[Tiempo]

We've been having trouble keeping a charge in the electric fence and Tucker has been getting out.

Hubby has spent hours and hours this week trying to figure out why the fence won't charge and we're not getting anywhere, so we've been putting Tucker in a small corral made of round pen panels inside the pasture.

Usually when he does get out we find him hanging around the place near the fence and his buddies who stay in.

This morning I came out and Tucker was GONE. I couldn't see him anywhere and the round pen coral was standing open, he had opened a latch pin, pushed a panel open, let himself out and gone through the fence.

Half an hour of searching later a neighbor came over to tell us he's in her yard, so he's back in the coral, and it's chained closed, but my fear now is that if he's SO determined to get out he may hurt himself trying.

How on earth do you manage an escape artist who is SO determined?

Our fence is 3 strands of Dare products best quality electrobraid, grounded with 3 6' rods, we've tried taking off the solar unit and replacing it with a plug in, with the same results. No charge.

I keep them on round bales of really nice hay, so he's not ever going hungry.

[4funIride]

Is it dry there? One tip for electric when its dry is to use the middle strand for the ground and the other strands for positive. You might need to go to 5 strands (2 ground and 3 hot) to make sure the bite hits before he is 1/2 way through the fence in this case. Good luck

[xQHDQ]

I have absolutely no experience with such an escape artist as your but here's my 2 cents. Maybe give him one of those toys where treats come out when he plays with it. Could he be bored?

Good luck.

[Tiempo]

It's not dry here.

Hubby redid the whole fence today, and we're finally getting a good read on the fence tester.

Fingers and toes crossed for tonight.

[Tiempo]

I have absolutely no experience with such an escape artist as your but here's my 2 cents. Maybe give him one of those toys where treats come out when he plays with it. Could he be bored?

Good luck.

He is the most playful horse I've ever known, he loves his jolly ball, and his favorite thing to do right now is put it on top of the round bale like a cherry on a sundae

Norman, being an old gentleman, isn't interested in his games, but he and Tiempo play all the time.

[Diamondindykin]

Check your ground rod. You need to have a ground rod at least 18 inches in the ground. I went through this forever and it turned out that it was just the ground rod. Once I gto it fixed my electric fence was on fire.

[Catersun]

Tiempo- silver lining... at least you know HOW he's getting out. two months ago my Elderly Gelding got out with the fencing and gates completely intact.(my fence is just shy if 5ft high) I'm still scratching my head on that one. Thankfully he hasn't decided to take himself on anymore walkabouts since then.

I only knew he was out because the mares started running the fenceline panicked and were screaming to him. He marched right back over to me with a neighbor 100ft behind him to make sure everything was Ok.

[EqTrainer]

I could not contain one of mine last year when he was sick. It was awful, you have all my sympathies!

[UrbanHennery]

Hope you got it fixed.

One of my geldings figured out how to go under the tape cross fencing a couple weeks ago. We never electrified it and for 6 months he respected it like it was hot. Then, one day? We started finding him in the wrong pasture all the time. Took me forever to figure out how he was doing it (stepping the bottom strand onto the ground and then rolling through). Now it's all hot and he's staying where he's supposed to.

[6c legs]

Check your ground rod. You need to have a ground rod at least 18 inches in the ground. I went through this forever and it turned out that it was just the ground rod. Once I gto it fixed my electric fence was on fire.

This.

the electric fence tester was barely out of my hand, then we put the rods in further, and lots more of them for the miles of 'lecky fence, and now the fences only have to be checked for hot-ability once a week.

escape artists can be a great way to keep in touch with the neighbours - but not easy on the nerves!

G'luck with Tucker, and sympathies, too...

[Tiempo]

The ground rods are in very deep... hubby found a broken insulator and a line was touching a T post, so that may have been the problem.

So far so good (holding my breath and crossing fingers and toes)

He's been putting us through this for 3 years, before we bought this place and brought him home he escaped at 2 different boarding barns with different kinds of fence..grrrrrrr!

[yellow-horse]

My little mustang was getting out and i couldn't figure it out either, she's a wee bit under 14h, my other 2 horse are over 16h and I had the fence adjsuted for them as they used to jumpt, the wee one was crawling out under the lower strand, had to put up another strand

Years ago I used step in posts to divide off a newlys seeded pastrue and I watched the dear departed yellowhorse grab the plastic posts in her teeth and pull them down, I don't know what kind of trial and error process she used for that one.
I had to buy a bigger charger when I added more tape and lines to the fence,and also made the least connections I could get away with, I check my fence a few times a week,

last year one of my horses got out and was hit by a car, not due to fence failure but I suspect vandals, it was the same night my neighbor had tools stolen out of her truck and her horses loose, the gate was open to my pasture and my horse got in the road, it was a gate we never use only to get in the back for the mower, this was in early spring and we hadn't used the gate in a good 9 month. The same night the other neighbor saw lights in her woods in the middle of the night. Just to be on the safe side I have that gate padlocked, I don't use it enough to have to worry about it. The car thank god grazed my horse and knocked her down, but she was not injured except from some lost skin and scrapes. My pasture is about 500 ft from the road behind woods, you can't see horses from the road, I have no idea why anyone would come back here.

[Thomas_1]

I use electric fencing but never as a perimeter fence.

Too many variables for my liking and I've got too many cobs and ponies whose mission is to seek and destroy! They tend to escape just because they can!! They're living proof of that metaphor that "the grass always looks greener at the other side of the fence".

So that means for perimeter fences I always use post and rail and wire reinforcers at the backs of posts and the majority of mine are also bounded past the fencing with ancient traditional hawthorn hedges. Obviously you can't just "grow a dense hawthorn hedge" though

I also do put a hot wire on the top rail on the majority of the horse fields to stop the big ones leaning over and breaking top rails.

I'd always say NOT just electric fencing for a boundary perimeter if you want to keep them in.

As I said though I use it a heck of a lot and for subdividing large fields and for strip grazing. I power either direct from the mains or from large car batteries at more remote locations. Testing each day and ensuring there's nothing touching it or breaking the circuit. I use white tape and tend to have to replace it about every couple of years - the wires do break in it. I never have the problem of it being "too dry".

I'd be concerned to rely on electric fencing though for perimeter boundary.

[goeslikestink]

We've been having trouble keeping a charge in the electric fence and Tucker has been getting out.

Hubby has spent hours and hours this week trying to figure out why the fence won't charge and we're not getting anywhere, so we've been putting Tucker in a small corral made of round pen panels inside the pasture.

Usually when he does get out we find him hanging around the place near the fence and his buddies who stay in.

This morning I came out and Tucker was GONE. I couldn't see him anywhere and the round pen coral was standing open, he had opened a latch pin, pushed a panel open, let himself out and gone through the fence.

Half an hour of searching later a neighbor came over to tell us he's in her yard, so he's back in the coral, and it's chained closed, but my fear now is that if he's SO determined to get out he may hurt himself trying.

How on earth do you manage an escape artist who is SO determined?

Our fence is 3 strands of Dare products best quality electrobraid, grounded with 3 6' rods, we've tried taking off the solar unit and replacing it with a plug in, with the same results. No charge.

I keep them on round bales of really nice hay, so he's not ever going hungry.

you need to earth the rods if properly for them to get a charge so turn off at the mains and where the rod is for themanin engeriser stick a bucket of water down the same hole the rod is in - then trun the chagre back on it should work then

[Christa P]

The ground rods are in very deep... hubby found a broken insulator and a line was touching a T post, so that may have been the problem.

So far so good (holding my breath and crossing fingers and toes)

He's been putting us through this for 3 years, before we bought this place and brought him home he escaped at 2 different boarding barns with different kinds of fence..grrrrrrr!

Helping a friend with a fence once I found a similar problem - a small wire around both the electrified wire and a T-post. That was all it took.


Christa

[ReSomething]

Electric fence can be a real bugger sometimes. We have two solar charged deer fences and they rarely work worth a darn but the strands are so close, something like 8 inches, and the posts are close together so *knock on wood* the deer have never shoved the wires apart and slipped through. They do it that with the neighbor's four strand barbed wire all the time - push one strand down and lift another up and slip through.

I go through the three strand electrobraid fence using my hat or a flake of hay or a stick to push down the bottom strand and I am positive the pony is watching and learning - my DH said that the pony tried to barge the rope gate one day after watching us handle it for a while - it was energized and he got a good shocking, for which I am grateful.

Our usual problems are grounding somewhere, which we've always been able to hear, or see the sparking at night.

[horsefaerie]

Had an escape artist many years ago. His purchase price was very low for just that reason.

He would "play" with the electric wire! It was not the perimeter fence but on top of it. I was at my wits end when a friend suggested clipping his face, chest and butt and then hosing him down before turning him out. Kept hosing him down until he went to play with the wire.

He got a good shock and that stopped him for over a year. Then he started jumping the fences (interior) with wire on top and I sold him.

Just could not sleep with worry of where he would go and what he would do.

BTW, he was just over 14 hands tall and jumping fences over five feet high.

Good luck with your guy!

[Dalemma]

I use electric fencing but never as a perimeter fence.

Too many variables for my liking and I've got too many cobs and ponies whose mission is to seek and destroy! They tend to escape just because they can!! They're living proof of that metaphor that "the grass always looks greener at the other side of the fence".

So that means for perimeter fences I always use post and rail and wire reinforcers at the backs of posts and the majority of mine are also bounded past the fencing with ancient traditional hawthorn hedges. Obviously you can't just "grow a dense hawthorn hedge" though

I also do put a hot wire on the top rail on the majority of the horse fields to stop the big ones leaning over and breaking top rails.

I'd always say NOT just electric fencing for a boundary perimeter if you want to keep them in.

As I said though I use it a heck of a lot and for subdividing large fields and for strip grazing. I power either direct from the mains or from large car batteries at more remote locations. Testing each day and ensuring there's nothing touching it or breaking the circuit. I use white tape and tend to have to replace it about every couple of years - the wires do break in it. I never have the problem of it being "too dry".

I'd be concerned to rely on electric fencing though for perimeter boundary.

I would have to disagree with this .....I have electrobraid fencing for a perimeter around our entire 5 acres....I also use it for perimeter for my paddocks. I have never had a horse escape from it yet.........yes it does require some maintenance....you do need to inspect and check on it regularly and keep the perimeter clean of bush. The trick is to make sure you are grounded and that you have enough voltage........I'm running 8000 to 10,000 volts on the perimeter.

Horses can and do go crashing through wooden fencing.

My electric fencing has also keep out a problem black bear .....it sent it screaming back into the bushes when it tried to get on to our property.

Dalemma

[CatOnLap]

I use electric fencing but never as a perimeter fence.

For ordinary 1 inch tape or less, or wire electric fence, it is never meant to be used as permanent containment, but rather as a subdivider for properly fenced areas. However,the electro braid comes in several thickness and configurations, some of which are suitable for perimeter fencing because they will contain a horse without a charge, temporarily. I do not personally like electrobraid as I have seen a yearling put down after becoming entangled in it, ripping it loose from the posts and nearly severing a fetlock. But accidents can happen with any type of fencing.

Glad you figured out the charging problem. I restrung all my runout paddocks a month ago and finally got the charge back. There were a couple of broken insulators and a big old blackberry vine in a hard to get at place that was shorting.

[Tiempo]

Well, so far so good..he's still in today.

He has gotten out through wood board at the boarding barn.