Really novice electric fence question

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Not_so_brave_anymore

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I can see my fields from my house, and the white electric fencing is sooooo ugly! I'm thinking of gradually switching over to green, but I'm just a bit worried: can horses see the green clearly?! I don't want the poor animals to be wandering into the electric all the time! ( yes this is the first time I've kept ponies at home, yes I'm overthinking every tiny decision ???)
 
Ugly? I think white looks quite smart when done properly :D
Space the posts evenly, make your lines straight, put your tape/rope through the same height holes and keep it correctly tensioned (so no sagging!), use matching tape/rope, mmmm... Yes, I perhaps do spent a bit too much time making my electric fencing look smart and uniform haha!
 
Nasicus said:
Ugly? I think white looks quite smart when done properly :D
Space the posts evenly, make your lines straight, put your tape/rope through the same height holes and keep it correctly tensioned (so no sagging!), use matching tape/rope, mmmm... Yes, I perhaps do spent a bit too much time making my electric fencing look smart and uniform haha!
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I guess I just mean that it sticks out like a sore thumb- it just really catches my eye when I look out the window! It's *fairly* neat, and hardly saggy at all....yet!!
 
Have kept mine at yards with tasteful real wooden fenceposts and green electric tape all set up and tensioned like a permanent wire fence would be and it worked well and looked good. Horses treated it like any other fence so not aware of any problems although I guess if it were temporary fencing that moved about there may be more the element of surprise were they not able to see it so well. My experience is that most horses know damn well what an electric fence looks like and keep well clear but perhaps I'm lucky there in not having thuggish ones that barge through it rudely.
 
Not_so_brave_anymore said:
Huh- I never would have guessed that?! Hhhm- off to research (Google indiscriminately) how they figured that out!
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Dont know how field guard come to those conclusions. Wiki says that horses have colour vision to an extent, but are more red/green colour blind. They require contrasting colours to tell things apart from the scenery, hence why jumps are painted a range of colours.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_vision

So a green tape against green grass and green hedgerows wouldnt provide much contrast would it?

I have green tape but was warned by a old timer breeder to not use it, due to them not seeing as clear as white. Theyd see it up close but if theyre running, they wouldnt necessarily see it until they got to it.
I now use tight white rope as it doesnt flap and stretch as much as tape does.

The deer near me chew on electric fence rope of fields not being used so are not electrified. They chew through the wires too! The deer at night wreck it, barge through it, break stakes and cost me a fortune rather than the horses who leave it alone.
 
Nasicus said:
Ugly? I think white looks quite smart when done properly :D
Space the posts evenly, make your lines straight, put your tape/rope through the same height holes and keep it correctly tensioned (so no sagging!), use matching tape/rope, mmmm... Yes, I perhaps do spent a bit too much time making my electric fencing look smart and uniform haha!
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You obviously don't live anywhere near me. Beautifully tensioned fencing tape doesn't last long in our weather, the damned stuff stretches in the wind and rain and starts flapping.

OP, I wouldn't use green tape incase the horses run into it.
 
When i first took over our field it was full of green tape and very thin wire/rope stuff. I took it all down and replaced with orange tape. I have wooden posts and the tape is tight so it doesn't flap about in the wind. I think it looks quite smart and I'm quite proud of my straight lines lol.

The orange strangely doesn't stand out too much or look an eye sore to the neighbours, but I can see the fencing in the dark to check it is all still up. With the green I had to walk the fencing to make sure it was still there as from a distance I couldn't see it.
 
I have some green posts which I really don't like because I struggle to see them, especially if one gets knocked over.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
You obviously don't live anywhere near me. Beautifully tensioned fencing tape doesn't last long in our weather, the damned stuff stretches in the wind and rain and starts flapping.

OP, I wouldn't use green tape incase the horses run into it.
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I didn't state it in my post, but my preference is for rope because tape does exactly that haha
 
I know lots of people are very happy with rope but just mentioning that I don't use it having witnessed quite a few accidents with it (as it doesn't break unless you include breaking spots deliberately). I'd rather fix or replace tape that will give way in an emergency :)
 
I have a mains supplied fence so they never go anywhere near it. I use the very thin tape on reels so you can always tighten it, and use metal Clipex posts at odd interevals on long runs and corners. We are very exposed so get all the wind, you do have to keep redoing the plastic posts as they gradually get blown over.
Never used green tape, white keeps the cows in as well. They really respect the polywire once they have a zap, as the if you get 9 tins in it almost the slightest touch and they get a zap. If the white really offends you I would use that as it will breaks unlike rope but once they are trained they will respect it. You need it on reels as otherwise it is the devil to keep unknotted.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ELECTRIC...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
 
milliepops said:
I know lots of people are very happy with rope but just mentioning that I don't use it having witnessed quite a few accidents with it (as it doesn't break unless you include breaking spots deliberately). I'd rather fix or replace tape that will give way in an emergency :)
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I have break away spots for exactly this! I cut the rope and then reattach using rope connectors, preferably the ones with wing nuts so I can tighten them as much as I can by hand. Holds fine when the rope is tensioned, and gives way should a horse barrel through it (and my old mare did just that because she was a greedy old bag who realised that the zap was very temporary, but the grass on the other side lasted until the human came up and started swearing).
 
i had green tape, it is wider than the white and i didnt have any problems with the horses breaking through or not seeing it when galloping about, however one of them always knew if the battery had run out and used to walk through it..thats why i bought battery testers and checked it every day
 
We use this, it's barely visible at a distance to the human eye but the horses can see it clearly. It looks so much nicer and neater than white or green tape and just blends in. We have four horses including a Shetland and use this tape to split paddocks with no problems.
 

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I've bought a field for my horses and have now got to put the fencing up. Tbh I wish I'd left a bit more money for the fencing and could afford post and rail but I can't. So I'm thinking about posts and field guard tape. Does anyone have experience of this?
 
We bought some small wooden posts and did green tape fencing. It looks smart, the posts don't break and the ponies respect it. We put the posts in ourselves, wasn't difficult. That would be my recommendation.
 
Thanks for your reply.. Mine don't push on electric fencing and as long as there is a good shock going through it. Hopefully they'll be OK. To complicate things there is a footpath running along one side of the field, Thankfully not through the middle though.
 
I use wooden posts and polywire, and green posts if I've needed temporary. Randomly the colour least visible from the house is orange polywire! No idea why but there you go. Horses seem to see it just fine.
 
[QUOTE="
B) Electric rope not as bad as tape because its thinner and doesn't flap about as much, so you don't notice it as much as tape
[/QUOTE]

Many of us use electric fencing but do we really give much thought to what we use & why we use it?

I have always been an advocate of rope, it is sturdy, it looks neat & tidy, easy to work with, carries a charge well & doesn't flap about in windswept paddocks. All this is true but I have now done a complete U Turn due to a horrific accident.

We turned out one of our horses in a paddock surrounded by electric rope fence, the power was off at the time. He pawed the ground & decided to role but he was too close to the fence. He rolled over, caught the rope fencing, spooked himself, & charged off across the paddock. He caught the rope around his hind leg & ripped out the fencing, plastic posts & a couple of wooden posts as he went. Fortunately he didn't receive much of an injury, a couple of grazes was about all.

Biggest problem was my wife was in the paddock, the fencing rope got yanked around the back of her legs, dragging her to the ground. The injuries to her legs are horrendous. She has cuts, bruising & a large amount of skin removed behind her knees. She can hardly walk & is on pain killers & a nurse is dressing her wounds daily.

I made enquiries about the breaking strain of the rope, it's 383kg, bloody hell. I have now replaced the rope with tape, still with 6 conductor wires but this has a breaking strain of around 75kg.

I appreciate this is a long post but I thought it would warn people of the dangers that may not have been considered.

At the present time we are using green fence tape because it isn't such an eyesore as the white. The horses have no issues seeing it, we've experienced no problems so go for the green.
 
Having seen the results of a degloving caused by electric rope I will never, ever use it and when I was on a livery yard that used it, I put my own internal tape so my horse went nowhere near it. Terrible stuff, tbh as bad as barbed wire for injuries as it will not break (your horse's leg will though).

12mm tape for me, 2 or 3 strands with 4ft posts and solar electric. Proper gate handles and reels, lovely and tight and looks smart (I have green and white tape, usually top strand white, bottom green).
 
Interesting post. I’ve just bought a whole heap of green 5ft posts and the wider green tape to internal fence our large fields so we can strip graze them. I did have rope but was unhappy about using it with plastic posts and I’m glad I went with my instincts on this having read the above! That said I do use rope with extenders on the top of our post and rail fencing to give a little more height for my 18hh Irish Draught. So far it’s not been an issue.

My main question though, is how do you get your plastic post fence lines straight? I cannot see straight to save my life when putting them in but from a distance I am obsessive about them being straight and it drives me mad so any tips gratefully received! Thanks ?

@Toby_Zaphod i hope your wife makes a good recovery. That must have been horrific for her.
 
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