Does anyone have an escape artist/field hopper?

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251libby

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I am starting to despair.

How do you contain yours?
Mine is fine 362 days a year but the remaining 3 days are worrying me to an early grave. She'll be fine for almost a year I'll think she's grown out of it, she'll come into season and do it again. It's not everytime shes in season just occationally.

Any help, stories, kick up the arse to move to a yard where I can put up electric fencing most welcome :)
 
YES!!! I love her to bits but she drives me mad! She just seems to enjoy jumping out! Doesn't matter where she is or who she is with... she always has eyes for the fence! Never goes crazy in the field just will occassionally have a very steady saunter round, popping fences as she meets them. I guess double height electric might stop her, but when I tried ordinary posts inside the real fencing she either jumps both as a spread or bounces them if enough space.

I was worried this would cause more problems so I took it away! On the one hand its great I have a young lady who seems to have the natural ability to do this, on the other hand, now I know she can - I'd rather she didn't. I dread her injuring herself or someone else. She cant actually escape our land due to huge hedges etc. Mind you, the internal fencing isn't small.... :-(

Glad I am not the only one!! Sorry!!
 
i don't really have any advise but the two other horses at my yard both do it put of plain boredom, one of them ended up in Arundel high-street!!!
i think that higher fencing reinforced with electric fencing would do the trick, like double layering so you have and inner and outer fence? probably quite pricey... this is my mad little idea anyway :D

ooh and i read this thing in a book right where you can sorta train them not to jump out like a behaviour therapist finds the problem and gradually helps them..again probably cost a small fortune!!
 
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Ours is a section A county standard show pony, and a colt, he has spent almost the past year in any field he wants because he simply clambers through the barbed wire. This week he has had his first argument with it and the wire won! He has been better for the past few months but started again because we have put them in a field with not so much grass. He does jump if he thinks he can make it but YO and my hubby have been redoing the whole fenceline and I am going to put mains electric within as soon as I can get the stuff I need. He picked one of the last bits to need doing to get caught up in but hopefully the vet treatment will have put him off for a bit!
 
I have a field hopper - he's 12 now and still does it, just saunters up to the fence and pops it, post and rail, gates or electric fencing, nothing stops him if he wants too. It drives me mad sometimes as he's a bit porky and I want thim to be in a field wirth less grass but he has other ideas. He has never injured himself or anyone else though so I just take it as one of his quirks.

Before I realised he could do it I came back from a competition one day to find him stood by the stables, he had jumped through 3 fields and away from the other horses to bring himself in!!
 
mine is!
We have mains electric, white electrical rope and everything!!!
Electric High - or as suggested before - double strands, like 4 or 5 ft across.
Trouble is, Your horse might be able to jump that too! :D

Good luck!!!
 
oh p.s. - when I say Mains electric - i dont mean 240volts!!! :eek:
it has a convertor box to change it over to something less deadly - THough sometimes i think a quick 240V experience wouldnt go a miss!!! :P
 
yes i do :( my new mare that iv had 5 days is on a diet as shes a porker and my fencer has just died despite having a full battery and she has just broke the bottom strand and popped underneath it, i only have half the field and the other half belongs to someone else so i have some fence to stop them going any further just incase of escape and she broke through that to and went into there lush long green field :@ bad pony!! i told her she would be pedigree chum if she did it again and she hasnt.....yet.
 
I have a 12.2 hairy houdini. Very clever in that she can work out any weakness in a fence and work out a way over, through or under it. Has been seen to clear 4ft high/wide hedge with drop :eek: just to get to the better grass on the other side.

Currently contained by high electric fencing round the perimeter of the field fencing to make a high spread and we have placed branches/ dead tree trunks on the easiest take off points to discourage her from taking off. Seems to have worked so far but not very tidy for the YO!

Other than superglue-ing her feet together :D I have no other ideas so will be following thread with interest
 
I do too! My filly i bought last Nov is exceptional at getting through fencing! My mare and pony are fine and rarely go too close to my elctric fencing, but my filly some how manages to clamber through a five layered electric fence that is on full, without having any trouble! no idea how she does it, and the battery etc definity works, some how she is immune! :oS
 
Yep my old TB was a filed hopper. He was also a wuss and would get beaten up by everything. He would jump the fence to get in the filed to be beaten up! Drove me crazy. The only thing that worked with him was putting him in a field with 10 ft hedging. He used to jump in with the mare and foal every night, luckily she didn't mind!
 
Yep, mine will walk through a working electric fence (mains powered) but can also sniff it not working from a mile away in the rare occurence it's not! (we've learnt from experience to check it very regularly!)

She has been seen to get 12 shocks in a row, gets a shock, runs away, comes back 2 seconds later.

Also not sure how but she has also managed to squeeze through double stranded tape on the small post think they're 4ft ones, definately didn't jump as was only a 4/5ft space the other side so no where near enough room! All this from a solid welsh d, admittedly she's only 14hh but still impressive!
 
My Niece has a right little Houdini! 15hh ISH type.
He 'pops' 5 bar gates for fun, from trot, in the field (well, technically to get out of the field!), will jump onto any surface (causing grief & worry for my poor Niece!) and generally will go wherever he wants whenever the mood takes him!
She has to keep him in hard work, it's the only thing that will stop him as he appears to do it out of boredom! Whenever he gets a few days off he gets naughty & starts field hopping so she has to take that edge off him or he'll go walkabout!
 
:S at this thread lol, I guess theres no hope then!
Mines 14 a still does it!
As for making fence very wide - I am afraid she could possibly still jump it :S she once jumped a bounce as a spread :S :S
She too is very calm about it, jumps into next doors field, jumps out onto track and eats the juicy grass at the side untill she see's someone who will catch her, other than that she jumps out walks down to her stable and waits outside to be put in.
 
our little welshie drives me insane - she just goes where the mood takes her!!!

I have never known a pony so resistant to shocks from electric, she almost seems to get a buzz off it!

She isn't a jumper but we once had one that was and the best way we found to stop him was to run two seperate lines of fencing, one behind the other far enough apart so they can't jump them as a whole but close enought together so that a horse coun't put a stride in.
 
I don't think there's much that can be done TBH! On one of the other yards on the estate there's a gelding that has always field hopped (he's about 17.2hh so actually even easier for him!) and even now at about 16 or 17 yr old he'll do it if he wants to!!!!!!
Our YM produced Tom Quigley before Polly Stockton took him on and I vaguely remember him saying he was the same!
It seems it's a common quirk with the very talented ones!
 
Lucy is the queen of escaping. She can jump fences, go under them, She walks through hedges, Opens gates and the best of all she climbs out over styles :eek: :p :D :D Eletric fencing can't contain her as she just walks up to it and keeps walking till it snaps. If you hold onto eletric fencing it just paulses through you and doesn't zap you. Lucy worked this out very quickly. She even does it with mains eletric fencing:( I once caught her with the fence tape in her mouth but to be fair i don't think the fence was working properly then.
Lucy is atleast 20 years old and should realy know better but she's been worse than ever lately as she has had to have time off.
She got out her field the other day and i could see where she had climed through the fence but she then went back to open the gate as her field mate was to stupid to follow her through the fence. They where eventualy found in the allotment behind a barn munching on some yummy grass :D :D :D
I gave up trying to contain her long ago (she can even undo horse proof bolts on stable doors :eek: :confused:) she never goes far and normaly just comes to find me so i can put her back and she can find another fun way to escape :p :D :D
 
Ha ha! LauraWheeler's post reminded me of something else...
Our little (now very old) Shetland pony was the bane of the farmers life when we had her at a yard many moons ago. She would get through or under any type of fencing one way or another!
We've seen that little thing (10.2hh in her prime!) shimmy under fencing on her tummy, she's a proper little escapologist!
Once the farmer was walking down the field after adding yet another strand of electric tape, feeling very pleased with himself that he'd 'definately outsmarted her this time' and as he walked away she stuck her head under one of the higher strands and stepped over the one underneath!
Even last summer we had to add some extra tape to stop her visiting all the geldings!
 
Unless the fencing is electric my horse will get out! Our electric isn't working at the moment and every day I turn up and he's somewhere new...
 
Lol i am glad its not just me!
My previous pony would just go under electric fencing even if it was on, he would shoot under it, squeal at it when it shocked him and then charge away from it snorting. This was a daily occurence. He would jump the gate in another paddock! And the fencing around the yard which was not electrified, just to let me know that he knew it wasnt electrified he would stand there and twang the electric fencing with his teeth!!

Paddy is the king of escaping! if he is tied up, he unties himself, every time! He undoes the bolt on his stable door, so the kickbolt ALWAYS has to be done up as does the top bolt with a clip! Speaking to an old owner....aparently he used to lean on their post and rail fencing untill he pushed it over......luckily he has a bit of respect for mr electric fence!!! Although aparently.....he does get the urge to jump it.....luckily.....so far he hasnt!!!

Little so and so!
 
I have a fence hopper. Drives me crazy! He is overweight, but is so hard to control. When he thinks he's hungry he just jumps over the 4'6 double stranded electric fence and helps himself!! Gets me really worried, but has always done it, although worse this summer. I am now having to consider a second fence a few meters away as a deterrent. Five bar gates, post and rail he takes on from trot when the mood takes him. Wouldn't think he was able to jump, looking at the size of him!!
 
skychick said:
Lol i am glad its not just me!
My previous pony would just go under electric fencing even if it was on, he would shoot under it, squeal at it when it shocked him and then charge away from it snorting. This was a daily occurence. He would jump the gate in another paddock! And the fencing around the yard which was not electrified, just to let me know that he knew it wasnt electrified he would stand there and twang the electric fencing with his teeth!!

Paddy is the king of escaping! if he is tied up, he unties himself, every time! He undoes the bolt on his stable door, so the kickbolt ALWAYS has to be done up as does the top bolt with a clip! Speaking to an old owner....aparently he used to lean on their post and rail fencing untill he pushed it over......luckily he has a bit of respect for mr electric fence!!! Although aparently.....he does get the urge to jump it.....luckily.....so far he hasnt!!!

Little so and so!
Click to expand...

Naughty Paddy :p :) Don't let him speak to Lucy about kick bolts. She will kick and kick at the bottom corner of her door till the kickbolt flips over.

LOL that reminds me of the morning we arrived at the yard to find all the horses loose. Lucy had opened her door, let herself into the feedroom had a midnight snack, let all the other horses out then put herself back to bed. When i got there she was stood in her box with the door wide open looking as sweet and inesent as only she can. :rolleyes:
It had to be her though as non of the other horses could undo the stable doors and we couldn't have left every single door open when we left the night before :p :D :D
 
I have two fence hoppers, one started at 9 month old, she jumped
the fence next to the gate just to get back with her friend, I just had to shut my eyes.
My mare cleared an electric fence and a five barred gate to be with our gelding, yet she trips over poles on the ground.
It is worrying but I can't help thinking wow that's my girls
 
I used to have a fantastic 13.2hh pony who refused to stay in the starvation paddock and used to jump the 4'6" gate out. She even managed to jump it sideways on after we reversed the trailer up to it to stop her - and in a rug too! Couldn't really complain as she never had a pole down in the 6 years I had her.

My Mum has a welshie companion pony now who limbos under electric fencing. She keeps waking up to find him munching on the lawn. Methinks he needs a job to do ;)
 
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