Help! My horse won’t stay in his paddock.

[Mrs. Jingle]

Well if he jumped out of single paddock at previous place (even if it was less often, he still did it) and he is now jumping out of single paddock in his present home it doesn't take a genius to work out that single paddock living does not suit this horse. Apologies if I have missed something here.

 

[Birker2020]

Hi all,

I’m at a loss at what to do. I’ve owned my horse for 10 years and have never had this much of an issue. My horse has been on our current livery yard for around a year having been at one other yard before moving for the other 9 years.
He’s escaped more times than I can count and it’s causing a real issue for the owners and workers. The owners fencing is posts with electric wire, and I have two additional internal fences (1 round of 5ft fence posts and 1 round of 3ft fence posts) and a large battery.
He will be fine for a few weeks then all of a sudden either attempt to jump or straight up run through the fencing, breaking posts and wire.
It’s becoming costly and is causing me (and the owners) a great deal of stress as we’re both at a loss at how to move forward. He’s out in the morning and in at night and is 15.
It just seems to be getting worse and worse and I really don’t want to get kicked off the yard

Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer some solutions?

Pictures of todays destruction

I've never had any of mine wish to escape their paddock, the interaction from the others on three sides has been sufficient as has the grazing. I've even used the short posts which are around 75cms and never had any issues even for my 17.1hh. Our individual paddocks are lovely and big, I recently know of a horse who was paired with another and escaped from a paddock and the owner believes the fly mask fell over his eyes and he panicked. Could this be happening to yours?

 

[AbsPkr]

Even if he has horses all around him it might not be enough for him, it's not the same as being in with others. Mine needs another horse in the paddock/field with him, he will either go through fencing or it will look like he's coping but he actually becomes very anxious.

That’s an interesting perspective. I’ve got him on a calmer and that seems to have helped his general mood quite a bit, but never considered he may still be anxious.
I’ve asked the owner if she would be willing to try buddying him up with another horse, but ultimately it would be down to another livery who would be happy to do so.

 

[AbsPkr]

Well if he jumped out of single paddock at previous place (even if it was less often, he still did it) and he is now jumping out of single paddock in his present home it doesn't take a genius to work out that single paddock living does not suit this horse. Apologies if I have missed something here.

Yes he did jump out at the previous yard, however in the 9 years I was there he escaped around 3 times. The previous yard unfortunately had no permanent fencing (all plastic) and horses escaping wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

 

[equinerebel]

Is he only jumping out when that horse is bought in? Has he ever jumped out whilst that horse is still turned out beside him?

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Yes he did jump out at the previous yard, however in the 9 years I was there he escaped around 3 times. The previous yard unfortunately had no permanent fencing (all plastic) and horses escaping wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

Ok

 

[FlyingCircus]

I think everyone has more than covered the needing a buddy bit, so I'll focus on fencing related advice...

My Connie is an absolute bugger for jumping out and my Welsh is a bugger for running under (she lifts the posts out of the ground...).

I've mitigated (most of the time!) their escape by doing a few things:

- Very closely spaced fence posts, probably only a meter apart
- 5ft tall fence posts closest to horses
- 3ft tall fence posts 1m or so behind the 5ft tall fence posts (I find horses are less likely to read these as an oxer..!!)
- 3ft tall fence posts I put the tape at various heights so the jumper can't get a good measure of where to jump
- 5ft tall fence posts have 3 strands of electric, top line is consistent for height but the bottom 2 strands are different heights so again it's hard for them to tell where the fence isn't
- Attached short lengths of electric tape (not so it will short out fence) onto the main strands so that they blow in the wind/cause movement and make horses stay away

When I had my forester too who went through the fence (what a combo)...I also did another layer of tape that basically zig-zagged through all the other strands and made the fence more wall-like.

- Flying Circus, the owner of horses/t-rexes that are difficult to keep where they're put!

 

[poiuytrewq]

I think everyone has more than covered the needing a buddy bit, so I'll focus on fencing related advice...

My Connie is an absolute bugger for jumping out and my Welsh is a bugger for running under (she lifts the posts out of the ground...).

I've mitigated (most of the time!) their escape by doing a few things:

- Very closely spaced fence posts, probably only a meter apart
- 5ft tall fence posts closest to horses
- 3ft tall fence posts 1m or so behind the 5ft tall fence posts (I find horses are less likely to read these as an oxer..!!)
- 3ft tall fence posts I put the tape at various heights so the jumper can't get a good measure of where to jump
- 5ft tall fence posts have 3 strands of electric, top line is consistent for height but the bottom 2 strands are different heights so again it's hard for them to tell where the fence isn't
- Attached short lengths of electric tape (not so it will short out fence) onto the main strands so that they blow in the wind/cause movement and make horses stay away

When I had my forester too who went through the fence (what a combo)...I also did another layer of tape that basically zig-zagged through all the other strands and made the fence more wall-like.

- Flying Circus, the owner of horses/t-rexes that are difficult to keep where they're put!

Perhaps you could train one to lift as the other jumps, scuppering both attempts