Time for an electric fence
Posted by Bill on Aug 16 2008 at 11:01 pm | Tagged as: Pasture
When we first arrived here at the farm, there was wiring for an electric fence but it wasn’t hooked up to anything. Eventually we removed the wiring because it simply didn’t look good and we didn’t really need it. Now we think it’s probably time to reconsider. We decided to barbecue so I headed outside around 6, just in time to see Moonshine stepping over a section of fence near the barn. She was the third horse to do so. Cash and Romeo were already enjoying the irresistible grass on the other side of the fence. In this case, the grass really is greener on the other side. Valentine, our huge (to us) Walking Horse is the likely culprit for knocking down the fence. He’s always reaching his giraffe neck over to nibble on grass and at almost 1300 pounds, it doesn’t take much leaning to push out nails. I don’t know why the person who built the fence didn’t put the boards on the inside but Valentine has been known to snap boards in half, too. But for all of his brute strength and fence mischief, he’s never escaped after knocking boards down and this time he was far away from the other horses as if to disassociate himself with the escapees.
These horses are on the wrong side of that broken fence.
So I grabbed a bucket with some feed and Mikki grabbed a halter and lead rope and we headed up to coax the horses back onto the correct side of the fence. Mikki headed for Cash first because of that last incident where we chased him through the woods for four hours. He started to walk away but Mikki was able to get the lead rope around his neck, after which he was compliant. Next, I tempted Moonshine with some feed but with a mouth full of yummy green grass, she turned and walked away. Romeo, who lives to eat (and love) came over and happily snarfled the feed without competition. That is, until Moonshine noticed. Once she knew someone else wanted it, she wanted it too and I was able to walk them over the fence again. We led them all to the barn and fed them their evening rations while we went about fixing the fence.
Wooden fences are nice but they require a lot of upkeep. Ours is aging and in need of new paint. Several of the boards are warped and should probably be replaced. Each time this kind of thing has happened (the horses rarely escape but board do occasionally come down), we replace the boards using screws instead of nails. This time we did that and added some extra braces over where the boards meet at the posts.
So that brings us to electric fences. We could go cheap and get the basic electric livestock wire or we could spend a little more and go for something like Electrobraid. We intend to replace the barbed wire with something like Electrobraid so provided the system is expandable, perhaps that’s the way we’ll go. I still like the look of the wooden fence, so we’d probably use it on the inside to keep the horses off of the fence. And because wiring to our breaker box would be difficult, solar is probably our best power source choice.
Have you caught your horses on the wrong side of the fence? Are any of you using Electrobraid or some other electric fence?`
I don’t have an electric fence, but my friend uses one. Her horses jump when twigs snap as a result of items hitting the fence and making that snapping noise. I was there and cracking open some dried bean pods and their gelding almost went through the wooden corral fence on the other side of pan he was in. They also have trouble at shows in the trail events because the “gate” they have to open reminds the horse of the way they have to open them. They just use wire. I thing the braid is more acceptable for horses. I have seen the braid used at a trail ride but didn’t notice anything weird about that use. Good luck.
We use the 1.5″ electric tape as well as the smaller braid on a solar powered energizer. The fence worked pretty well as long as the weeds were kept down and the insulators were kept in good condition. The energizer was a serious pain in the butt. It seemed like the batteries would go bad after 6 months or so. Even brand new, they would only get you through a few days without sun, which makes it difficult in the winter here in Ohio. So on the whole, I liked the system, but I would go with an energizer that plugs in instead of a solar one, even if its a little extra effort. And be sure to get the right kind of energizer or you can end up “burning up” braided fence due to too much resistance in the wire.
Putting up an electric fence is a great idea. I can’t imagine that anyone would even consider going without it. I’ve seen horses do standing jumps over regular fencing. I have to comment on your impulse to grab a bucket of feed and chase the horses around the woods for hours. Sounds like you need to work with your horses and in particular work on catching.
Thanks for the comments everyone. We’re almost certain we’re going to try the electric fence concept, not just to keep our boards in place but to replace entire sections of barbed wire. We’re convinced the barbed wire has got to go but simply couldn’t afford $40 per 12 foot section for raw materials to replace it with wood. It sounds like the electric fence, such as Electrobraid, is safer for our horses anyway.
David is right, we definitely need to work on catching. But I do want to point out that Cash is the only horse we had to chase through the woods for hours and that was before we decided to keep him. He was new to the herd. Still, I admit to being a horse-catching beginner.
Sounds like electric fence is your best bet since you want to maintain the nice look of your wooden fence.
We’ve not had any problems with our fencing and are very happy with it.
Most of our perimeter fencing is 5′10″ high pipe fencing with horse wire fencing attached to the outside. And then we have 6′ high horse fence with t-posts to separate paddocks.
On the very back part of our property we have a short section of 5′ high fencing with one strand of barb wire (mild w/ dull double barb every 2 feet. kind of useless, really. more of a visual barrier, maybe).
This fencing is in a rarely used paddock, though. And our horse tends to avoid that back area of fence because it abuts open space area, where bears, mountain lions, coyotes and other creatures roam. She’d probably run away rather than into that fence.
Good luck with your fencing. Let us know how it all works out.
I love HorseGuard fencing. I believe it was 1 1/2 inch. It has sturdy gate handles, good strong insulators, 3 colors of tape to choose from and attractive T-post covers. You do have to be sure to get the right type of charger so it doesn’t send too much current. We did a lot of investigation and were very happy with our decision. I don’t have personal experience with braided fencing but have read that horses are more easily cut by it if they run into it.
Electrobraid is the way to go. It was incredibly easy to string. Very easy to tension- not like electric wire!. The company provides video at their website and you can request DVD with it. Our horse got spooked a few weeks ago and took donw one line. The connectors broke but line did not. I had it back up in less than an hour! You also do not get the wind whip that you can get on electric tape.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s always good to hear from people who are using these products.
We’re still in the planning process, partially because we’re thinking of moving the fence in a few places. But since we don’t have a tractor, we need to plan more carefully so as to get the most use out of rental equipment.
[…] As soon as we got home, I bought a bunch of new fence boards and have been replacing weak boards. Each time, they find a new section to push on. Often it’s Cash, scratching his bottom on the fence. Sometimes it’s Valentine, giraffing over the top to get to the grass just beyond. Whoever the culprit, it needs to stop! The most recent time was last night and fortunately we were home to resolve it. When you see headlights in your driveway at 11:30 PM, you have to know something is wrong. It was feeding time so rounding them up was easy but these escaping episodes are at best annoying and at worst dangerous. We spoke about the need for an electric fence last year but when the grass stopped growing, the horses stopped pushing the fence down. This time we’re going to do it. We’ve got some rough measurements and I’m calling Electrobraid to place my order. We spent hours today (60 holes drilled, 60 screws) adding inside boards to the top row so each section has two rails on top. We’ll run a strand of electric fence along the top to keep them off of the fence. Unfortunately it looks like it takes 10 days or so for shipping. We’re paranoid every time we hear a car nearby and are afraid to leave the house for fear they’ll get out while we gone! […]