Electric Fence disaster

[Barton Bounty]

lighthearted humour…..


What is the worst thing you have done with your fence? Or injured yourself on it..

I didnt have much experience of electric fencing about ten years ago!never had it at the other yard. I
was always careful of it but this day I was poo picking my field and a bit of poo rolled off the picker and under the fence!
Me? I just leaned over the bloody thing and zapped my delicates on it.. bazinga indeed ???
Talk about shocking ?

 

[Orangehorse]

Picking up a wet stick to try and move some wire that was on the ground. Lesson learned.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Picking up a wet stick to try and move some wire that was on the ground. Lesson learned.

Ohhh ouch ?

 

[Hackback]

I completely forgot that not everyone is au fait with electric fencing and failed to warn my MIL not to touch it when she asked to lead my horse in from the field. Coming through the gate she touched it and shocked both herself and my horse. Horse jumped and landed on her foot. Luckily no serious damage done (he has fairy Arab feet) but lesson learned.

 

[PurBee]

When i first got electric fence set-up here, i was terrified of it - i had 3 lines up due to small horse. i needed to cross it often to get to my polytunnel/grow bed areas and initially i’d get on all fours and crawl under it. Except sometimes it zapped my back if i didnt crawl low enough, and i’d be splat flat on the floor of the field under the fence with the shock!

It was a pelt of a shock i’d get as my knees and hands were grounded well on the grass as i crawled through ?

I soon learned to hop through the middle gap, while wearing rubber soled wellies, if i got zapped, it didnt hurt half as bad as crawling underneath it!

 

[Snow Falcon]

lighthearted humour…..


What is the worst thing you have done with your fence? Or injured yourself on it..

I didnt have much experience of electric fencing about ten years ago!never had it at the other yard. I
was always careful of it but this day I was poo picking my field and a bit of poo rolled off the picker and under the fence!
Me? I just leaned over the bloody thing and zapped my delicates on it.. bazinga indeed ???
Talk about shocking ?

Good job you weren't wearing the new sanitary pad!!?

 

[ycbm]

Opening a neighbour's gate from on board the horse, I wondered why he was twitching rhythmically. It took me a few moments to work out that the electric fence buried under the gateway was shorting out into his shoes through the damp ground!
.

 

[ycbm]

Oh, and I realised very early on that you should never trust anyone just because you've said "if you're going into the house will you switch off this fence before I try and mend where it's broken?" and got "yes, sure" as the answer!
.

 

[Gloi]

I was at a friend's place on my pony and they have mains electric fences. I was opening the gate from the yard on my pony and suddenly I got a massive shock through my arm to the metal gate. pony leapt in the air and shot off dragging me half off as I was hold of the gate. I fell off into a drainage channel a few yards later. I was rather bruised up and my shoulder really wrenched. At first I though the gate was live and went back cautiously to test it. It was then I realised that while I was doing the gate pony had put his nose on the electric fence protecting the wooden rail fence at the side. Ow.
A less painful one was me going under the tape and it shocking me on the arse firing me down face first into the mud ?

 

[Dave's Mam]

Turning out, opened electric fence gate & dropped it. Picked it up & accidentally lifted it by the live fence. Gave Dave & I a good blast & he pi55ed off down the field & refused to let me anywhere near him, it was about 3 days before he'd let me catch him.
He still rushes through that gate a year later. Bad Mam.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Good job you weren't wearing the new sanitary pad!!?

That was my first thought too ??? Blackpool Illuminations spring to mind ??

I've zapped myself numerous times on various bits of the body from the tough as old boots hands to the very much more delicate lady areas. Nothing delights me more though when you finally get it all sorted (again!) And the pony who routinely destroys it because they have found the weak spot gets an almighty belt off it! They haven't touched it in weeks since ??

 

[Barton Bounty]

Good job you weren't wearing the new sanitary pad!!?

Worse ? metal conducts you know ???

 

[Odyssey]

I'm flippin terrified of the horrible stuff! Once I got loads of shocks when trying to untangle it from the gate post, no idea how I got it wrapped around it. It was wired to the mains, and I had to psych myself up each time, then yelled as I got zapped. I'm literally almost phobic of it now! ?

 

[Odyssey]

I completely forgot that not everyone is au fait with electric fencing and failed to warn my MIL not to touch it when she asked to lead my horse in from the field. Coming through the gate she touched it and shocked both herself and my horse. Horse jumped and landed on her foot. Luckily no serious damage done (he has fairy Arab feet) but lesson learned.

Ooh no! She was lucky, though I'm sure she didn't feel it at the time. Presumably she's not offered her services to assist with your horse since! ?

 

[Lois Lame]

Not my electric fence (I don't have one) but a friend's, who at that time and with that husband had some dairy cattle. The fence was a strong one, since it was cows. To me in those days it was just a wide piece of white tape, obviously only white so the cows could see it. (I'd lead a sheltered life. No agistment paddock I've ever been at had had electric fencing.)

I was in flipflops (we call them thongs) and we'd gone out for a walk to see the cows or whatever. I pushed aside the tape to crawl through the fence and fell to the floor (we call it the ground, but I like floor better). The long grass was very wet and that tape threw me, so my friend's husband said. I believed it. I've never had a zap like that one.

 

[Lois Lame]

Oh, and I realised very early on that you should never trust anyone just because you've said "if you're going into the house will you switch off this fence before I try and mend where it's broken?" and got "yes, sure" as the answer!
.

Yes. It's a bit like the rule of always checking that your horse is tacked up properly, no matter who might have done it. Even if the Queen herself has (for some reason) done up the girth, check it (and everything else).

 

[HorseMaid]

Ooh I've got one! I once managed to (mains) electrify the horses water trough! It was a big galvanised thing and I didn't realise there was a stray bit of tape touching it in the hedge behind. We'd turned the horses out after a fast ride and they were thirsty, we couldn't figure out what was going on as they were drinking and jumping/jolting in unison then running away in fury - I don't think they trusted that trough for about a year afterwards poor buggers!

 

[rabatsa]

My young brother in law pulled a dirty trick on us all. He pushed a drawing pin into the handle on the fence, that we used to go through to get the cows out of the cubicles for milking. He got everyone that morning and ended up being sprayed with slurry by older brother in law who had been caught twice.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Not exactly a disaster.....I purchased an electric fence and had the components delivered to the school where I was working, to save an eight mile round trip collecting from the returns office. The caretaker came round to sort out the parcels, and stood there shaking his head, saying 'What the bloody hell are they doing with these kids these days?' He did see the funny side once I explained!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

With one of my old horses this happened:

I've got mine at home and there was the field across the road from the house/yard where I'd put my old lad. He was a cob, and a greedy boy. What I'd done is penned him in behind the leccy fence, and then done a few jobs in the field, and then leaving the gate open, had gone back to the house (across the road but in earshot) to prep his breakfast. He'd have been well able to have heard me banging around with the feed bins etc.

I'd then gone out to the field to feed him, but had met him coming along the road towards me! One of those occasions when you just wish you'd had a camera: he was literally FESTOONED with leccy fencing, poles, tape the lot, dragging it all behind him in the road. Obviously on the way to his feed. The greedy old monkey.

Shan't ever forget that.

 

[honetpot]

Our energiser is powered by the mains, so it is powerful, but it has the modern safety features. I was doing pig share with some who had never kept large livestock, they had a contract, and I gave them all the information on how the electric fence worked, and that it was a high power one powered from the mains.
She rings me up one morning, I've had a shock off the fence it really hurt, do you think there is something wrong with it?. It turns out she was watering the pigs through the fence with a hosepipe obviously her hands and the pipe must have been wet, and the charge must have gone up the outside of the pipe. I think when I just said, well it will hurt, how does she think it kept the pigs in, she wasn't very happy. After the pigs went to the butchers I never saw her again.

 

[Peglo]

When I was younger my grandfather helped me set up the electric fencing (he was a farmer) once the job was done he said
‘you’ll mibby touch that fence and see if it’s working, because I don’t really like the feel of it…..’
I mean I couldn’t say no to the auld chap after he helped me out but, really, no one likes the feel of it. That’s the point! I quickly prepped myself and touched it and got the shock and concluded he had indeed done a good job. ? I now use a long bit of grass to see if it’s working.

not electric fence but over our water trough there’s strong thick wires (from farming times ??‍) and we use the trough to jump into the other field. I had 3 rugs in my hand and was climbing over the wire when my boot slipped with one leg over and I was left straddling the wire with my boots filling with water from the trough still holding onto the rugs ??‍ Eventually I chucked the rugs and saved my private parts from any more torture. I did not ride that day.

 

[suestowford]

I had a sick pony so I had made him a small pen next to the yard, out of electric fencing. Just so he could go out & have a good roll if he wanted. The other pony was the other side of the fence.
I went out with some hay and the other pony got over-excited and galloped towards me. He'd forgotten about the extra fencing and was going too fast to stop. He crashed through the lot, dragging live fence tape with him, and I fell in a ditch trying to keep out of the way.
No-one was injured by this and I can laugh about it, now.

 

[Birker2020]

I was bringing in my last horse from her paddock and caught my inner arm on the 'gate' as i closed it (the gate being electric tape) We're mains rather than battery so its a bit of a vicious shock especially somewhere so thin skinned.

I never knew nylon lead rope could conduct but it had been raining and my lead rope was wet - we leave headcollars and ropes by each paddock gate. That must have given the shock bigger clout and poor Bailey staggered backwards and ended up sitting like a dog on her arse.

It probably didn't help that i squealed at the time so not sure if her fall was a combination of shock from the fence or shock from me squealing or a combination of both but luckily she wasn't harmed.

I now switch the fence off everytime i go in/out of the paddock and stick a stone over the top of the lever on/off switch so when I'm strip fence moving and not always visible from the bottom, people know its off for a reason. I don't take chances anymore!

I've always been scared of electric as Dad saw me aged 3 about to stick a key from Grandmas handbag into an electric socket and had to yell at me to shock me into stopping in order to avert a fatal disaster.

 

[SEL]

I dropped a mains attached gateway rope and picked it up by the rope - it hurt (a lot) so I let it go. And because I'm really thick I caught it in my other hand. By the rope. Still on the mains. Hurt as much in my left hand as it did in the right.

@Birker2020 I threw a mains connected gate rope to one side leading my friends horse through wet mud. No where near him but he jumped, squealed and bogged off so I must have zapped him

 

[Errin Paddywack]

I have been hit so many times and knocked flat on occasion but the worst I remember was when I was bending down doing something near the fence, no idea what and the metal stud in the top of my baseball cap touched the electric fence. I came to with my dogs hovering anxiously over me. Really don't recommend that. I also switch off now before going into the field, caught too many times.

 

[PurBee]

My worst experience was with a 4 month foal. I had turned-out mum and foal, half hour later mum is calling me.
I’ll never forget what i saw when i got to the field. An acre of 4 string electric fence tape all strewn across the field, with many posts pulled out.
In the middle of the mess was the foal with 1 strand wrapped around his neck, with mum stood nearby on a piece of grass surrounded by tape. They stood there frozen…thankfully.

Before doing anything i looked at the charger and noticed it had had the live wire pulled out by the force of them running, so it wasnt zapping them. Phew!
I got to the foal and he stood like an angel so i could unwrap the tape from him. He only had a small cut at base of neck luckily - it was wrapped tight.

I asked them to stay there while i dropped all the fence on the floor that was zig-zagging over the field like ribbons, to make a path for us to get out. They thankfully stayed where they were, too frightened to step anywhere!

I headcollared mum and lead them both out - she wouldnt step over the tape on the ground initially, but after some persuading it was okay, we made our getaway.

Re-doing the fencing to that field was fun ?

This all happened because an experienced breeder recommended to me to only electrify the top line for the mare, and leave the lower 3 lines non-electrified so the foal didnt get zapped. Foal from birth had got used to the lower tape not being on and would regularly poke his head between the lines to eat the coveted long grass on the other side. This day he must have stood up and his poll got zapped by the top line. He didnt lower his head to get out - he just ran away taking all the lines along his neck with him.
I recommend having all lines mildly zapping so foals learn to respect fence. That foal is now a large 15.3 gelding who is master of limboing through electric fencing and is invested in enquiring with his whiskers, if his fenced field is electrified or not. He doesnt mind a mildly zapping fence, and will endure the zap to get through!
He’s like a mountain pony, will scramble through ditches and all sorts of places to get the forbidden green he’s been eye-ing up. I once found him perched on a steep narrow bank, deep ditch one side, electric fence (on, but weak) the other. How long he had been there overnight i dont know….2 poop deposits told me a fair while!

It’s a really good idea to have the connection wire from the energiser to the fence loosely screwed into the live side, just enough to make contact and deliver the zap to the fence. Have the nut loose enough so that a fairly firm ‘pull’ will pull the wire out. Im so lucky our thin live wire snapped.
Also worth having release joins along the lines, so if theyve pulled hard, they’ll split.

The cut on his neck from the tape was minor due to his light weight, it would have been a deep cut in a 300kg pony. My 450kg mare once ran through electric tape and tape broke, as the breaking strain is around 350kg. The breaking strain of rope is higher.

The great thing about horses is, if fight or flight isnt an option, they freeze. This is an advantage in these hair-raising incidents. They both stood there watching me, waiting for me to direct them. It was enough chaos to make them run after freeing them of the tape, but they had learnt it was dangerous so just waited for me to direct them. Bless them!

Mr houdini just the other day panic farted when he tested the new electric fence to see if it was weak enough to limbo through…it wasn’t!

 

[Birker2020]

I have been hit so many times and knocked flat on occasion but the worst I remember was when I was bending down doing something near the fence, no idea what and the metal stud in the top of my baseball cap touched the electric fence. I came to with my dogs hovering anxiously over me. Really don't recommend that. I also switch off now before going into the field, caught too many times.

Blimey that reminds me of The Green Mile?

 

[Quigleyandme]

I think I bought a more powerful mains energiser than I needed for my acreage. I touched the wire with my hair and thought somebody had snuck up behind me and hit me on the head with a hammer or a meteorite had landed on me. I was totally disoriented.

 

[Nudibranch]

We recently put in a couple of km of permanent mains electric and while doing some research I was quite surprised to find out it can actually be lethal if you get shocked on the head! I've always gone on assuming it's just a nasty sting and nothing more. I'm a lot more careful about crawling under it now for sure and definitely won't be letting my son do it.