Horse wearing Fly Rug can now lean on the electric tape - any suggestions?

[HappyNeds]

My beautiful black beast always gets attacked by flies more than everyone else, he gets very grumpy (understandably!) and kicks at the flies on his stomach - so he's now in fly rug and fly face mask from early morning until evening, which equals one happy horse.

However...he has discovered that he can now lean on the electric tape and reach the grass the other side (waiting to be cut for hay later) as the fly rug protects him from the shocks. Problem is all the time he's leaning on it he's weakening the battery, which means he just does it even more! Worried he'll have it right down soon and I'll find him stuffing his face in an enormous hay field.

The grass is always greener, eh?

I can't bring myself to not put his fly rug on in the daytime, as he gets so distressed by the flies.

I know ideally we would have lovely wooden post and rail fencing and this wouldn't matter - but that's not an option in our current setup. Frustrating as he's normally very respectful of the electric tape.

Just wondered if anyone else had come across this, and had any suggestions?

 

[Jnhuk]

Have read somewhere two suggestions:
- that if you loop some of the wide electric fencing tape round the front of his rug and next to his skin, that they will still get a belt from the fence or put conductive gel on his chest. Never tried either myself but maybe worth a shot

 

[HappyNeds]

Have read somewhere two suggestions:
- that if you loop some of the wide electric fencing tape round the front of his rug and next to his skin, that they will still get a belt from the fence

I can see the logic of that jnhuk, thanks. I have a very short piece of left-over wide electric tape (only about 1/2 meter), so I could thread it around the front of his rug where the buckles are, and see how that works. There isn't anything else in the field for him to catch it on, so I'm sure it would be safe.

He's normally very good with electric tape, but he's also smart and quick to take advantage of a situation - especially if food is involved!

 

[c2b]

I have sewn a strip of fencing tape up the front of my mares rug and tucked it inside the neck. Seems to have done the trick. Have had no problems since doing this.

 

[HappyNeds]

I have sewn a strip of fencing tape up the front of my mares rug and tucked it inside the neck. Seems to have done the trick. Have had no problems since doing this.

Brilliant!
This is why I love this forum, I'm stumped by a random problem but someone else has had it too and come up with something to solve it!

I can see the value of having the tape as a permanent feature of the rug without having to worry about any tied loop of tape moving. I'm quite handy with my sowing machine, so I'll tie the tape around tomorrow to make do, and then bring the rug home tomorrow evening and run the tape to the rug.
Thank you c2b

 

[Mariposa]

I don't have any advice, but this thread made me smile - I love how clever horses are, working out when they'll get shocked and when they won't!