Horse escaping from electric fencing??

Leo Walker

Leo Walker

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I'm only asking about this out of curiosity, I have new accommodation lined up, but I dont know if what has happened is actually possible or not!

Anyway, big thug of a cob, 14.2hh on his tippy toes but proper HW., Hes had so much groundwork done its ridiculous, but his default setting is still thug. He can do a very poor spanish walk, will move back and over from a finger point etc, but if there is even a sniff of food he will just walk in a straight line to it, knocking people out of the way like skittles. I am not proud of this and we are working on it, but I know my horse and thats who he is right now. He has past form for busting out of non electrified fence, but it turns out he was stood in for hours with nothing to eat and was HANGRY!

Anyway, at his current yard he has broken out of his paddock on occasion if I have left the electric off. He has always left a trail of destruction in his wake, Snapped posts, snapped tape, basically the fencing was destroyed. He did it as he was in a starvation paddock 2 sides off the paddock are foot long grass. Its always been when I am a blumming idiot and hadn't set the fence up right so it wasn't electrified. But the fence is now electrified and double fenced

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks. Hes been found outside his paddock on 3 occasions. 1 was due to the battery running out so totally my fault and the fence was totally trashed. But since then he has broken out twice. The fence is electrified and checked with a voltage tester and is giving a reasonable wack. He is terrified of it!

He now has a double line of fencing. First one at 3ft6 with a 2foot second tape, then a second one about 5 feet away at 4foot, then 3ft6, then 2foot. It looks horrible but its fort knox for horses!

Anyway, when he has gotten out the last 2 times when its been electrified he fencing has been left totally in tact, Not even a post moving. The YO is telling me that he is putting his head under the fence and lifting the tape before going through. Which sounds almost feasible, except theres another tape lower down, then he would be in a 5foot gap facing a 4foot fence with 3tapes. He would just stomp through it if that was the case. And hes also terrified of electric fence...

He is incredibly food orientated, and his paddock is bare, but the gap between is full of foot long grass. I have turned him out for 15mins on the foot long grass and he leaves his paddock and its head down eating and he barely shuffles a foot!

None of this really matters as the yard was fab when he was dieting hard but we are now at the point we can go to a "normal" yard but I just cant decide if he is a massive knob, or if this i totally feasible, or if there is something else going on!

I've only posted this as my non horsey OH but does a lot of the horsey chores. He is spitting feathers and thinks there is some big conspiracy theory with people letting the cob out, mainly as he works nights and has to go up and retrieve him as I commute to work and am too far away to do anything. I'm dubious as I know my horse and his bad points inside out, so its totally not outside the realms of possibility, its just massively unlikely given the YOs totally insane reaction today. But it doesnt matter to me right now and I am fed up of talking about it with him :lol:
 
Pearlsasinger said:
We had a Section A who would roll under fencing, so low that you would not have thought it possible.
Click to expand...

Hes not really fat anymore but he definitely couldn't do that, and he wouldn't anyway as his default setting is to just stomp through things, unless its electrified then the big pansy is terrified :lol:
 
We had a 17hh at work, who would tackle a 2 strand electric fence by confidently jumping THROUGH the gap. It was on wooden posts, so the posts stayed intact. He kind of lowered his head, flung his feet through with his head, and the body sort of followed. He left the tapes a bit flappy when he had done.

It got him in the end, where he mis-timed and got caught and made a mess of his legs. After that it was post and rail only!
 
When he is found where is he? If on the grass I would suspect that someone 'feels sorry' for him and is sneaking him extra grass
 
FrankieCob said:
I'm only asking about this out of curiosity, I have new accommodation lined up, but I dont know if what has happened is actually possible or not!

Anyway, big thug of a cob, 14.2hh on his tippy toes but proper HW., Hes had so much groundwork done its ridiculous, but his default setting is still thug. He can do a very poor spanish walk, will move back and over from a finger point etc, but if there is even a sniff of food he will just walk in a straight line to it, knocking people out of the way like skittles. I am not proud of this and we are working on it, but I know my horse and thats who he is right now. He has past form for busting out of non electrified fence, but it turns out he was stood in for hours with nothing to eat and was HANGRY!

Anyway, at his current yard he has broken out of his paddock on occasion if I have left the electric off. He has always left a trail of destruction in his wake, Snapped posts, snapped tape, basically the fencing was destroyed. He did it as he was in a starvation paddock 2 sides off the paddock are foot long grass. Its always been when I am a blumming idiot and hadn't set the fence up right so it wasn't electrified. But the fence is now electrified and double fenced

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks. Hes been found outside his paddock on 3 occasions. 1 was due to the battery running out so totally my fault and the fence was totally trashed. But since then he has broken out twice. The fence is electrified and checked with a voltage tester and is giving a reasonable wack. He is terrified of it!

He now has a double line of fencing. First one at 3ft6 with a 2foot second tape, then a second one about 5 feet away at 4foot, then 3ft6, then 2foot. It looks horrible but its fort knox for horses!

Anyway, when he has gotten out the last 2 times when its been electrified he fencing has been left totally in tact, Not even a post moving. The YO is telling me that he is putting his head under the fence and lifting the tape before going through. Which sounds almost feasible, except theres another tape lower down, then he would be in a 5foot gap facing a 4foot fence with 3tapes. He would just stomp through it if that was the case. And hes also terrified of electric fence...

He is incredibly food orientated, and his paddock is bare, but the gap between is full of foot long grass. I have turned him out for 15mins on the foot long grass and he leaves his paddock and its head down eating and he barely shuffles a foot!

None of this really matters as the yard was fab when he was dieting hard but we are now at the point we can go to a "normal" yard but I just cant decide if he is a massive knob, or if this i totally feasible, or if there is something else going on!

I've only posted this as my non horsey OH but does a lot of the horsey chores. He is spitting feathers and thinks there is some big conspiracy theory with people letting the cob out, mainly as he works nights and has to go up and retrieve him as I commute to work and am too far away to do anything. I'm dubious as I know my horse and his bad points inside out, so its totally not outside the realms of possibility, its just massively unlikely given the YOs totally insane reaction today. But it doesnt matter to me right now and I am fed up of talking about it with him :lol:
Click to expand...
What size posts???

I use the 5 ft posts now and make 5 - 6 strands going across and I use the cord now not the tape, lowest strand is about 8 inches about from the ground and the top strand is the highest it can go - works for the welsh A & B
 
Muzzle him, it's so much easier, mine unless I double taped high and low, would limbo out to the yummy grass on the other side! Now he's muzzled, I made the hole a bit bigger on muzzle, but he's great with it, now he can go out within mates...
 
WelshD said:
When he is found where is he? If on the grass I would suspect that someone 'feels sorry' for him and is sneaking him extra grass
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that! I dont want to be paranoid, and it is totally possible he is getting out himself but I just cant see how such a ridiculous clumsy oaf is doing it without so much as pushing a post out of line. Hes a one cob wave of destruction generally never mind if he thought a mere fence was between him and food :lol:

Doesnt really matter, its just really annoying me. I'm half tempted to set up CCTV so I can figure out whats going on!
 
I've found with Houdini ( Kevin) that the lower the fencing the better. When I was stringing it high he developed the head and neck under, foot on the lower strand, away we go technique. This has meant the removal of fly rug ( he was using the padded neck area to absorb the shock) and the purchase of thicker tape, strung at a lower height. This seems to have done the trick. My tester goes off a good two foot away and it seems Kev's not willing to take a risk with it. Although I'm still not sure how he was sliding all 17 hands of Clydesdale self through the gap, without getting any sort of shock!?


The only indication I had of how he was getting through was slightly stretched tape. Then I caught him at it.
 
Apologies for laughing at your cob's badness, OP! But it's pretty funny .... and he certainly has an agenda!

I think CCTV would be very interesting to watch. My friend and I thought about it when we kept finding our boys in together. Mine was the jumping sort, so the tape was pretty high and we *thought* the lower tape was too low for her horse, who definitely wouldn't jump. Nope, it wasn't. Under he limbo'd, and he's nearly 16 hands too!

Unfortunately, a hungry (greedy) horse thinks a second or two of pain is worth the gain!
 
I saw this set up even before the second fence was added and I'd be amazed if he were getting through it leaving every post and bit of tape unruffled
 
I was going to suggest limbo too.
We had a *****land who could squeeze through a hole in sheep netting that was made by foxes. He literally got down and crawled. Once his head was through the rest just followed. Only found out how he did it, as the then yard owner caught him in the act one day!
 
Most horses that escape electric fencing do so by either flipping it over their back, or stepping over it, usually near a post so the post bends but pings back up.
The best way to do electric is by using occasional wooden posts or to make sure it is properly tensioned so that there is no give whatsoever. That way, they can't push it or flip it and if they try, they get a zap because they can't move it quick enough.
If you have any bends or corners use a wooden post and use as many posts a possible...the more the better so the gap between is small.
 
Hes moving on Monday so its not a huge deal, just annoying that I dont know whats going on. I investigate things for a living, I dont like mysteries that I cant work out :lol: Hes back out there tonight, it will be interesting to see if hes still locked up tomorrow.
 
I've not read the whole thread just OPs so:

I have a pony that could get out of any electric fencing. I'm forced to use the massive elective poles and 4 bands of electric tape (too low, he jumps, too high he crawls under, if there is a top and bottom wire only he goes through the middle) but even with this, he could still jump over it. Then a livery said how she had a pony that wouldn't respect electric fencing, so she tied a carrot to the live fence.

I'm ashamed to say that I did this, pony was fine obviously but he's never tried to escape over the top again. Touchwood. I thought it was extremely mean - but I was running out of options, he broke his leg as a 4 yr old weeks after me buying him, and I couldn't risk a refracture.
 
Well he didnt escape last night and the fence wasnt even electrified as I forgot to turn it back on when we left, duh! So I now strongly suspect there was third party interference of some sort. New yard is all post and rail so hopefully the electric fence drama will be a thing of the past :)
 
Probably was let out but horses will escape if determined enough. My horse knows how to get under electric fencing no problem at all and he is 16.2hh and not at all coordinated. His new fencing is proper fencing and is hooked to the mains so the zap is sore now compared to battery but the YO says he has seen him going along the fence looking for a weakness at times. That is just greediness as his field is massive and full of grass he isn't starving.
 
Houdini pony here manages to get out if there is less than two rows of 5 strands of fencing. It has worked for ages now it is on the mains so never goes off
 
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