At my wit's end - how to keep an elephant in her field?

[Lucy_Ally]

Right heres my problem:

Spring is a good doer and we have just moved to a new yard where they are individually grazed with electric fencing separating them. My field has been rested for a while and with all this warm weather and rain the grass has gone mad. So I invested in more electric fencing to strip graze my field. All fine until Sring has eaten it down a bit and feels that she hasn't enough grass and starts her houdini impression

Now I am not sure how good the fencing has been for zapping her but she did have a healthy respect for it and now she doesn't, there are 3 strands of tape but it makes no difference. She has seamlessly escaped without leaving any trace of how she got out, and has also ram-raided the fence and taken the whole lot down. So I have bought more fencing to double it up so she has to get through two lots of fencing, I have also rather reluctantly given her more grass to try and keep her in her own field, but this isn't ideal as she really is overweight and I am worried about laminitis and colic etc.

I have given her a strip of about 3 feet extra tonight which hopefully will keep her occupied and stop her going walkies! The yard owner is on holiday but when she comes back I am going to see if we can get a field with less grass and at least some solid fencing.

Why is life with my horse never simple?

*sigh*

On a positive note she is being fab to bring in and turnout which was our nightmare and is being fab to handle and ride. Its likes she can't be good at everything at the same time!

 

[Christmas_Kate]

does your electric fencing have it's own battery supply? or are you running it off the YO's? Silly Q but you'd be amazed how far people expect a fence supply to go.

 

[*hic*]

Check how much zap she's getting. If you've added plenty of tape you may have run out of oomph in the zap! If you've got plenty of oomph left and can add more tape try doing extra lines that cross over in the middle between the stakes - makes it more confusing where to try to put their heads through!

Should say that having done all of that one of mine will then decide just to jump out! And yesterday we watched him shrink himself by a foot in height to limbo under a single wooden bar across a gateway!

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Its run from a 60v leisure battery that is fully charged and brand new. I need to get a voltmeter to test it. The pack witll power up to a kilometre of fencing and there is nowhere near that much!

Thanks for the cross over idea - thats brilliant will definately try that one. I have bought 4 1/2 feet fence posts so hoping she wn't be too tempted to jump that!

 

[eventing_chick]

Chicken! just grab it then you'll know!!!!!!

 

[Lucy_Ally]

[ QUOTE ]
Chicken! just grab it then you'll know!!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

NO WAY!!!!

 

[isabella]

my mares like that can't keep her in and couldn't figure out how she was getting out then got another one nad he was getting out aswell (found out he was jumping it) but she didn't follow him over it. I finally caught her she practically comando crawls under it so funny to watch or lowers her head dips her shoulder and once in a good position legs it so the fencing rolls off her back (too cleaver for her own good!!!) got a phone call this morning funnily enough they were on th YO front lawn and think my fence is 12V

 

[Perissa]

I bought a new electric fencing unit only two days ago!! The chap behind the counter told me an interesting fact which I certainly didn't know and I wonder how many other people were fooled like me.

Basicly when the unit says it will electrify 1km it means that it will power up to ONE STRAND of the wire in your tape for that length - NOT the piece of tape, in other words there are 3 to 5 strands in one piece of tape therefor you may think that your tape is 1km long when in fact the strands within it are 3 to 5km long!!!

Did you know that!!!!

Invest in a fence tester, they are only about £10 for a reasonable one. The more lights that light up the stronger the current.

You might be better reducing to two strands to increase the zap!

For my escapee's I use two strands of tape which I do not electrify and then two strands of twine which I do electrify. The twine has less strands in it so the zap is stronger and goes further. I put the tape there as a visual thing because the twine isn't very visible.