is dangerous and electric isn't. I've never met anyone that had a horse severely damaged by barbed-it hurts enough right from the start that the horse respects it. I saw a horse about a year ago that got his hind leg tangled up in a smooth electric. It cut right through his skin and peeled off about 10 inches of his skin, right through the muscle to the bone. Poor thing was almost lame from muscle damage. All from one strand of electric!! The cheap plastic insulators allowed the horse to pull the wire loose from the posts, getting himself tangled when he tried to get through it. That stuff can cut really bad when it's tight and slices through both skin and muscle.

Electric ONLY works if it has juice and lots of it. Anything less and it's much more dangerous because the horse will go right through it, possibly causing bad injury. Why not go with barbed, which is a natural barrier and is "always on" instead of worrying about if the fence is still working right?

[Tiempo]

Here is what my friend K's mare looked like after she met with barbed wire.

I'm only going to post it as a link to protect people who don't want to see graphic pics.

It is very graphic.

The good news is that the mare recovered with full range of motion and not too terrible scarring, but it was a long road.

http://i42.tinypic.com/14nnsd3.jpg

[RosewoodfarmVA]

Don't have pics but the one that got cut with electric was much worse than that, all the way to the bone on his lower leg. Couldn't walk for awhile.