The Problem of a Serial Fence-Wrecker

[HollyWoozle]

Has anyone else had the problem of a horse that repeatedly breaks post and rail fencing? Is there anything other than electric fencing to prevent it?

We have standard post and rail fencing around our field (except on one side where it's much higher and 4 rails as this side has open fields beyond). Part of the standard fence also acts as fencing around the family lawn as the field joins onto the garden out the back of the house. A month or two ago my mum's horse managed to break out whilst I was out riding on my horse and he actually got down the street (!). We considered this to be a fluke as he appeared to have snapped the top rail by leaning on it, popped over the bottom rail and then heard us coming back up the road (and he'd never done it before in the 18 months or so that we'd owned him previously).

Then a few weeks ago he broke more fencing and got into a tiny fenced-off square in the field, which is just fenced off to protect a tree. No real harm done.

This morning my stepdad got up, looked out the window and Noah was grazing on the lawn. Turns out he had snapped another top rail, popped over the bottom one and was having a jolly time destroying the garden.

This situation needs to be dealt with as it is becoming a habit and is a danger to the horse and also to people if he goes wandering. We plan to put an extra gate in our driveway to ensure that he can't make it off our property but any ideas about the fencing? I know that the obvious solution is to add electric tape, and we will do this if necessary, but I was wondering if there are any alternatives such as the studrail type fencing which is plastic with high strength wire inside (but I don't know how this actually holds up to being leant on?). We have always enjoyed interacting with the horses from the garden, stroking them over the fence and so on, so it seems a shame to electric tape it all and ruin this... especially when it's not a problem with the other horses and never has been until now.

Having said that, we will obviously resort to using electric if required. My other thought was maybe to electric tape the fence and leave it turned off until we see that particular horse leaning, then give him a zap when he's caught in the act?

Any advice much appreciated!

 

[PingPongPony]

What i'd do is rather than electric fence the fence off, i'd put those circular electric tape holders that you screw in, on the inside of the top rail and just put one strand of tape close to the top rail. Means the others can still go up to the fence etc but when the naughty one leans on it, he'll get zapped. one time being zapped may be enough for him but your fence will still look as nice as you wont be able to see the tape unless you're standing next to the fence
ETA. oh also, even if the electric is off he breaks the rail, the tape is still there so he can't get out anyway

 

[moodymare_1993]

my horse was a pain for doing that :/ unfortunatley, once theyve gone through it one they keep doing it :/ best thing which i know you dont want is the screw in electric tape holders....keep it turned off until you see the naughty horse touching the electric and quick as you can turn it on!! sounds so horrible but if they have never seen electric tape before like my new mare, one zap is defo enough lol. but keep it on for a minute or two after the horse is zapped, they will hear the clicking noise going through the tape and then if they go back they will get zapped again...i am a master of electric tape thanks to my old horse being a pain in the ar*e and breaking through wood!!!!!!!

hope this helps

 

[SpruceRI]

Agree with PingPongP..... your horse has learnt that the fence topples if he pushes hard enough, so most likely one zap of electric fence will sort him out. Only needs to be temporary.

I don't know about the strength of studrail but I think it's pretty expensive!

 

[Mince Pie]

Make sure the electric is mains! My mare has no respect for electric fencing and breaks out at least 2-4 times a week!!

 

[HollyWoozle]

Thanks all. I think it will have to be the electric then. :-( It's a shame because my mare does occasionally lean over the fence (but doesn't break it) and she will not go anywhere near electric tape, so it will mean she will stay right back. But that's better than Noah getting out I suppose! Perhaps if we just zap Noah with it (that sounds awful but you know what I mean!) then it won't upset Belle or the ponies too much!

Not sure why Noah has to be such a pain in the bum.

(Normally he just snaps the rails but that time the post was a bit screwed!)

 

[HollyWoozle]

Make sure the electric is mains! My mare has no respect for electric fencing and breaks out at least 2-4 times a week!!

Blimey!! That must be...er... inconvenient!

 

[Mince Pie]

Blimey!! That must be...er... inconvenient!

I'm getting pretty fed up with the calls/texts from the yard along the lines of "your Effing horses are in my garden AGAIN...."
Hopefully she is being sold at the weekend (for £1!) so can be someone else's problem!!!

 

[PingPongPony]

Actualy, i think that he's been way too naughty and you should send him to me straight away he's beautiful

 

[HollyWoozle]

Actualy, i think that he's been way too naughty and you should send him to me straight away he's beautiful

Hehe, thanks. Most people think he's ugly! Alas, he is also semi-knackered. Bought Nov 2010, didn't have him vetted, sellers were lying gits and he was diagnosed with a case of juvenile spavin (been that way since a foal apparently). Previous owners had hunted him and driven him with a really messed up leg. I guess they used steroid injections and drugged him or something.

Either way, we screwed up on the purchase but we bought him and love him, not his fault. He had spavin surgery Apr 2011 and we just got the all clear to start riding him again a month or two ago (I don't think this relates to the fence-snapping, he's always been a bit of a knob).

He is quite entertaining but it won't be so funny if he gets out and causes an accident! What a monkey.

I'm getting pretty fed up with the calls/texts from the yard along the lines of "your Effing horses are in my garden AGAIN...."
Hopefully she is being sold at the weekend (for £1!) so can be someone else's problem!!!

She sounds like a right treat.

 

[Mince Pie]

Actually she's a sweetheart just wasted with me - one of those "good home better than price" things. She's going to a friend of a friend but I trust my friend 200% so know she'll be looked after, plus I'll be hacking past her new place regularly!

 

[Mike007]

Make sure the electric is mains! My mare has no respect for electric fencing and breaks out at least 2-4 times a week!!

2-4 times per week .Mine tended to break out far less frequently, but only because (being in the back of beyond) it tended to take 3 or 4 days to find the beggers

 

[HollyWoozle]

2-4 times per week .Mine tended to break out far less frequently, but only because (being in the back of beyond) it tended to take 3 or 4 days to find the beggers

Suddenly Noah doesn't seem so bad!

 

[Mince Pie]

She is a ducking nightmare! For all the things wrong with my current yard the YO has been a saint to put up with her, most other places would have binned us months ago - her best was walking through a 10 strand tensile wire fence less than 5 mins after being turned out into the summer field!

ETA: like this but with more strands!

 

[Mike007]

Suddenly Noah doesn't seem so bad!

Trust me on this ,he is a saint in comparison. On one eventfull day I trailed the dynamic duo around half of surrey. Every time I crossed a motorway bridge (over the M25) they were jeering at me from the next one!I swear , they looked at me over maybe a quater of a mile ,regardless of all the traffic underneath them , Tails up and trotted off into deeper cover. In the end I knew I could only follow with a tractor so I went back to the farm to get one, only to find the pair of them standing outside their field gate expecting me to open it. Oddly enough ,neither wanted to make any eye contact with me (in case I murdered the pair of them on the spot)

 

[Mince Pie]

LOL!! Luckily mine never seem to stray that far! You must be reasonably close to me then Mike if you're in Surrey? Which Junction are you near out of curiosity?

 

[Mike007]

LOL!! Luckily mine never seem to stray that far! You must be reasonably close to me then Mike if you're in Surrey? Which Junction are you near out of curiosity?

The beastyboys used to live up on Reigate hill, and there is an awfull lot of room to hide up there.The big trouble was that because I used to hack them over so much of it ,they thought they owned it

 

[Mince Pie]

Ahaha yes there is! And Reigate Heath as well

 

[Mike007]

Fortunately they never ventured down to reigate heath,but the certainly caused enough havoc up ontop of the hill, but of course that was just mild stuff compared to the sheep!Dont ask about whatTHEY did to the Ryder Cup please!

 

[Mince Pie]

OK you know I'm going to now!

 

[Foxhunter49]

I would go along with electric mains fencer and the screw in fixings, there is no need for tape which breaks in the wind, you can get the thin plastic wire which will be sufficient to give him a good zap.

I would put the fencer on (use a good deep earth) and leave it on. Once they have received a couple of zaps they will be careful not to touch the rails but will stand looking over them.

 

[ribbons]

Just one point about electric fencing. If it's in place it must be turned ON, especially as you have an escape artist. If it's off and he pushes fence to get out and gets tangled in tape the resulting injuries could be horrific. Electric fence tape is capable of cutting right into flesh.
It sounds like it's the best solution to your problem but please make sure it's always on. Some horses, for some reason seem able to know when there is a current and when there is not, and whilst for many the mere sight of the tape will be enough for them to give it a wide berth, your boy sounds like the type to check it out, and test the boundaries.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Thanks for the advice all. I will relay it to the stepfather... chief fence-fixer (poor chap wasn't horsey at all before he married into the family and now spends his day replacing rails).

Mike007... I'll be honest and say that I giggled. Sounds like you have some real cheeky buggers.

 

[TicTac]

Thanks all. I think it will have to be the electric then. :-( It's a shame because my mare does occasionally lean over the fence (but doesn't break it) and she will not go anywhere near electric tape, so it will mean she will stay right back. But that's better than Noah getting out I suppose! Perhaps if we just zap Noah with it (that sounds awful but you know what I mean!) then it won't upset Belle or the ponies too much!

Not sure why Noah has to be such a pain in the bum.

(Normally he just snaps the rails but that time the post was a bit screwed!)

Sorry, but this photo made me chuckle! I'm afraid having a mare that is the same, the only way to discourage it is for them to get zapped a few times from good old electric fencing.

I dont have post and rail now but wooden posts with the flexi fence ( green electric tape) I dont have to leave it switched on all the time. But once in a while she starts to push the boundries and lean on the fencing so I switch it back on. I love to see the expression on her face and the copious amounts of snorting once she realises that the fence is live again!!

 

[Mongoose11]

Look at his naughty little face. He is like 'yeh and what?'

 

[HollyWoozle]

He couldn't get back out of the square.

TicTac - thanks for the advice. And everyone else too - you've all been very helpful.

This is the horse that also ate half the fencing and a garden bench. He started getting in our boat last weekend too but apparently reconsidered (to clarify, there isn't usually a boat floating around but we were about to use it and put it on our little lake... Noah got one hoof in).