Horse out of the field this morning! What am I going to do?!

I'd never trust electric fencing to keep a horse in. Only needs the energiser or battery stolen and you're buggared.

Put some post-and-rail up across the gap in the stonewall, and any other gaps.

Then use your lekkie fencing just internally and if he gets through that, it doesn't matter as there's permanent fencing all the way round the perimeter.
 
Teeheehee Haffies Rock I love that picture! I went to my friends field when she was at work to repair knocked down fence, there was long grass sapping all the power, I was touching it with my bare hands to start with then cautiously wafting sticks at it when I was done, then I lured all the horses over with treats to check it worked, as there is one serial fence wrecker and one who got out into an arable field as a result of his handy work... The field being next to the very main road on one side, and a motorway on the other :-O luckily there are some offices next door and a man confident enough to retrieve the pony with a belt (hero), but the zapping had to be done! Ours has a definite forcefield around it most of the time so my two are terrified of it.

OP I would also not be confident with electric at an outer perimeter, perhaps you could get two or three posts and ram them in, then put rails across, it doesn't have to be perfect post and rail, just some sort of solid barricade, it won't cost all that much for the materials from a timber merchant, but you could of course pay someone to do a long lasting job.
 
Have you thought about renaming him something other than *Loki*, god of mischief and mayhem?! (Can we have a picture of the cheeky beggar, OP?)
 
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/166042_10151594255770956_490122872_n.jpg

There he is the beggar! :mad: Is there a more mischievious namesake than Loki? May have to give him a middle name! :D

He was out again this morning, he'd mountaineered the muck heap and jumped onto the bank behind! :eek:

I will be investing in some post and rail because you're right, I can't rely on electric fence to keep him in, but I just can't afford it right now :(

Anyway I've spent the entire day re-doing our fencing since at one point he literally looked at me, stuck his head under the bottom strand and waltzed into the next paddock in the field! :mad: He knows when it's not on!
Could do with some more tape/ bunjee gates and posts now since my re-fortifications but that'll have to wait as it's just internal stuff and not nearly as important as keeping him actually in the field!

I've used Dingle12's idea with the cross tape in the middle and I've completely taped off the area from the gate, past the muck heap to the lowest part of the wall.

Tested it again to check it was still zapping - twice! Because the first time it wasn't on full power! :mad:

Went to pick up a much better 12V energiser and battery kit from my aunt today so I'm going to set that up tomorrow and hell mend him he's literally going to get the shock of his life! Mwah ha ha! :D

I've only got a lend of it till next month but it was really good of her to let me borrow it :)

So watch this space, if he escapes through that he will be free to good home or going to Mr Findus! ;)
 
sandi_84 said:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/166042_10151594255770956_490122872_n.jpg

There he is the beggar! :mad: Is there a more mischievious namesake than Loki? May have to give him a middle name! :D

He was out again this morning, he'd mountaineered the muck heap and jumped onto the bank behind! :eek:

I will be investing in some post and rail because you're right, I can't rely on electric fence to keep him in, but I just can't afford it right now :(

Anyway I've spent the entire day re-doing our fencing since at one point he literally looked at me, stuck his head under the bottom strand and waltzed into the next paddock in the field! :mad: He knows when it's not on!
Could do with some more tape/ bunjee gates and posts now since my re-fortifications but that'll have to wait as it's just internal stuff and not nearly as important as keeping him actually in the field!

I've used Dingle12's idea with the cross tape in the middle and I've completely taped off the area from the gate, past the muck heap to the lowest part of the wall.

Tested it again to check it was still zapping - twice! Because the first time it wasn't on full power! :mad:

Went to pick up a much better 12V energiser and battery kit from my aunt today so I'm going to set that up tomorrow and hell mend him he's literally going to get the shock of his life! Mwah ha ha! :D

I've only got a lend of it till next month but it was really good of her to let me borrow it :)

So watch this space, if he escapes through that he will be free to good home or going to Mr Findus! ;)
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You might want to considers horsemesh (small two inch squares too small for horses feet to get through, there's less wood to be chewed and it might work out cheaper), that's what I did for limbo Haffie Liesel once she was on anti lami diet. Worth considering....

 
sandi_84 said:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/166042_10151594255770956_490122872_n.jpg

There he is the beggar! :mad: Is there a more mischievious namesake than Loki? May have to give him a middle name! :D

He was out again this morning, he'd mountaineered the muck heap and jumped onto the bank behind! :eek:
Click to expand...

Hermes, maybe? (God of transitions and boundaries, patron of travelers, fleet of foot, and moves freely between all the worlds?!) ;-)

He's cute, OP. Good luck keeping him in! The horse mesh might be worth a look, though I've never seen it in action.
 
We had a pony that was a jumper and so my boss put up a second fence a few meters beyond, rigged it so it was live and then dropped the wire down so it couldn't be seen. I held the bad pony by the gate and on command released him - he promptly headed off to join his friends on the other side of the tape.

As he took off the boss lifted the dropped wire so it got him full square on his legs, he then let the wire go so that the pony didn't get tangled. We had to do that every year once the grass started to grow hard as the little rat would jump over the moment they were released into the paddock with the short grass.

Check all along the fence for any grass that may be touching the wire. In dry weather water the earth point so there is a good current. Keep batteries well topped up - they are very good at knowing when the battery is going flat.

Put a sheet on him and hang a dog choke chain from the front buckle - gives them a good one!
 
You either need to keep horse in stable until its fixed..
Double, tripple the electric fencing as in how many rows.
Put up wooden fencing or move.
Why is he doing it?
Bordom, hungry?
Does he need more stimulation, more exercise?
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
You might want to considers horsemesh (small two inch squares too small for horses feet to get through, there's less wood to be chewed and it might work out cheaper), that's what I did for limbo Haffie Liesel once she was on anti lami diet. Worth considering....
Click to expand...

That's a good idea, do you think it'll work out cheaper than post and rail?

wyrdsister said:
Hermes, maybe? (God of transitions and boundaries, patron of travelers, fleet of foot, and moves freely between all the worlds?!) ;-)

He's cute, OP. Good luck keeping him in! The horse mesh might be worth a look, though I've never seen it in action.
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Ha ha! I like it, Loki Hermes Menace face, it has a certain ring to it! ;)

blucanoo1990 said:
You either need to keep horse in stable until its fixed..
Double, tripple the electric fencing as in how many rows.
Put up wooden fencing or move.
Why is he doing it?
Bordom, hungry?
Does he need more stimulation, more exercise?
Click to expand...

We have no stables as we are renting a field, my mum does plan to build field shelters at some point but by then it's likely I'll have moved - moving sometime this year.

Moving field isn't really a viable option. It's a great field apart from that one bit of low wall and it was my own stupid fault for situating the muck heap so close to the bank. It has excellent hacking and is relatively away from any roads and as I can't drive it's great as it's only an hours walk away so I can take the dog too.
All other fields for rent atm are outside of the city and I'd have to get a bunch of busses and a train to get there so not great for an emergency situation.
Tbh apart from the spate of escaping (we've been there 5months now and this is the first problem) it's perfect for us.

We were going to put up post and rail but now will look into Lachlanandmarcus's idea too and which ever will work out more economical is the one we will do.

He's just an escape artist, he used to do it at our old yard too. The grass is always greener and all that.

We rotate them through 3 paddocks, moving them every month onto the next paddock over so they always have fresh grass and they are decent paddock sizes. You put him in the one with the lushest grass and by morning he's put himself in the bare paddock again :rolleyes: I think it's just because he knows the energiser isn't powerful so he can wander as he likes.

He plenty of grass so he's not hungry. He's not interested in hay at all now and hasn't been for a good few weeks, tried giving it in the field and they were all leaving it and when he's escaped he hasn't touched the big bale of hay we have for emergency bad weather

He has the company of 2 ponies (who he lords it over!) so he's not lonely. ETA: He also gets lots of human company too, I'm up there mon-fri and my sharer does mon, wed-fri, my neice goes up with my mum on a saturday and sometimes on sunday (her pony has KS and is unrideable so is a companion to our 2) so he's getting lots of grooming and fuss from us all.

He's being worked 5-6 days out of 7 consisting of:

60% hacking on various routes, lots of hill work and varied speeds (i.e not just bimbling along, he does lots of trot work and a fair amount of canter)

30% schooling - lots of transitions, serpentines, circles, trotting poles etc + we're starting to work on moving off the leg to the inside track and back out again and decreasing and increasing on circles in the hopes that that will start us on the path to leg yield etc

And 10% jumping. So I doubt it's boredom. He has a fairly varied work life I think?

UPDATE: After my re-fortifications yesterday and using Dingle12's cross-tape in the middle idea (so a straight strand on top, two strands in the middle making a cross between every fence pole and a 4th straight strand at the bottom) he was in the field this morning! YEAY! ;):D He'd obviously attempted an escape as one of the fence poles was at a jaunty angle and the top strand of tape had sagged ever so slightly but he must have got a zap and thought better of it! :D

I've put up the Uber-energiser that I borrowed from my cousin too so now the paddock is elecrified and so is the area from the gate to the low part of the wall and he definitely knows it's on as he wouldn't go near it! Ha ha! :D

At the end of this month my mum and I are going to split the cost of the energiser we borrowed from my cousin (good deal on ebay!) to tide us over till we can get permenent fencing for the gate - low part of the wall area but it looks like we've cracked it! :D

Thanks for all the tips and advice everyone! :D
 
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Where in relation to the fence line is your energiser? If it's at the end of the line the power has to go a lot further than if you site it half way along. Hope that makes sense!
 
mainpower said:
Where in relation to the fence line is your energiser? If it's at the end of the line the power has to go a lot further than if you site it half way along. Hope that makes sense!
Click to expand...

Yes it makes sense :D

The powerful one is closest to the gate because it has to be screwed onto a wooden post... thinking about it I could probably tie it to the plastic pole... hmmm... Anyway it's closest to the post but it's a fairly powerful that could electrify a whole paddock one and it only has to electrify 2 lines of tape atm so it's not that much of an issue right now. When we get another one (think we'll get 2 so we have the gate-wall area and paddocks on uber electric power) we'll do the entire rectangle paddock so it'll go in the middle :D

We're going to knock in a couple of cheapy posts at strategic points to help keep the fencing taught, plastic fence posts are great short term but with the tension to keep the tape from going slack they do tend to bend a bit eventually because there is nothing solid to attach them too :rolleyes:

We cant tie tape from the poles to the fence directly or we will cut the horses off from the water feeder.

Just been on to paint and drew up an outlay of what our field looks like, the dimensions are obviously not exact but it gives you a rough idea of how it's set up at the moment - scuse my childlike colour chart and drawing style ;):
TheFieldOutlay_zpsb9e858b8.png
 
Forgot to put in the wooden post at the corner of the electric tape between paddock 2 and 3 and the bungee gates going from that to the fence :rolleyes:

The new wooden post (will probably end up putting in more) will go at the point between paddock 1 and 2 - bunjee gates (for use when in paddock 1) will go from that to the fence.
 
I would very heartily recommend a solar powered energiser - it's like a fencer, battery and charger all in one and charges itself from the sun - no battery to lug about, get drained and recharge. Yes, it's more expensive but pretty much maintenance free!
Had mine just under a year (finally got fed up of yard staff leaving it switched on and trailing on the floor, draining my batteries!)
Gives a cracking belt :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/08-087-RU...3&prg=1011&rk=1&sd=250968240638&#ht_662wt_721
 
Looks like you might not need horsemesh and post and rail. If you were doing proper post and rail DIY that might be cheaper as horsemesh ideally should be put up properly by a contractor. However if you were getting a fencer to do the fence then I would get a quote for both, one advantage with horsemesh is that if you have to you can electrify it!! but thankfully haven't had to do that, mine knows when shes beat and we did it 4 feet high :-)))
 
jnb said:
I would very heartily recommend a solar powered energiser - it's like a fencer, battery and charger all in one and charges itself from the sun - no battery to lug about, get drained and recharge. Yes, it's more expensive but pretty much maintenance free!
Had mine just under a year (finally got fed up of yard staff leaving it switched on and trailing on the floor, draining my batteries!)
Gives a cracking belt :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/08-087-RU...3&prg=1011&rk=1&sd=250968240638&#ht_662wt_721
Click to expand...

Aye I've had a look at those too, they look great! At some point in the future I might end up getting one but money is (as always) tight ha ha! but it's something to save towards :)

lachlanandmarcus said:
Looks like you might not need horsemesh and post and rail. If you were doing proper post and rail DIY that might be cheaper as horsemesh ideally should be put up properly by a contractor. However if you were getting a fencer to do the fence then I would get a quote for both, one advantage with horsemesh is that if you have to you can electrify it!! but thankfully haven't had to do that, mine knows when shes beat and we did it 4 feet high :-)))
Click to expand...

I think a bit of post and rail would be good for the wall side of the field just purely because my lad is part mountain goat but we'd probably do it DIY - god help us! ;) We're definitely doing that low bit of wall to start with! :)
 
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