How close can one electric fence be to another?

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tye_bo

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My mare is sectioned off in a restricted paddock, my friends mare the same next door. She doesn't actually have her fence connected to a battery as the horse is too scared to go near it but I have mine wired up. They were a foot or so apart down one side but my friend says this is too close as she is concerned they will touch (I can't see how as the fencing wire is kept taught) and even if they don't touch in the wet she says the electric can jump. Is this true? Surely if it is true then with her fence not being on the worst that will happen is for a second her fence will be live? I can understand if her fence was live and they touched that's not good.
 
tye_bo said:
My mare is sectioned off in a restricted paddock, my friends mare the same next door. She doesn't actually have her fence connected to a battery as the horse is too scared to go near it but I have mine wired up. They were a foot or so apart down one side but my friend says this is too close as she is concerned they will touch (I can't see how as the fencing wire is kept taught) and even if they don't touch in the wet she says the electric can jump. Is this true? Surely if it is true then with her fence not being on the worst that will happen is for a second her fence will be live? I can understand if her fence was live and they touched that's not good.
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As long as hers is not connected the worst that can happen is it becomes live whilst touching, is that what she is objecting to? I have never known the power jump until we put in our mains fence when it made the barbed wire live despite being a minimum of 12 inches away, we had to earth the barbed wire to stop it being live.
 
Dolcé;10772596 said:
As long as hers is not connected the worst that can happen is it becomes live whilst touching, is that what she is objecting to? I have never known the power jump until we put in our mains fence when it made the barbed wire live despite being a minimum of 12 inches away, we had to earth the barbed wire to stop it being live.
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Bloomin hurts!! I once grabbed some barbed wire as I stepped back from a bull we were driving up a track, the farmer always electrifies his barbed wire arghhhh what a shock!! literally lol
 
If yours is battery run, whats the prob???it will only become live worse case, but that won't likely happen unless your is mains.. I'd be inclined to give friend some calmers!!..and its worth mentioning a non live fence is probably more dangerous than a live one..just for arguments sake!
 
Thanks all. I just wondered if I was missing something. Don't have the energy to argue with her. x
 
I don't understand the problem. If your friend is rightly, or wrongly concerned then why doesn't she move her own fence back a bit?
 
Wagtail said:
I don't understand the problem. If your friend is rightly, or wrongly concerned then why doesn't she move her own fence back a bit?
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Don't be daft Wagtail, she might lose 6 inches of her grazing if she does that!

DD, too right, very illegal too, I was on the phone to so many people who all denied it could possibly be jumping across, insisted I must have connected the fence to it without realising, finally found the answer on a canadian website. For anyone in the situation, a piece of galvanised wire attached to each strand of the barbed wire and into the ground solves the problem!
 
Lol... This made me chuckle... Her horse is scared of electric fence and won't go near it... *whispers* doesn't your mate know that this is what is supposed to happen with electric fence?!
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Lol!!!!!! Tell her to get a grip!! :D
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But only when the fence is switched off... :D

If the wires aren't actually touching it won't be a problem, and they would have to be very close indeed for a spark to jump from one to the other. Even if it did it would be very unlikely to damage the other fence's device (because it would induce only a brief, low voltage pulse on the driver side of the transformer).
 
Years ago a fellow livery phoned the vet and asked for a visit, for her horses heart to be checked, because it had touched the elec fence with it's nose.

people like her are the reason I now have my own private yard!
 
tye_bo said:
My mare is sectioned off in a restricted paddock, my friends mare the same next door. She doesn't actually have her fence connected to a battery as the horse is too scared to go near it but I have mine wired up. They were a foot or so apart down one side but my friend says this is too close as she is concerned they will touch (I can't see how as the fencing wire is kept taught) and even if they don't touch in the wet she says the electric can jump. Is this true? Surely if it is true then with her fence not being on the worst that will happen is for a second her fence will be live? I can understand if her fence was live and they touched that's not good.
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And the problem if any of this does happen is.........??? :confused::confused:
 
Thistle said:
Years ago a fellow livery phoned the vet and asked for a visit, for her horses heart to be checked, because it had touched the elec fence with it's nose.

people like her are the reason I now have my own private yard!
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lol ,my 17 yr old dog who has a grade III heart murmour, decided to have a drink from the water trough, but the electric fence had fallen into it and he got a mighty shock through his tongue, I didn't even think of calling the vet!! Naughty me! (poor doggy tho:()
 
Electricity CAN jump gaps. This is how farmers have been electricuted when tipping trailers before. The trailer doesn't necessarily touch the wires when its tipping but the electric "jumps" the gap thus farmer electricuted :( :eek:
However- that is very high voltages. Your common electric fence run of battery will not jump 12 inches - you'll be lucky if it jumps more than 10mm.
see this: http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/hv/msr/spk/index.html
 
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