Splitting Fields & Electric Fencing

[jomax]

Just wondered how everyone goes on when it comes to splitting fields up with electric fencing so that horses that dont get on together can share?

I have just split one of my two fields so that i can put my two horses in and rest my other field. I thought i would start by just trying each horse on its own in the field so that they each could get use to the fencing. All went well with the first horse - 15h Sec D Welsh Cob (Mare), she was fine, a little wary, but she stayed on her side and was still on her side of the field the following day. The problem came when i tried the second horse - 16.2h British Hanoverian (Mare), she trashed part of the fencing the first night, and once repaired, the second night just jumped it, and was on the opposite side in the morning, now this fencing is high, i got the longest posts available and the height of the top tape is just over 4"6. So it looks like my plan of keeping them together in one field is not going to work. Any ideas how to get them use to each other, so that i can rotate fields and keep some grazing always available?

 

[Suelin]

Sorry, a bit of a numpty here. 2 things. I take it the power was on and was the fence trasher out on her own? Maybe she wanted some company?

We split our land up with electric tape and the boys each have their own paddock (saves a fortune in injuries and rug damage) they can talk over the fence (and do) but not get at each other. We split 5 acres into 12 more or less equal sized paddocks and we just rotate them around it. We keep half the land for summer use and half for winter so that by the time the really bad weather is here they are in the paddocks (in the day) closest to the yard to make bringing in and turning out as easy and as speedily as possible.

In the summer we keep the fence live with battery and energiser and in winter when they go out for daytime only we don't bother with the making the fence live. They have learned to respect it by then but I can't trust Charlie overnight without the fence being live.

 

[myhorsefred]

I run two lines of fence, about a 'bounce jump' apart. So if your mare jumps one fence, she probably won't be able to jump into the other section, if you see what I mean. I have found my gelding will run and jump with no prob, but if there is a bounce he can't.

Hope that makes sense!

 

[jomax]

Hi. Yes the fence was on, on both occasions, firstly when she trashed it and then when she jumped it. She was in the field on her own, so dont really know why she wanted to get into the other half??

The field is a long narrow field of about 180m in length, with a river running along one of the long sides. I put the 16.2 in the side away from the river, but as my land is also on a bank, she was on the high side. At the gateway into the field i have created an electric sprung gateway with a handle that i can move from side to side depending on which horse i want to get out of the field. A bit down at the moment, that this is going to work. Really dont want injuries and cant risk putting them into the split field now that the larger mare is jumping the fencing!! Dilema now over what to do!!!

 

[Goldenstar]

I double fence about five feet apart I always use wooden posts on any corners so I can keep it really tight and always always use five feet plastic stakes with two rows of turbo wire .
I check every other day that it's getting a good whack of electricity.

 

[jomax]

The posts i bought are the five foot poles. I have run two lines of tape through and i have a wooden stake at the start and the end (its a straight line). If i run another identical strip with the same amount of poles again a few feet away from my original fence, i am going to be looking at a total cost of over £500!! I know, i know what you are all saying that that would be less than any possible vets bills, but it does seem to be starting to geta very expensive way of splitting a field in half!