Biggest near miss you've ever had ? & why you should always have a back-up for your fence.

[NiamhB]

Had a nasty scare today,
my three horses were grazing in a field behind our house, this field is secured with electric fence in the usual way (white tape wooden poles), unbeknownst to me while i was at work at about 2pm there was a power outage in my area. My fence is connected to the mains . So when the power went so did the fence.
I swear my old mare must check its on every 20 mins because at some point between 2-3pm they had it broken down and where roaming the yard .
NOW this would not have been terrible only the postman had been up with a package earlier in the day and left our gates wide open
Too cut a long story short my adventurous horses found themselves after wandering up two lanes on a main road and ended up in a neighbors garden.
THANK GOD no-one or no horse were injured and i only received a bemused call form a neighbor who will be receiving a LARGE box of chocolate and bottle of wine for there patience and help.
But the amount of things that could have gone horribly wrong don't bear thinking about , im very lucky neither them nor no-one else was hurt !!
although this was a perfect storm of sorts , I will be installing a back up battery in case this ever happens again and seriously looking into getting some wooden railings as well. there is stone walls on most sides of the field but of course not the side facing into the property, im normally good about making sure the gate is well closed and to be fair so is the postman there is a sign asking people to keep it closed.

What are some of everyone's near accidents or disasters and what did you learn form them ?

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Very glad it all ended up ok!

I will only use electric fence inside a permanent fence (to protect the decent fence or sub divide a paddock).

Having had a determined mini go for a hike out the slightly open main gate and up the lane (luckily not the other way to the main road!) I have a gate shutting mania.......

 

[JFTDWS]

I won't have external electric now either - I did for a while and on one memorable occasion it was taken down by pikeys who nicked my trailer. Horses were gallivanting around the countryside from 10pm till 6am the next morning when a friend and I caught them with the help of some (lovely, delightfully helpful) passing paramedics, and returned them to a stable. We'd been tracking them all night - it was... stressful!

 

[silv]

I only ever have electric fencing inside a permanent fence also, too much of a risk of this sort of thing happening would keep me awake at night.

 

[little_critter]

Can you also put a spring on the gate so it can’t be left open?

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

My old boy (two horses ago) did something really daft with leccy fencing.

I'd left him in my field across the road from the house (own yard) and had taped him off into the bottom bit of the field - and left the fieldgate open coz he was - I thought - secured, then gone (across the road) into the yard and started doing his feed.

He obviously heard me banging around in the feedroom, as when I went to fetch him in, I met him!! He was walking briskly along the road, festooned with leccy fencing tape, poles the lot, all dragging after him!

Hilarious.

 

[DabDab]

Just after moving here I put my then 2 horses in a small paddock out the back of the stables. I checked the fencing, and although some was a little old I thought it would be ok for a couple of hours (i didn't realise what a determined fence wrecker Arty was at this point as hadn't had her long). I went inside to get a cup of tea and some lunch and as I was just sitting down to eat I got a call from a carpenter working in a house up the road (only had my number as he had leant his phone to a lost, signaless delivery driver), asking if I had two horses that had just got out

Fortunately they had stopped at the field 1/4 mile up the road with a couple of cobs in, where there is a decent lay by in front of the field gate for them to stand out of the way, and they were more than happy to be caught.

They've broken out of their field a few times since then but we have gates now! Plus they seem to be mainly interested in eating the grass round the house rather than wondering off - I have no idea what got into them on that first occasion, maybe just because they were in a new home.

 

[Red-1]

Nearest miss I had was a friend who was visiting with a horse, and she was on the drive, the gates were open. She got off and was standing in front of her horse but let go. It shot off home. Luckily our village is very quiet and it made it home unscathed. It was awful to hear the hoof beats disappearing though.

I have electric fence as an inner fence, with 2 strands on wooden posts, but they are all backed bay a ditch and hedge that was previously (previous owners) the only fence and was horse proof for them. I do have some stand-alone electric fences between the fields, but the middle rail of those is a wooden half round so they are visible and also still effective if the electric is off (top and bottom strands are electric).

I would use electric only for the Shetland, but that was only ever within the ditch/hedge ring fence.

Our gates are locked and the post box is on the outside of the gate, so if there is a big parcel and we miss the postman, we have to go to the sorting office to fetch it (1/2 hour drive).

 

[Tiddlypom]

Eep, OP, what a fright. Thanks goodness it all ended well. Bless your neighbours.

Like others, though, whilst I have electric fencing all my perimeter fencing is permament, in my case post and rail. Also, having had our main gates left open too many times by delivery drivers etc, despite the 'Please shut the gates' sign, we now padlock them shut and have put a postbox outside the gates and an illuminated doorbell press.

ETA Snap to Red-1 for gates/post box arrangement, except we only have to drive 15 mins to our local sorting office to collect parcels .

 

[ponios]

I am rather over the the top with gates. Since moving to our property I have added three extra gates and they are all always shut- much to husbands annoyance when he is zooming around the property on the quad.

My biggest near miss was when I was concreting the old field track that comes into our winter field. While this was in progress the horses were out in summer field behind and I was using a gate onto our neighbours field down to the road and around the front of my horse to bring them in. They are usually saints and don't try anything on and even if they are feeling fresh they just bounce around a little but don't go anywhere.

The winter field is about 6 acres and the track that was being concreted was in far corner away from the field gate that they were turned out in so I just had to walk them straight down the hedge line and out the gate onto neighbours field. All fine for about 2 weeks and then out of the blue one afternoon they both took off, I was thinking ****** they are going to head to the wet concrete as that was their usual way down the stables so I held on trying to use myself as an anchor but eventually had to let go. I had been dragged face first through the mud and was covered head to toe, mud in mouth the lot! LUCKILY by complete chance the neighbour happened to be out in their field and watched all go down, with quick thinking they chucked some stones in a bucket and started shaking it at the gateway I was originally aiming for and the greedy neds turned back at the last minute when they were about a foot away from going into the fresh concrete!

I cant believe how lucky I was! to this day I never again seen neighbour in the field as they rarely use it but thank God they were in there that day!

 

[pixie]

We had to cancel getting our milk delivered as they kept leaving the bottom farm gate open while delivering, which left plenty of time for a sharp-eyed and suprisingly swift-hooved herd of cows to scarper!

 

[fidleyspromise]

I had a field beside a very minor road (however a couple times a say it is used by military to get to one of their bases so sees lots of traffic at 8-9am). There was a gate beside road then a wide track up to a small sand school with banks and then gate to my field.
I used to open if all up during bad weather so ponies had grass and shelter in winter. I got a call at 8.15am to say my ponies were on road and non horsey neighbour herded one into a field but other one ran along road so both were finally herded onto a livery down road. I leaped on car for the 20 min drive heart in throat as they'd been left loose with open gates so could head back onto road.
Got there and new forest walked straight over and put her head in my chest (drama queen) and highland waited to be caught as she had mouthfuls of grass. Walked them back to field and any time I used the outer track it was pad locked after that.
Gate had been opened and although highland can be a Houdini she has never tried to open that type of gate (it had a stiff latch spring and you had to lift gate into field. Gate was wide open).


Same yard, different field. 9pm Neighbour reported highland pony got a fright and went through external fence and into carrot field. Assumed she jumped the lower part of fence as snapped a couple pieces of higher wire. This fence was on mains electric. They caught her and put her in stable after chasing her round carrot field and down road.
I head down to yard to find owner driving up and down road to keep new forest in worried she would also jump out as she is in field alone and running around. I catch her and stable her. She's a little sweaty but not bad. Get to highland and she's dripping in sweat but no injury.
Owner fixed the fence there and then and waved away my offer to pay for any damage done.
Looking next day I think she stood on a plastic electric post and snapped it and that caused her to turn and run the very short distance to and through the fence.

 

[laura_nash]

I've got a similar setup with electric fences and (old, not as stable as I might like) dry stone walls. Both mine have been out (individually or together) a few times now, usually due to weather (something blows onto the fence and earths it, or the wind blows it down, and then the wall falls down due to heavy rain plus wind). Luckily "out" usually means in a neighbours field due to our layout, and when they have got onto the road they haven't gone far and a neighbour or friendly passing motorist has always caught them or popped them in a nearby field and let me know. They'd have to go quite a way to get to anything aproaching a main road. Everyone has to be understanding about stray animals, either in their fields or on the roads, around here as we are all in the same boat (cr**py stone walls and too much bedrock to get decent fence posts in).

My nearest miss was many years ago in Leeds when I was about 14. Getting my pony out of a large field with about 15 horses in when I lost control briefly at the gateway and whilst I was sorting her out let the gate swing open. Next thing I knew there were about 9 horses through the gate and heading for the outer ring road (very busy dual carriageway). Luckily they stopped to eat some long grass and I was able to herd them back in the field. That was terrifying, certainly taught me a lesson on control and attention around the gateway.

 

[NiamhB]

Thanks all for responses, will seriously be looking into some permanent fencing, my only worry is our ground is so rocky will be hard to put up a real good fence !

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Not my near miss but I was having a dressage lesson in the school one morning and heard a horse coming down the lane cantering through the hedge we could see it was riderless and heading for the A27 dual carriageway at a busy rush hour. My instructor ran got in her car and drove after it. The rider who had fallen off deep in the park had been picked up by someone and passed me as I ran down the lane expecting to see carnage. Well the horse got onto the dual carriage way and luckily I think turned left onto it going with the flow of the traffic rather than heading into it. It was caught a full junction down in one piece. A miracle neither it or anyone else was killed or injured. It must have gone 2-3 miles in all.

 

[only_me]

Eep glad it was ok OP!

Biggest near miss for me was riding previous horse in field beside road, who got me off at high speed (and standing on my arm in process) then proceeded to get out of field onto road.
I had to get up slightly concussed with a dead arm and incredibly painful hip and catch him, although luckily he went to go back to yard so all I had to do was get gate opened (electric) and let him go. Took me nearly 5 mins to get up the hill and even then I let someone else catch him as couldn’t do it myself.

Although last week I noticed the cars slowing down (unusual on road lol) and then saw someone’s 2 bullocks walk round the bad corner - quickly got them into a field and then rang round for owner. Road is a 60 and cows could have become burgers very quickly!!

 

[BOWS28]

A friends three ponies all escaped a couple of years ago. Managed to travel 2 villages away along some very quiet country lanes, fields and a very busy main road! Thankfully, a farmer herded them into one of his fields and shut the gate. By some miracle, only one came back with a grazed knee and 3 shoes. Could have been soooo much worse.
Found out dog walkers had pushed the gate almost shut but had fastened it with a loop of rope. As you can imagine, nothing to keep a naughty ring leader from escaping and his mates joining in on the fun!!