Best course of action?

trendybraincell

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I keep my horse on DIY at a lovely competition yard. He's a native so managing his weight is always at the forefront of my mind, because of this he has his own paddock which is smaller than the others. All the DIY paddocks are in one big field and done using electric fencing. I strip grazed my boys paddock as I didn't want him going straight out into a lush green field. This worked fine and he now has access to the whole paddock.

The problem now, is that it has all been eaten. I got in from work a couple of weeks ago and he was in his stable in a fowl coltish mood, turns out there had been a problem with the engergiser and he went through the fencing. Lucky another livery was onsight and caught him and told YO. They very kindly put him in stable, but he was given no hay from 10am till I got there from work, no one called me and no one told me what happened when I arrived.

Last week I arrived to find him practically crawling under the fence to eat grass in his neighbours field, so I inform YO and he takes line tester up to check, next day I'm told there is nothing wrong and fencing working. 2 days later I arrive from work to find him going over the fencing, has stretched all the tape so his neighbour could have escaped had he been in there too! However this time someone had switched the energiser off!

I turned him out on monday, and just get the feeling fencing is not electricfied, think to myself the only way to know for sure is try it myself, so after long internal argument I touch the tape...and nothing I could have swung off it! SO once agin I tell YO, electric tape not working. But the same thing yesterday and this morning, I have touched the tape everyday and its not working!!!

Now do I out my own tape and energiser inside the other tape (which is clearly not working) or do I leave it and keep telling YO its not working, which also means my horse is more than likely to go through the fencing again and maybe hurt himself of someone elses horse.

Thank you for reading, sorry it's a bit long, wanted to try and get all the info in.
 
How frustrating for you!! Getting your own seems to be the most obvious plan, although it might mean she is even slower at fixing the problem?!
I would also address why your boy is so desperate to get through the tape; should you perhaps halve the field again so you can rest half of it and let it grow up a bit? Perhaps in the mean time you could put out a bit of hay to keep him entertained? I appreciate you are trying to keep the weight off him but it may be he needs more forage and more exercise?? and it is very early in the year for him to have grazed off his whole paddock!!
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I had a similar problem at my last yard when the fencing was rarely working & the YO never fixed it. I bought my own electric fence rope & energiser & set up my own independant fence & then I had peace of mind. I know it was the responsibility of the YO to ensure the fence was working properly but if they can't be bothered then you have to take action yourself to ensure the safety of your horse.
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Yes, I'd probably bite the bullet and get my own electric fencing, and put a taped note on the energiser asking that it should not be switched off.
There are some things to be careful of if you keep the grazing very spare and strip graze. If you create stressed grass, then move the horse on every few days, you can increase the risk of laminitis as the horse is constantly eating new flush grass. I'm sure you're aware of that, but thought might be worth mentioning. He's probably going to need something to occupy him during the day, I know mine will go through tape that is on if they have nothing on the field, so maybe a bit of hay?
 
I would buy an energiser and some tape. Always useful if you have a good doer anyway. New batteries and new tape will give you chap some respect for the fence. I regularly walk round with a fence tester as the little wires in the tape can get damaged and then they don't hold the charge. Amazing how quickly horses find these gaps or know when the fence is off! Rascals.
 
Sounds like your lad needs some extra stimulation i.e something along the line of some soaked hay added as he's being that desperate to get out? would probably be cheaper than buying a battery!
 
you can buy a tester quite cheaply too to see if it's working - just tested mine 4000v going through it! There's no way I would touch it!!!
 
Thanks for all the replies, its really useful to have some input from unrelated sources. I have taken it upon myself to get my own fencing to ensure he is extra secure.

However my very nice friend (who's horse is currently not turned out) is going to let me use her paddock for a couple of weeks in order to rest mine, then I'm going to half it and graze one side and rest the other.
 
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