Electric Fence Scare - Suggestions Please?

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Cheshire Chestnut

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Pony has had some drama between me last seeing him last night at around 7pm and 8am this morning. He's living out but I always bring him in for a love and some hay before/after work. However this morning he would NOT come in at all. He was standing in the middle of the field soaking wet and he planted his feet when I tried to lead him, looking scared. He wouldn't go anywhere near the gate and the closest I could get him was about 20 meters.

I followed the fence round the field myself and found some of his tail stuck on one of the fence post, along with skid hoof marks in the soil so he's obviously been stuck on it and been belted by the electric. He's fine and I've checked him over and also checked his pulse, which is normal - he's just very scared.

We turned the fence off just incase he could sense it and I tried leading him with a feed bucket (he's usually very greedy), following another horse and even tacking him up and trying to ride him through the gate but nothing has worked. I don't want to use a whip behind him as he's already scared enough.

I just had to leave him with his feed and hay in the field as I needed to get to work. Does anyone have any suggestions please?
 
tricky. I would probably just give him some time and see if that helps. You have done many of the things that people would have normally recommended
 
Hopefully he will get over it reasonably soon. I remember when mine got his first crack from an electric fence he ran off and refused to go anywhere near for a while, even though his hay was there. It took a couple of hours for him to come back to his food, and he'd only got one little zap ( I was watching). If yours was stuck on it, he may well be scared to go near for a while.
 
Maybe he got zapped just before you saw him this morning, and was still very hyper. Hopefully he will soon realise that the whole world isn't out to get him, and will be more settled when you next see him.

Mine are always very agitated after they've had a belt off the fence.
 
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Thanks everyone. I felt really sorry for him, he's never usually any trouble and he's quite a straight forward thinking horse so I know he's not doing it to be naughty or anything. I think the strips of plastic bag is a good idea, although I have a feeling he was rubbing his bum on the post and got tangled up some how. He just looked so sad :(
 
Bless him, I'm sure he will come round soon, just had a fright! Hopefully he will be back to normal by the time you see him after work :)
 
Tiddlypom said:
Is he ok as long as he is standing well away from the fence?
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Yeah he's fine as long as he's not near it. Acting as normal until you try and make him walk anywhere near the gate. His field isn't the biggest as we have two to a paddock and he's on his own at the moment so he will have to moved nearer the fence otherwise he will run out of grass very soon!

I've had horses for 20+ years but I'm fresh out of ideas so any new ones would be very welcome :)
 
Tiddlypom said:
Can the gate safely be left open? If he was turned out with another horse, and it wanders calmly in and out through the gateway, hopefully he will get his brave pants back on soon and follow his friend.
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That's a good idea, I will try that tomorrow. His field has an electric tape gate and then a wooden one so he wouldn't be able to escape very far :) Thank you.

doriangrey said:
Is it mains electric fencing? Google 'stray voltage'. Hope you get it sorted :)
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It's mains electric and I was wondering about a break in the cable under the ground and it maybe causing shocks under his feet near the fence or something?
 
Yes, it's possible. Please do google stray voltage as it might be the problem. We had a similar problem, but I'm having tech problems myself at the moment so keeping answers short :(

ETA Could be getting a shock through his feet, has the weather been wet?
 
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doriangrey said:
Yes, it's possible. Please do google stray voltage as it might be the problem. We had a similar problem, but I'm having tech problems myself at the moment so keeping answers short :(
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Gosh, I've just looked at it and I hope that's not the case - sounds bad :( If he doesn't get better then I will have to do some further investigation but the other horses we've used to try and lead him in and out of the field haven't reacted badly.
 
One of my labs reacted just like that the first time she got zapped. She flatly refused to go anywhere near "that field that bites" and would sit at the gate sulking for an hour rather than come down to the stables. In time she got braver and got over it. She is just a bit of a wuss, perhaps your horse is too?

Can the fence be left off for a few days?
 
Is there an option to open the fence and make a new gateway in a different area of the field? Could be difficult I know but if he is really frightened it could take you some time to rebuild confidence.

I am lucky I have two gateways on each of my fields so if one has a problem I have an alternative.
 
When I was grooming in NZ we had new cattle fencing out in with mains electric (and metal gates that weren't properly isolated, ouch!). One particular field the horses would lead out fine but halfway through the gate would launch off into space. Turned out they were getting shocked through their shoes with a dodgy buried cable. Bless them for even trying to go out each day, either that or they weren't smart enough to refuse like your lad! Are the other horses shod as our barefooters didn't get zapped?
 
KatPT said:
When I was grooming in NZ we had new cattle fencing out in with mains electric (and metal gates that weren't properly isolated, ouch!). One particular field the horses would lead out fine but halfway through the gate would launch off into space. Turned out they were getting shocked through their shoes with a dodgy buried cable. Bless them for even trying to go out each day, either that or they weren't smart enough to refuse like your lad! Are the other horses shod as our barefooters didn't get zapped?
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None of the other horses seems to be bothered, except for one older boy who has always been scared of the fence! I tried him again this morning and he was a bit better. Although he still didn't want to go through it, I managed to get him through it in the end. It was a bit of a running-in-circles-mad-panic-canter but we got through it so hopefully that's a step in the right direction :)
 
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