Electric fencing stories?

[gone-a-milkin]

Ah, yes. I have BOYS. Why, oh WHY do boys have to test the fence?

We were at a friends today. They have draft horses and the man had just put up some new e-tape.
You could hear the fencer snapping away and the guy had JUST gotten it up when we appeared.
My son... could not resist. He got a blade of grass (wet grass) and touched it on there.

Boy did he let out a good yelp!

The Farmer said the sound of that was "music to his ears". LOL
His wife muttered something about new blueberry bushes and equine hoofprints.

Seems like a 'guy thing' to test the fence. I dont think I have ever seen a woman do that...at least not on PURPOSE.

Got any good electric fencing stories? Animals, kids, other?

[gone-a-milkin]

On the dairy where I work there is one cow who really respects the e-fence.
During these springtime months the sun is at an angle so it casts a shadow from the overhead powerlines right across the alley the cows walk to get to the milk barn.
This particular cow is convinced that shadow is a hotwire.
Every night she jumps over the shadow. None of the other cows ever seem to notice it there.
Once the trees leaf out, she wont have that 'fence' to jump over any more.
It makes me giggle every single day. LOL

[Callieslamb]

When I turned olur former milk cow out, she wouldn't go through one gate to the pasture. It was no different than any other gateway for the cows. The elec fence was 6 feet above the opening. I finally forced her through - I guess her feet were extra sensitive - she fell to her knees as if shocked from it while running through. I felt so badly that I put the fence through a hose and under the ground in that gateway. Other places she didn't mind going under.

Then there was the time I was adding a higher wire to the fence. The calves were growing.....I left it hot since I didn't want them testing and finding it off while they 'helped' me work. I had a short piece of wire in my mouth. I dropped my pliers and bend over to pick them up. Just at that wire in my mouth touched that hot wire.....I thought - this is really going to be bad. Fortunately, I am a bad fence builder and the fence was shorted a bit up the line. I also had my rubber boots on. The jolt didn't loosen my fillings - it buzzed them pretty well and I tasted metal for a LONG time afterwards. Never build a fence with the wires hot - or with a piece of wire in your mouth.

[topside1]

Wish I had a story, only my goats and calves test my fence...Oh wait a minute, weed whacking under the fenceline with the fence charged..I got bit mighty good that day even with thick rubber boots on. Enjoy your weekend.

[genebo]

I was using a push power mower to cut the grass under the fence. The little wheels just fit under the bottom wire. It got caught and I leaned forward to get it loose. The handle touched a hot wire.

A girl screamed in my ear, scaring me. Yet when I looked around, there was no girl around. It was me.

[oregon woodsmok]

I hadn't thought of it, but it is true that the only ones who test the fence with grass seem to be guys. I test my electric fence with an electronic fence tester. I don't like being shocked.

[scholtefamily]

One day my teenage nephew was over, he had on some really good shoes apparently. He walked right up to the fence and tested it, it had no effect on him. He even got a few others to touch the fence with little to no effect. Then he called his mom over. She was wearing flimsy little flip flops. We warned her, but she didn't listen. He convinced her to touch him while he was holding onto the fence.
It was hard not to laugh, but we did warn her!!

[lakeportfarms]

My wife and I were out looking at the cows one day. I was in one pasture and she was in another across the fence line. She wanted to go for a walk on the rest of the property, which was on her side of the fence. I looked back at the gate, which was a couple hundred feet back the other direction, and looked at the two water troughs that were opposite each other along the fence in the direction I wanted to go. My wife said.."you can make it over the fence there".
So, I put my one foot on the trough, grabbed the post, and then swung my other leg over the fence to rest it on the other trough. I was thinking I was a bit close to the top wire. I heard the click on the 100 mile charger, and it seemed like an eternity while I watched my life flash before my eyes. In reality, the flash was probably the spark jumping from the top wire to between my legs.

[tinknal]

One time another guy and myself had to do an emergency fix on a hotwire on a fence we had just turned about a hundred head of young stock in. We both got nailed multiple times, had I been a mere observer I'm sure it would have been quite amusing.

[MO_cows]

I was loping along on my horse when we came to the line where an electric cross-fence USED to be. He remembered it, slammed on the brakes and I went off.

This one is kinda long, but funny. My mom got a goat one time when I was a kid, the Houdini of goats. She was named Cabbage because that was the first thing she ate out of the garden. Cabbage got her walking papers from my step-dad when she got out and climbed on top of a visitor's brand new car. It was the "Starsky and Hutch" model of Ford, right down to the racing stripe, and the visitors were sure not happy with the dents in the roof. Mom gave Cabbage away to her brother, my uncle, who also lived in the country and had 4 children. Maybe they thought they would eventually milk her, I don't remember. They couldn't keep her in, either, and she ended up dragging a log chained with a dog chain to her collar. The chain was long enough, she had the full run of her pen. When she went over the fence, the log would hang up and keep her from going very far. But one morning, she was nowhere to be found so they went looking for her. My uncle told this story sooooo well! They saw her laying flat out on her side, with the chain draped across an electric fence and the log caught on a tree. At first they thought she was dead. But as they drew closer, he detected movement. Her EARS were moving in rhythm with the jolts of electricity going thru the electric fence. Up, down, up, down, up, down........She had been there in the grass, wet with morning dew, getting electro-shock therapy for who knows how long. I don't remember what ultimately became of ol' Cabbage, but I'll never forget my uncle telling that story and demonstrating the jerky movement of the ears up and down with his fingers.

[ufo_chris]

I'm a woman and I test my fence with a long blade of grass when I don't have my tester on me,which is most of the time.
Of course I use a long DRY one because my fencer delivers quite a jolt!

[rhaige9]

Iv'e been known to test the fence with the grass every time I get near it. Even after I've turned it off. Was in the horse corral one day. Two pens came together, with a shared water trough. I was petting one horse who was getting a drink. two other horses were getting a drink. I leaned back just enough to hit the back of my head on that hot-wire, and all four of us got zapped.

[tinknal]

When I was a kid I somehow obtained a transformer wired up to a couple of D cell batteries. I brought it to school and I think everyone in my class had to try it out. We would get a dozen kids standing in a circle holding hands and then close the circuit. I think that kids have a natural fascination with this sort of thing.

[HighlandCowboy]

I feed my cows silage off the back of a pickup, by backing up to the fence and shoveling the feed into their tubs. Last summer, I backed up to the electric fence as usual, hopped out of the truck, letting the door swing shut behind me. Unbeknownst to me, I had backed up close enough for the truck to touch the wire. When I tried to get back in, I got a hell of a zap from the door handle. Had to try a few more times of course, but eventually I had to trudge back up the hill to shut the fence off before I could get back in the truck. That one had me talking to myself, in colorful language.

[ksfarmer]

5 year old son with me putting up an elec-fence. Got it all done and hooked up, turned it on, and said "now we got to test it", (had a tester in my pocket). Before I could test, he says "It's working Dad, I can feel it". He's standing there holding it. I think it can't be working very well so I reach out and touch it, let out a yelp as it worked very well for me. Son thought it was very funny, always asked me to "test the fence again". Now days he is an electrician, but doesn't test by hand anymore.

[neal68]

last week our youngest son came in the house and said "Matthew is hurt and can't get up" us "what did he do" son "he got electrocuted by the fence"
long story short Matt was walking by the hot fence and his pocket knife attracted the fence and knocked him on his a**.
we went down helped him up and he walked like a zombie for about 30 min after.
moral of this story if the cows are out the fence is on.

[oneokie]

My first memorable encounter with an electric fence was when I crawled under one and raised up too soon and hung the wire between my ear and head. Wowsa, who hit me with the 2x4?

Had one of the fire starter fencers, just put up a new run of wire, cows came through the gate and one cow had to investigate, dropped like she had been pole axed, quivered a bit, got up and staggered off.

Was repairing an overhead in drizzling rain, sitting on top of a tall corner post, probably 6' above the ground. Helper asked if I was going to disconnect the fence, I said I already had, he replied nope. So I reached up and grabbed the wire. Not a good feeling.

Installed a new battery powered fencer and went to test it with one of the lightbulb testers, which had the case held together with metal screws. Had one pinky finger touching a screw when I touched the probe to the hot wire. Fence was hot, lit all the bulbs and left a scorched spot on my pinky.

Then there was the new neighbor with small kids. Had a hot wire around their acreage due to bad fence. Caught heck for a while because my fence was hurting her kids.

[arcticow]

I once hung a pair of chain hobbles on the fence, by accident, Grandpa's hobbles, had to get' em off. Wet muddy ground. Finally thought, use a stick... also wet, muddy, go bawling to grandpa who reaches up and UNplugs fence. Younger brother, trying to step over fence, legs too short... Did get to see a BIG black bear sit in a huge puddle and stick his nose to the wire, tore a trail of birch and willow and alder.

[neal68]

i almost forgot this one. my heifers 1st hot fence experience. i was teaching the 2 steers and heifer about the fence by offering them bread from the other side of the fence. well when the bridge of her rain covered nose touched the wire she baaed like a sheep stepped back and looked at me as if to say "why the h*** did you do that".

[Menglish]

Originally Posted by MO_cows

I was loping along on my horse when we came to the line where an electric cross-fence USED to be. He remembered it, slammed on the brakes and I went off.

This one is kinda long, but funny. My mom got a goat one time when I was a kid, the Houdini of goats. She was named Cabbage because that was the first thing she ate out of the garden. Cabbage got her walking papers from my step-dad when she got out and climbed on top of a visitor's brand new car. It was the "Starsky and Hutch" model of Ford, right down to the racing stripe, and the visitors were sure not happy with the dents in the roof. Mom gave Cabbage away to her brother, my uncle, who also lived in the country and had 4 children. Maybe they thought they would eventually milk her, I don't remember. They couldn't keep her in, either, and she ended up dragging a log chained with a dog chain to her collar. The chain was long enough, she had the full run of her pen. When she went over the fence, the log would hang up and keep her from going very far. But one morning, she was nowhere to be found so they went looking for her. My uncle told this story sooooo well! They saw her laying flat out on her side, with the chain draped across an electric fence and the log caught on a tree. At first they thought she was dead. But as they drew closer, he detected movement. Her EARS were moving in rhythm with the jolts of electricity going thru the electric fence. Up, down, up, down, up, down........She had been there in the grass, wet with morning dew, getting electro-shock therapy for who knows how long. I don't remember what ultimately became of ol' Cabbage, but I'll never forget my uncle telling that story and demonstrating the jerky movement of the ears up and down with his fingers.

Having owned a couple of Houdini's myself I nearly hurt myself laughing at this!!!