Recommend me a fence to save the pony from a bullet

windand rain

windand rain

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We have a laminitic pony who is penned to protect him from the grass but he keeps getting out or the bigger girls break the fence and he follows them.
Exsisting fence is mains electric rope on both plastic temporary and permanent wooden posts with the usual insulators etc. He doesnt jump but will push through given half a chance. So need a fence that wil put up with being pushed around is not dangerous tried wire but it nearly cut his leg off when he pushed through and wrapped it round, post and rails is not an option as its not our land. Needs to be smartish as its in the landlords view line. Is there any panel fencing that is ok but not too ugly
 
You can get a plastic rail which can be electrified. It looks like post and rail from a distance. Stud rail is one make that comes to mind.
 
Antw23uk said:
Shoot him, miserable life to lead :(
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Believe me I have considered it seriously but 9 months of the year he is fine happy with the other two it is just when the strip grazing gets to be long grass one side and mud the other the temptation gets too much for all of them. I hate keeping him out of the herd but its either that in flush times or PTS which is a bit unfair as it is only for parts of the year
 
windand rain said:
We have a laminitic pony who is penned to protect him from the grass but he keeps getting out or the bigger girls break the fence and he follows them.
Exsisting fence is mains electric rope on both plastic temporary and permanent wooden posts with the usual insulators etc. He doesnt jump but will push through given half a chance. So need a fence that wil put up with being pushed around is not dangerous tried wire but it nearly cut his leg off when he pushed through and wrapped it round, post and rails is not an option as its not our land. Needs to be smartish as its in the landlords view line. Is there any panel fencing that is ok but not too ugly
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I use 5ft electric fencing and do either 5 or 6 strands on it going from the bottom one to the top, job done no more escape ponies
 
How good is your energiser?

would he push through electrified net while getting a shock!? If he has a lot of coat it can also be worth clipping their fronts when dealing with electric, assuming not rugged, if not wrap 40mm wide elect tape round front of rug.

Or live pig tail posts - usually for cattle as they can't push them without a shock and you can add insulators lower down.
 
Put a muzzle on him so if he does get through there is a limit to how much grass he can get. If he is wearing a rug put tin foil on the chest, or wearing a length of electric fencing tape dangling from a head collar can give a meaningful zap that might make him think twice.
 
I would have all wooden posts, and the middle rail would also be wood. That way they are delayed enough in pushing through to get a meaningful zap off the electric (as long as it is functioning correctly - for this the testers are invaluable, 6,000 volts).

I appreciate that the paddock will then be static in size.
 
thank you for the ideas muzzle is not an option he gets a nasty rash on his face from them. its not him thats trashing the fence he just takes advantage I guess I was looking for a neater way than loads of tape/rope, wire nearly finished him. New unit on today new rope too so will see. He is sound all the time but is at real risk if he gets lami again and spring and autumn are a nightmare incase he escapes. I do believe in quality of life over quantity so will keep him as safe as I can for as long as he can be a pony most of the time
 
Double row so that the horses on the other side (I think you meant he is only one sectioned off?) have to trash two... Like a walkway in between? Or, if you on have separate summer/winter fields with permanent fencing can you move his pen to the "wrong' one and still have them close enough?
 
Have you tested the fence to check that it is delivering a decent shock? If not, the design and construction needs to be looked at carefully. The tiny wires that carry the electricity inside tape or rope can break. The earth may not be sufficient. The fence may be shorting out. Etc.

I think there is about 1,000v going through my electric fences at the moment which is sufficient to keep a dozen Highlands contained. They won't go near it because they have been trained to expect worse!

If steel wire is kept taut, it is as safe as anything else for fencing horses in, but if it gets slack it can indeed get wrapped around a leg and cause severe damage. That can happen with rope too, or even conventional stock proof fencing. Wires, rope, or tape should be kept tight at all times.
 
Agree with dry rot. It doesn't sound to me like it's giving a decent shock as mains connected should be strong enough to keep him from pushing on it.

My horse used to escape all of the time from battery powered ones because it was usually weak and he didn't care he would just take it. He stopped destroying the fence though and instead just climbed through it.

New yard is mains and he has had a few shocks but it makes him gallop off or leap into the air away from it. That doesn't mean he still doesn't try his luck the YO spotted him going around the fence looking for a weakness but he won't find one haha. He seems to have given up though now which is good. Only took him 6 months of trying! Sometimes I do wonder if he is intelligent...
 
Add more posts...the more the better...and make sure it is tensioned properly. The trouble with rope is its heavy and tend to sag more than tape or wire and that makes it easy to push over and avoid zaps. It needs to be so taut that there is no give at all.
Have you asked about post and rail? Much nicer to look at than electric fence and you can take it down whenever you want.
Post and rail with electric on it is the best combo.
 
They are all in the mud strip together I am trying to keep them slim and him safe but that means the highlands are able to jump or climb through the fencing it Has 10000 volts through it according to the meter but the smart girl knows it pulses so rams into it when its on the off phase. I really was looking for something a bit tidier than rope but will build his pen on wooden posts with tensioned rope I think. The wire that got his leg wasnt electrified was a professional strained fence he just leaned and leaned on it until it stretched and he fell through getting his leg tangle in the night cutting off his blood supply he had obviously struggled as he was sore all over and the wire was several times round his leg the wire had to be cut off. He is a pain but I do want to keep him with some quality of life as a pony able to groom with the others and live as he should otherwise as someone said it would be a miserable exsistance. I have recently started working him on the lunge and walking out to see the world a bit to try to improve his chances if he does get out but it is a worry in Spring and Autumn. He is 11 years old and dangerous to other people, can only be ridden by one person who is happy with him who he adores, he rodeos everyone else off and hasnt been driven for a while as he has bouts of lameness when I mention it. Thank you everyone for you input. We have a post and rail and electified ring fence it is the dividing fences that are getting ugly. they are 6ft high and two rows of 4 strands one highland jumps over if lower than that and the other just follows taking the fence with her. I have a roll of the electric fence wire but I am terrified it will act like a cheese wire and do real damage if they get caught in it so havent used it
 
well if he is that critical can he not have his own patch if it is only for the 3 months and he isn't to blame for the fence trashing? Or at least split out the main culprits?- not sure how many we are talking total here though!

No fence should have enough of an 'off' phase for a horse to go through?
 
Have you tried training your horses to the fence? Clearly, if they are coming up to test it and charge at it between jolts, they don't respect the zap from it very much.
You could try building a fence a metre or two inside a small, secured area (e.g. round pen) so that the horse cannot charge through the electric. Hose the horse to be wet in all relevant places, put on an almighty energizer and get it to touch the fence a couple of times.
In terms of equipment, add a couple more earth stakes and water them well to increase conductivity. The voltage on the fence doesn't actually tell you how much "zap" you get. It's the "output energy" in Joules that determines how much zap you feel. So check your energiser specs. Go for something with at least 1.5J output energy (the stored energy number is usually greater, but doesn't tell you about the zap), the more the better. You can also get models where you can vary the interval between pulses, or switch it to random. You could use it on high frequency to retrain the horse who tries to charge between pulses, then switch to random later.
With electric fencing, you have lost the advantage already if the horses get close enough to the fence to touch or charge. I found that tall stakes and staggering the fence (two fence lines), as well as adding little "arms" to the stakes at knee level that poke out the lowest strand towards the horses help to keep them from trying to stick their heads under the fence to graze, and are enough of a visual deterrent that the horse may think twice about trying to jump the fence.
 
I feel your pain, although mine doesn't run through, the bigger one removes all of the posts out with his teeth from the bottom , lies them down then just leaps over and fatty follows, have resorted to letting them graze the whole lot and fatty has his muzzle back on!
 
If the pony doesnt respect the fence ,it is probably the fence that is at fault. You need a serious earthing point ,not just a spike into the ground .Buy 3 I metre copper earth rods and bang them into the ground a metre apart link securely with copper wire and attach your earth to this. It will drasticly improve the performance of most systems.Another common problem is joining the woven tape with wire strands ,by simply knotting it together. This just doesnt work ,you wont send the coulombs of energy around the system ,but the voltage will still seem high.
 
Try 6ft posts with electric tape at the top (and also bottom ?) with electrified sheep/poultry fencing in between. This would provide more of a visual barrier and combined with the electric running through it should provide a more effective barrier. As long as the nets are small enough there should be no risk of leg going through these.
 
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