Houdini pony

chaps89

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I’ve had a companion pony for 2 (or 3?) years now.
He has ALWAYS respected electric fencing in this time. Even when it’s not been on.
Until this week.
He seems to have discovered he can go over? through? fencing and now does so daily.
Sometimes the fence is intact, other times he appears to have bulldozed his way through (broken tape and posts - it’s all tensioned so he’s determined)
It’s a health issue as he is fat so I can’t have him on long grass unmuzzled.
They have a track around approx 3/4 of an acre which is now grazed down but with enough to pick at and they get soaked hay as well.
It’s doubly dangerous if he lets his very laminitis prone companion in with himas I can’t reliably catch that one.

I do have an energiser on it but it’s about 3 or 400 metre of tape so maybe it doesn’t go all the way around? (Blurb for the unit says it does more than that though and it’s a charged up car battery)
Also, the ground is like concrete here so although I’ve done my best with the earth stake, it could definitley be better.

Annoyingly the one he was a companion to used to field hop and I said NEVER again. So I’m used to building TALL Fort Knox type fencing but I feel like now he’s learnt he can, he’s going to just keep going.

Help?!
 

Pinkvboots

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It sounds like the electric supply is too weak for the amount of tape, I have one that will lean and just run through it if it's not giving a good zap, I have found on the bits he tends to do it I put something on the tape so it shorts it out a bit and it clicks, that really works and keeps him away from it.

Mine is run off the mains so it is really strong you could try adding another energiser or get the ground wet near the earth and really get it in the ground and keep wetting it.
 

Highmileagecob

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No solutions I am afraid, but I share your pain! In his younger days mine has stepped neatly between two strands of barbed wire to access someone else's field, (he's 14hh), whilst field mates hurtle up and down the boundary. He has hooked a leg over the post and rail bar and pulled it down, scratched his backside on the electric fence until it was low enough to step over, and when Heras panels were put up, he backed up to them and backed, and backed until he sat on the panel, which tipped away from him, and he sat down like a dog and rolled backwards over the panel. It appeared to stop when he had to wear a grazing muzzle 24/7. Maybe he had to concentrate on eating what was in front of him!
 

Errin Paddywack

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you could try adding another energiser
I don't think you can run two energisers on a fence. A farmer we knew said for his sheep he used a live top and bottom line and a blank line in the middle to act as an earth if they leant on it, gives a better shock. I would make sure it is tensioned tight to solid posts at each end and would wrap the tape round each post so that it doesn't just run through. Also I try to make sure that I connect each line to the others so that the power does a circuit, not just straight lines. Get a decent earth stake and knock it in to a good depth then soak the ground round it. Good luck.
 

Pinkvboots

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I don't think you can run two energisers on a fence. A farmer we knew said for his sheep he used a live top and bottom line and a blank line in the middle to act as an earth if they leant on it, gives a better shock. I would make sure it is tensioned tight to solid posts at each end and would wrap the tape round each post so that it doesn't just run through. Also I try to make sure that I connect each line to the others so that the power does a circuit, not just straight lines. Get a decent earth stake and knock it in to a good depth then soak the ground round it. Good luck.

I don't know maybe you can't but I do think a proper deep earth stake makes all the difference so I agree with you there.
 

Errin Paddywack

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Just googled this:- Only one charger should be used on a single electric fence line. Using two chargers on the same line will damage both chargers, and pose a hazard to people and animals that come in contact with the fence.
 

Gloi

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Just googled this:- Only one charger should be used on a single electric fence line. Using two chargers on the same line will damage both chargers, and pose a hazard to people and animals that come in contact with the fence.
You don't put two energisers on one line, you put one on the top tape and one on the lower tape and make sure they aren't touching.
Regular buckets of water on the earth posts
My old pony got hold of the part of the post you put your foot on and pulled them out ? little devil. Wound the tape Down the posts but he was an expert at finding any weakness.
 
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chaps89

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Just googled this:- Only one charger should be used on a single electric fence line. Using two chargers on the same line will damage both chargers, and pose a hazard to people and animals that come in contact with the fence.
Thankyou, I thought that was the case but useful to have it confirmed.

I added an extra 2 strands of the high performance tape, and have the energiser on a lower strand now. I’m away today and haven’t heard yet if that defeated him or not.
Pouring water over the earth is a good shout and I’ve put a call in to my mechanic to see if he has a bigger battery I can have.
I also realised in an ideal world I’d have my posts spread less far apart - however there is only about 2 inches of soil then it’s rock - makes for a lovely well draining field in winter but an absolute beggar for putting posts in, so I’m trying to avoid going down that route if I can!

Said horror yesterday - I gave in and turned them out on the grass, figuring at least they had their muzzles on this way. Apparently it’s too hard to eat with a muzzle on and he was too full from a night of gorging the night before so he stood doing an RSPCA case impression of worlds hardest done by pony ?

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