Help, I have a Houdini! Electric fence advice please!

[suffolkmare]

Hi, my tubby native is on “fat camp” with his very rotund buddy...but my boy likes a challenge and is good at escaping. He can get rid of a grazing muzzle with a head collar over and plaited into his forelock 🙄 so I’m going to have to get some electric kit, and would like recommendations. How good are the “starter kits” and what makes of energiser are best?? He is in at night, him and buddy are turned out in a small pen with borrowed(temporarily) electric tape and energiser. We don’t yet have any posts or tape of our own so that’s why I’m looking at kits. Thank you...scones and jam for reading this!

 

[Nudibranch]

All you need are posts, tape, an earth stake and an energiser - I'd just pop down to the local feed store tbh. Although I really, really recommend the all in one solar powered energisers (dont faff about with separate units these days). I have a Rutland one and it's fab. Very portable and holds charge for 3 weeks even without light so no chance of losing power. Does 2km of fence and won't drain flat if it accidentally earths against long grass, etc). Just make sure whatever you get is chained securely, or use a security box, and postcode it visibly.

FWIW the Gallagher posts and tape are more robust than the likes of MVF. I prefer the 5 foot ones as well as they give you more options and work well with sheep (the woolly ******** will trash 3 ft fencing). If you live in a windy spot like we do, consider the thin rope. The thin stuff WILL break under force but not in high winds like the tape.

 

[ester]

Earth, earth and more earth is usually what people forget, especially when it is dry weather.

It depends on how many cores your tape has and total length of fencing. When you do buy your own tape it's the one thing I would spend on, I've never had good, cheap tape. I probably prefer my gallagher tape, and my hotline posts. The kits tend to be made up of cheaper components to keep the price down.
Re. Makes of energiser hotlines last a long time and take a lot of abuse (I've seen some very abused ones), I do also have mole valley own brand these days as you got more wallop for your money. It sounds like you aren't going to want to do much of a run though so most options will be sufficient, and you can pick which battery type to go for. I think solar has improved a lot since I was last selling fencing, my own hotline takes 6/9/12v batteries which gives us options if you don't want a separate battery (though we did have an invasion of earwigs which screwed up the internal battery one year)

 

[vhf]

You may find you have to experiment a bit with height and number of strands if they're really determined! They reach under, through, over... jump it, run through it, roll under it...
My TB decided to walk through the "gate" the other night because I'd somehow let it sag to knee height. Cue stampeding mares, poles and tape everywhere and dog having a barney, all at 10.30pm in pitch black... It must have been a deliberate act, because I was there to witness it and she was walking INTO the starvation area from her side!

 

[Hack4fun]

Have a look on Facebook Marketplace and even ebay - there are some bargains to be had. Make sure that you get a decent battery - an old car battery does not work well in my experience - get a quality leisure battery.

 

[rabatsa]

I have several hotline units. They will run from a leisure battery or the mains. The one on the mains runs 24/7/365 and the others not as long as they go where the sheep go to keep them off the hay fields.

I have used my electric to make a track round the perimeter of a field for the fatties.