Fencing safely for a foal

[Marigold4]

More questions!

Since the ground is currently soggy and good for putting in fence posts, I'm thinking of starting on putting in 3-rail post and rail round 2 acres of my 5 acre field for mare and foal to live in this summer. I have wooden posts at the mo with 2 lines of 40 mm electric tape. I could just put another lower line of electric tape to stop foal rolling under but i don't think that would be safe? So planning to move existing posts now while ground is soft to the right distances for rails later. I would leave the highest line of electric tape though to stop the mare rubbing on it?

Does this sound like a good plan?
Is post and rail the best way to go?
Any cheaper less labour intensive ideas?
How old will foal roughly need to be before it can cope with electric fencing?

TIA

 

[lizziebell]

Not cheaper, but horserail is well worth the investment and super safe.

 

[PurBee]

When mine was a foal i only had electric fencing. Plastic posts and tape/rope combo lines.
Breeder i asked, advised me to have 4 lines for foal to not go between, and only electrify the top line to prevent mare escape.

However, the reality was, the foal learned the lines were moveable and regularly would push head between lines to graze outside longer grass. He learnt the lines were ‘safe’, until one day when taller, he must have zapped his ears or top of neck on the top line, while reaching through to graze outside, and he then bolted, taking the lines with him, causing complete destruction of many posts, with lines strewn everywhere.
Luckily i was close by and mare called me, and i got them safe. He just had a tiny cut on his neck from tape pulled tight, but i realise it could have been much worse.
Luckily the pulled line pulled the live wire from the energiser out of the box and made all lines un-electrified, so he wasnt continually zapped. That was pure luck, but a design asset the wire is so thin and lightly soldered in, and if that hadnt happened, he would have kept running and really bound himself up in lines with worse injuries.

On reflection of that incident, i concluded its best a foal learns from the get-go that electric fence lines are to be avoided.
Having some lines off and top line on, teaches them that some lines are moveable to lean on/through and safe.
Either all lines on or off, not a combo of confusion, for a foal.
An electric unit with a mild 4kV zap would teach and not hurt as much as 8kV zap most large horses need.
The mare wont escape a 4V zap field knowing its on and will zap her foal. Many adult horses dislike a 4kV zap anyway.

That incident for my foal made him wary of grazing through the fencing and he never did it again. I realised if all lines were on from the start, the incident wouldnt have happened.

If i could do it again - i’d have firm wood posts - with 3 lines of that wide tape electric line you can get. Its about 3 inches wide. Then it can be pulled extra tight and firm, no sagginess. Lines on plastic posts always end up becoming loose and sag, because the plastic posts bend.

If thats too expensive/time consuming for you right now - have wooden corner posts and some wooden posts midway along the lengths so you have firm posts at key places you can pull lines tight against. The tighter the lines the safer it is - even if they clip the fence with a hoof by rolling, or their tail swooshes wont pull it easily etc. They can disentangle a hoof easier if the line is tight and stays in position than a line thats loose and follows them.
Have plastic posts along the straight lengths as guide posts but not tension posts.

The best fencing for foals would be post and rail or thick hedge boundaries. If you are going to be breeding more foals then consider that permanent type fence arrangement. If this is a one-off foal, making a strong tight fence line with a weak zap on all lines teaches a foal from the start ‘keep away from the fence’.

My foal is now master houdini with electric fencing and ive upgraded to a full pelt 8kv zap system when i definitely need to keep him in an area.
His foal experience taught him the zap hurts but is survivable, and sometimes the lines arent on strong so its worth a go to nip between. He’s exceptionally good at getting through 3 lines, i’ve seen his technique! His adult brain figured out by watching me how i get through the lines how he could do it! 4 strong tight rope lines stops him from even trying. Once the lines are loose, he’ll give anything a go, whether on or off.
Yet most horses get a slight zap once and that’s the end of their world. Like my mare. They wont go near. But my foal learnt the zap is a shock at first but doesnt actually kill. He’s a brave boy anyway, ridiculously brave, literally walks up to a bucket of fire curious what it is. I should have named him Curiosity!

I also have concluded horses think the zap is continuous - they dont know its pulsed, with quite a long gap of no electricity between zaps.
(My foal learnt this though hence he’s bravery with it, and trying to get through between pulses, which he checks with his whiskers)
They get one zap and back off immediately normally. Its rare they stand against it getting zapped. So they imagine electric fencing is far more dangerous than it is. Its an illusion of killer danger, but in reality its not that. We rely on them not figuring that out, otherwise houdini-type horses are born with this knowledge!

In conclusion: The scared horse of a brief nose zap is far more respectful of electric fencing than the horse thats had a continuous body zap and survived it.

 

[Marigold4]

Not cheaper, but horserail is well worth the investment and super safe.

Thanks for that idea. That looks way easier than post and rail. I'm looking on to it!

 

[TheMule]

Mine managed to have her filly under the fence- thank goodness I was there
But then they were absolutely fine with 3 strands of thick electric tape on wooden posts (the other 3 sides are post and rail/ hedges) I agree that it's best to have it on from the get go as soon as they're coordinated enough.

 

[Marigold4]

When mine was a foal i only had electric fencing. Plastic posts and tape/rope combo lines.
Breeder i asked, advised me to have 4 lines for foal to not go between, and only electrify the top line to prevent mare escape.

However, the reality was, the foal learned the lines were moveable and regularly would push head between lines to graze outside longer grass. He learnt the lines were ‘safe’, until one day when taller, he must have zapped his ears or top of neck on the top line, while reaching through to graze outside, and he then bolted, taking the lines with him, causing complete destruction of many posts, with lines strewn everywhere.
Luckily i was close by and mare called me, and i got them safe. He just had a tiny cut on his neck from tape pulled tight, but i realise it could have been much worse.
Luckily the pulled line pulled the live wire from the energiser out of the box and made all lines un-electrified, so he wasnt continually zapped. That was pure luck, but a design asset the wire is so thin and lightly soldered in, and if that hadnt happened, he would have kept running and really bound himself up in lines with worse injuries.

On reflection of that incident, i concluded its best a foal learns from the get-go that electric fence lines are to be avoided.
Having some lines off and top line on, teaches them that some lines are moveable to lean on/through and safe.
Either all lines on or off, not a combo of confusion, for a foal.
An electric unit with a mild 4kV zap would teach and not hurt as much as 8kV zap most large horses need.
The mare wont escape a 4V zap field knowing its on and will zap her foal. Many adult horses dislike a 4kV zap anyway.

That incident for my foal made him wary of grazing through the fencing and he never did it again. I realised if all lines were on from the start, the incident wouldnt have happened.

If i could do it again - i’d have firm wood posts - with 3 lines of that wide tape electric line you can get. Its about 3 inches wide. Then it can be pulled extra tight and firm, no sagginess. Lines on plastic posts always end up becoming loose and sag, because the plastic posts bend.

If thats too expensive/time consuming for you right now - have wooden corner posts and some wooden posts midway along the lengths so you have firm posts at key places you can pull lines tight against. The tighter the lines the safer it is - even if they clip the fence with a hoof by rolling, or their tail swooshes wont pull it easily etc. They can disentangle a hoof easier if the line is tight and stays in position than a line thats loose and follows them.
Have plastic posts along the straight lengths as guide posts but not tension posts.

The best fencing for foals would be post and rail or thick hedge boundaries. If you are going to be breeding more foals then consider that permanent type fence arrangement. If this is a one-off foal, making a strong tight fence line with a weak zap on all lines teaches a foal from the start ‘keep away from the fence’.

My foal is now master houdini with electric fencing and ive upgraded to a full pelt 8kv zap system when i definitely need to keep him in an area.
His foal experience taught him the zap hurts but is survivable, and sometimes the lines arent on strong so its worth a go to nip between. He’s exceptionally good at getting through 3 lines, i’ve seen his technique! His adult brain figured out by watching me how i get through the lines how he could do it! 4 strong tight rope lines stops him from even trying. Once the lines are loose, he’ll give anything a go, whether on or off.
Yet most horses get a slight zap once and that’s the end of their world. Like my mare. They wont go near. But my foal learnt the zap is a shock at first but doesnt actually kill. He’s a brave boy anyway, ridiculously brave, literally walks up to a bucket of fire curious what it is. I should have named him Curiosity!

I also have concluded horses think the zap is continuous - they dont know its pulsed, with quite a long gap of no electricity between zaps.
(My foal learnt this though hence he’s bravery with it, and trying to get through between pulses, which he checks with his whiskers)
They get one zap and back off immediately normally. Its rare they stand against it getting zapped. So they imagine electric fencing is far more dangerous than it is. Its an illusion of killer danger, but in reality its not that. We rely on them not figuring that out, otherwise houdini-type horses are born with this knowledge!

In conclusion: The scared horse of a brief nose zap is far more respectful of electric fencing than the horse thats had a continuous body zap and survived it.

 

[Marigold4]

Thanks, Purbee. That's a really useful post. Thanks for sharing experiences. It's difficult to know how to fence it safely - this will be my one and only foal so I don't want to spend a fortune, but then again it would be awful if the little thing got injured. ?

How old do you think they need to be before they can cope with adult fencing?

 

[Marigold4]

Mine managed to have her filly under the fence- thank goodness I was there
But then they were absolutely fine with 3 strands of thick electric tape on wooden posts (the other 3 sides are post and rail/ hedges) I agree that it's best to have it on from the get go as soon as they're coordinated enough.

View attachment 105288

That foaling must have made you somewhat anxious! Thanks for that advice, that's useful to know.

 

[Marigold4]

One side of the field is horse netting. I'm assuming I need to create an inner fence to keep the foal away from this?

 

[TheMule]

I do fence off my stock fencing with electric fence (I don’t have it in the nursery paddock but do in the field they go into when older) Once they’re a bit bigger and I know they’re good with the electric I just have my normal single line of electric rope over it to keep them off the fence line (5 months old for this lot)

 

[maya2008]

We used the thick 40mm Fieldguard electric fencing as it won’t wrap around a leg and cut through if they try to climb through it/take it with them etc.

 

[Marigold4]

We used the thick 40mm Fieldguard electric fencing as it won’t wrap around a leg and cut through if they try to climb through it/take it with them etc.

Thank you. That's very helpful. I'll take a look.

 

[Marigold4]

In the end, I have booked my mare in to the stud just down the road instead of spending £££ on foal safe fencing. She and the foal can stay there till autumn. Lots of other foals to play with. Stud is literally 2 mins drive away. In the meantime I'm updating my fencing with posts at shorter distances, 3 rows of electric tape held in with clamps rather than hooks, ready for their return. Seems like the best plan/compromise.

 

[TigerTail]

My nursey pen was one side horse net, one side pallet fenced and one side 4 lines of tape. They were all on from day 1 and she learnt v fast dont go near and Im pretty sure her mum taught her how to test if its on with her whiskers...

I made a nearly fatal error when I let them out in to the bigger area as she was cavorting around at 100mph like they do and didnt seem to see the green + white rope I had everywhere else, managed to wrap herself up in it like a fly in a spiders web in 3 seconds and was screaming her head off, I have never run across 4 acres so fast. Managed to calm her down enough to stop her pulling it tight and unwrap her. I then took all the rope away and replaced with tape all of which had break points in every line and was always on - didnt have a further issue.

We are horse net around three sides and pallet fenced on 4th - I had to nail some tall net on upright posts to stop locals leaning over/ feeding when the foal appeared grr.