Could a thick layer of snow and ice...........

J

JadeWisc

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..............keep a horse from making a ground connection with a hot wire fence and prevent it from shocking them?

I have checked my fence all over again and again and cannot see any problem with my connections. My mare is leaning right over it and does not appear to be getting a shock. The wire looks like it is going past her deep winter coat too and must be touching her near the skin. The only thing I can think of is that the deep snow with ice below it is somehow making her not ground it when she touches it.

Any ideas?
 
yes,it could be shorting out,
A fence tester that you apply at various points, working your way along the fence is best way to check out if it is working or not.
 
I don't know about the snow and ice.....but my horse has been know to actively lean on electric fencing with her bum till it goes off/shorts...just so that she can push it down and get better grass!
 
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yes,it could be shorting out,
A fence tester that you apply at various points, working your way along the fence is best way to check out if it is working or not.

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I cannot get my fence tester to work because I cannot get to the ground to stick the grounding part in. The frozen ground is about a foot below a layer of ice and snow.
 
what happens if you touch it?

Is the earthwire connected to a stake into the frozen ground. Not sure how good a conductor ice is so wonder if similar to the probs you can have in v dry weather (will see if I can check)

I would think if any of the wire is touching any snow it will short (assume this is not the case though)
 
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what happens if you touch it?

Is the earthwire connected to a stake into the frozen ground. Not sure how good a conductor ice is so wonder if similar to the probs you can have in v dry weather (will see if I can check)

I would think if any of the wire is touching any snow it will short (assume this is not the case though)

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The Earthwire is deep into the ground/earth . And none of the hot wire is touching the snow or grounded anywhere I can see.
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AND.................I have not tried touching it yet myslef and doubt I will
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I have heard that hairy beasts, shetlands and the like, cannot feel the current through their woolly coats. May or may not be true, so sorry not much help.
x

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Well she is not as wooly as my Shteland. She has a finer coat and when she leans it looks to go into her coat all the way to her skin.
 
Have you checked the power source? Batteries hate the cold and drain really quickly (but I assume it is off the mains). Haven't you got a small child or pet dog/cat you could drop onto the wire to see if the yelp!!!
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but if you touch it you will know if it is producing a charge, it doesn't hurt that much!
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Am wondering if the ground is so frozen underneath that the earth stake may not be conducting very well and therefore not completing the 'circuit'
 
just found this on a fencing webpage!


You run into problems with very dry, hard soils, or even frozen ground, as the electricity will not flow very well with these types of soils and produces a weak shock.
 
and another one!

For particularly poor earth conditions (sand, peat, gravel, very dry soil, snow or frozen ground) it is possible to increase the earth efficiency by: -


increasing the number of Earth Spikes.
by running an earth return wire in parallel to the fence line and connecting it to Earth Spikes at regular intervals.

Also cat/child would have to touch the ground or wired up to the earth! and wire at same time , we have to remember not to stroke our cat when he is on the fence as we have a top line to stop chewing and then we all get a shock!
 
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just found this on a fencing webpage!


You run into problems with very dry, hard soils, or even frozen ground, as the electricity will not flow very well with these types of soils and produces a weak shock.

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Ahhh maybe that's it then. I wonder what I can do about it? No thaw here until end of March.


I have a stronger solar fencer from the field I can hook up and see if that helps. Without proper grounding I doubt it will matter.
 
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Have you checked the power source? Batteries hate the cold and drain really quickly (but I assume it is off the mains). Haven't you got a small child or pet dog/cat you could drop onto the wire to see if the yelp!!!
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Yes it's on the mains and you are a silly nut!
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( with great ideas
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OK Im probably being really really blonde, what about getting a flower pot full of earth and putting the earth thing in that?

OMG Im goint to be horrified in a min at the LMAO posts at me
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me neither, I just typed in electic fencing in the snow or ice and it came up, prob a reasonably big job but if it happens every year.....?

Though your horse prob still won't be grounding too well either (unless you get big metal spikes for her shoes!- well maybe not my best idea) I think it is prob a combination of the two things. Not really an issue in the south west of UK, field is currently more like a lake than anything else
 
Soph that is serious lateral thinking though!
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think would have to be a very very big flower pot and even then not sure if would work.

And think it would freeze up pretty quickly, not sure what availalbility of earth is there given the snow?!! horse muck maybe- with its own non freezing central heating system (now you've got me started!)
 
Ice doesn't conduct like water cos it doesn't move etc etc - I have just tried to get an answer from a long scientific paper, something bout proton instead of electron transfer and snow is the same. Partly cos pure water doesn't conduct it is the ions in it.

A bit more info from the safe fence website

In areas where heavy snow and ice are an issue, you may need to take additional grounding measures. Most people don't realize that neither snow nor rainwater will conduct electricity. Frozen ground also reduces the flow of current. When animals are to be left out in electric fenced areas during frozen snowy conditions you can improve the electric fence function by running a 12 1/2 gauge wire, on or just below the surface of the ground, connected to the fence posts. This wire is attached to the ground terminal of the fencer thereby creating maximum conductivity when the animal touches the fence, even in snow.
 
I wont make any difference if there is snow, ice...in fact when its wet, you get more a sting lol
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unless your horse is wearing rubber boots
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Just test it yourself, or put a something wet on it (which won't go through you) if you can hear it clicking (in the dark you see it spark), or run it a bit slower then test it yourself, I would of thought it would still work if in contact with the fur as the current jumps, a horse can get a shock from a live fence just by a whisker on there noses so if you see her leaning over it, then its either shorting out and runing your battery too low to creat a circuit.

Does it have warning flash when the battery is running low or have a higher setting?
 
But our snow is very dry as is our air here this time of year. Covered in snow and ice but dry as a bone everywhere.



I have another way to test it. Just thought about that! Let me go and try it and come back in a sec.
 
kenzo- snow and ice doesn't count as 'wet'! water is a very interesting thin and snow and ice do not conduct like free water in the ground does
 
Ok. It is deffo NOT working. Good thing I do not have to 100% rely on it! It is just to keep them off the main fence and out of one confned area. It really does not matter if they get into that area though. I have just unplugged it for now.
 
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