Best Electric fence wire, rope or tape? opinions?

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fornema

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I am intending to rewire my electric fencing and have been very pleased with 6 conductor wire and won't go below this number of conductors, however what have people found is the best? Ponies occasionally jump the 5ft posts or occasionally run through when they have had heavyweight rugs on.

Will be used with both electric fence and wooden posts and will need about 1km so any recommendations as to where to purchase would also be greatly appreciated.
 
I muxh prefer the tape, wire is dangerous and I'm not keen on rope. I always have visions of horses galloping straight through rope by accident when having a gallop around! Take us much more visible to them. I kept two Shetlands in a bare paddock using the big tape.
 
I also prefer the tape. The thinner tape does not catch in the wind so much. I had one horse gallop straight though the electric wire, made a right mess of his legs, purely as the sun was shining on it and wasn't visible! Also seen nasty wounds with rope as it didn't break.
 
I use the wide tape (a good quality one) for the top of the boundary fencing and a 1 inch tape for any subdividing or internal fencing as necessary.

One long boundary has had the wide tape on since 1991, its rarely connected up to my battery unit (not mains), but when I did so last November for 1 paddock on that side (as we had new neighbours), it was still kicking a good belt. Tis was on my tester & also by CF's nose - he was NOT amused :D
I check its correctly tensioned at all times, have had to replace the odd holder over the years but its doing great guns.
 
At least three 2.5mm high tensile galvanised steel wires, posts at 30m, droppers at 10m (or as required), screw on insulators, then cable tie white tape to the top wire for visibility. Do it right, do it once. Some of mine must have been up at least 25 years now. On flat ground, I would put posts even further apart, on undulating ground they will obviously need to be where ever necessary. Never yet had a horse caught up in correctly tensioned wires even though they have broken the fence when the power was left off. Edited to say I have a mains unit as the fencing is permanent. I can run a temporary white tape fence off it at any point on the farm if required.
 
Thinking of this myself. My worry is that it may prove too strong a current for very small ones ? Might be a silly though tho.
 
ktj1891 said:
Rope is definitely superior to tape. I have used both and prefer rope!
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I think this needs clarifying really. Many of us use electric fencing but do we really give much thought to what we use & why we use it?

I have always been an advocate of rope, it is sturdy, it looks neat & tidy, easy to work with, carries a charge well & doesn’t flap about in windswept paddocks. All this is true but I have now done a complete ‘U’ Turn due to a horrific accident.

We turned out one of our horses in a paddock surrounded by electric rope fence, the power was off at the time. He pawed the ground & decided to role but he was too close to the fence. He rolled over, caught the rope fencing, spooked himself, & charged off across the paddock. He caught the rope around his hind leg & ripped out the fencing, plastic posts & a couple of wooden posts as he went. Fortunately he didn’t receive much of an injury, a couple of grazes was about all.

Biggest problem was my wife was in the paddock, the fencing rope got yanked around the back of her legs, dragging her to the ground. The injuries to her legs are horrendous. She has cuts, bruising & a large amount of skin removed behind her knees. She can hardly walk & is on pain killers & a nurse is dressing her wounds daily. :(

I made enquiries about the breaking strain of the rope….it’s 383kg…. bloody hell :( . I have now replaced the rope with tape, still with 6 conductor wires but this has a breaking strain of around 75kg.

I appreciate this is a long post but I thought it would warn people of the dangers that may not have been considered.

The accident happened almost 3 years ago & my wife is fine now.......... but she still carrys the scars on the backs of her legs. Think well before you decide on tape or rope & where you are going to use it. ;)
 
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Tape every time - much safer than rope. If you are in a very windy area put posts every few paces and wrap the tape once around the post.
 
I have seen a horrible incident with electric rope where it had encircled a yearling's leg and cut it down to the bone. Needless to say the horse had to be put down as it had gone through all the tendons and ligaments.
 
Tape and rope have stainless steel wires embedded in them. I suggest running some through your closed hand to appreciate the effect of that. Try the tape edgeways. Now run a length of fencing wire through your closed hand. If fence wires are kept taut, they act like an elastic band and cannot tangle. It is when wires are slack that they become dangerous.
 
I think there are pros and cons for every type of fencing there is.

Tape blows in the wind, rope stays put but is very thick and therefore more dangerous if a horse got tangled, and wooden fencing can cause horrible injuries/splinters.

A horse at my old livery yard ran through the post & rail, impaled herself straight in the heart with it and died.
 
I have to use rope for one paddock (rented, stock fenced pretty crappily) which I use with wooden posts. It is way too windy here for tape (trust me, I've tried-even 8mm).

When I was an EVN I saw fencing injuries caused by all sorts of fencing-the worst one I saw was plain wire but saw other horrendous injuries from post and rail and electric tape.
 
Tape :)

I use the tape with wooden poles & it has stopped my 3 year old Connie from walking straight through the fences
 
I used Field guard ( I think) thick electric tape in brown, really good stuff - has a decent kick, looks smart, stays put and kept my escapee pony in!
My friend uses rails and rope to good effect.
 
ALL electric fencing works by deterrence. They all work ,but only if they are constantly maintained at peak performance . The horses must respect the fence . Sasdly ,most fences are rubbish.
 
I use tape..........

The important things with any leccy fencing are to (1) keep it as tight as possible, use a proper tightening device if needs be; and (2) use the highest power you possibly (and safely!) can. There's nothign worse than slack fencing blowing all over the place with a p!ddlesworth of battery to power it.

We installed a mains energiser here: we've got a huge field sub-divided up - it was the best money we ever spent. Now we don't have to worry about whether the battery's going flat or not!!
 
OK, ALL fencing is capable of being dangerous to horses. Horses have a knack for hurting themsleves, they are nearly as bad as sheep! I have seen horrible injuries from post and rail, rope, wire AND tape! So short of leaving the animal in a padded cell you will need to use something.....

I have rope and tape, I prefer the rope, we are in a very windy and exposed area and I find rope less likely to flap around. The real secret to sucessful electric fencing is TENSION, I LOATHE seeing droopy, flappy electric fencing dangling all over the place, now that IS dangerous. Keep the tension and you will help the fence stay properly conductive and safe. Use corner insulators on corners - a pole bent inwards in not sufficient...use tensioners in-line as well, this will help in windy weather.
 
Hate tape won't have it on the place now .
We use rope mainly on wooden posts or on the front of top of post and rails .
We have electricity on every fence I have not had a major fence based injury since we did this .
I to can't bear the ghastly mess of loopy tape you see all over the place as you drive about .
And rope is much superior in a exposed spot .
 
We live in an exposed, windy spot. Tape, however it was wrapped around poles, always flapped and got loose, snapped easily, wrapping around legs (human and equine), and also looks a state. It also advertises an energiser well for thieves. Nowadays we use rope. I have fairly sensible horses, who haven't had any issues, and seem to respect the fence, whereas tape was a joke to them. It also blends in and we haven't had an energiser stolen since we used rope. Some of our permanent fences have top strands of wire that can be electrified, attached to normal wooden poles.

I do understand people's reservations with rope, however all fences have their negatives.
 
Dry Rot said:
At least three 2.5mm high tensile galvanised steel wires, posts at 30m, droppers at 10m (or as required), screw on insulators, then cable tie white tape to the top wire for visibility. Do it right, do it once. Some of mine must have been up at least 25 years now. On flat ground, I would put posts even further apart, on undulating ground they will obviously need to be where ever necessary. Never yet had a horse caught up in correctly tensioned wires even though they have broken the fence when the power was left off. Edited to say I have a mains unit as the fencing is permanent. I can run a temporary white tape fence off it at any point on the farm if required.
Click to expand...

Sadly my youngster 2 years ago died as a result of exactly this set up and will never ever use galvanised wire for fencing again and since replaced the majority with 5ft post and rail, however it is more splitting up fields over summer so dont want an entirely permanent solution.

Having put out some tape today as ran out of the wire style it is so much harder to tension by hand than the wire, with the wire there is absolutely no way that it could wrapped around any limb as it would break before then as not enough wire to even wrap around my little finger due to the tension. But I agree with some one who said low breakage point, ours has always snapped as they go through it, i believe it is about 70kg which is far less than tape, i think our wire broke before the electric fence gate handle.

Separately one thing i noticed when cutting the ends of either, the way in which the tape actually peels back off the wires within it if not cut entirely straight, where the tape this didn't happen and Im starting to think that it is safer to have a good quality wire?

Having put in a number of wooden posts today for a separate wired area, would people recommend replacing all the leccy posts with wooden as i guess it would make it safer if one of the horses was to go through it?
 
Having had a horse completely tangle himself in tape I really don't wish to use it again - it also tangles and twists very easily.

I use wire - very easy and simple to use. My mare went through the wire without injury today but tape she would have been tangled.
 
Do you know what - horses will find a way to maim themselves whatever you use!

All you can really do is make sure any tape/rope is tensioned appropriately and that the horses have sufficient acreage that they aren't routinely mowing down fences.

FWIW the only fatal fencing injuries I have seen in the last 30 years have been post & rail.
 
ihatework said:
Do you know what - horses will find a way to maim themselves whatever you use!

All you can really do is make sure any tape/rope is tensioned appropriately and that the horses have sufficient acreage that they aren't routinely mowing down fences.

FWIW the only fatal fencing injuries I have seen in the last 30 years have been post & rail.
Click to expand...

We have no post and rail fencing now that's not got rope on it or in front of it .
Result no fence based damage since.
 
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