Tiddlypom
Carries on creakily
The OP herself probably, or another responsible adult.
Like who?
(Electric fence not an option with long grass and ponies not used to it - they'd charge through it and do themselves a michief)
It really sounds like you need to think through what your response would be to an emergency and maybe create a fenced corral area somewhere or train your ponies to respect electric fencing. IME electric fencing works fine in long grass over a short length, the battery just runs down quicker.
I find electric fencing works fine with long grass, especially if you just have a single strand. Could you not just have electric fenced off the (presumably) small area where the fence was down? I'm not sure I buy that your ponies would run through it just because they're "not used to it" - most horses don't go through electric fencing the first time they encounter it, or no-one would use it! I'd imagine they would be even less likely to go through it if it was roughly where they expected there to be a fence. But perhaps now would be a good time to get them used to it, so that if this happens again you can walk the fence line to find the gap, and fence off the relevant area with electric fencing. I do think it is very irresponsible to leave horses in a field when you know the fence is down. Okay, everything was fine. But what if the rest of them had got out and they'd wandered off or taken fright at something? They could have ended up miles away! I don't think the fact that you normally loose graze them outside the field and they don't go anywhere means they will NEVER go anywhere, especially unsupervised!(Electric fence not an option with long grass and ponies not used to it - they'd charge through it and do themselves a michief)
And don't come at me all high and mighty and tell me 'I don't drink because I have horses' because we all know that is bull
And it happened late at night, so what if you have had a drink and can't drive? Just playing devils advocate because I don't believe for a second that all the indignant posters on this thread would have been sober, or had leccy fencing to hand, or been able to source leccy fencing, and had help, etc etc late at night despite what they may post
And it happened late at night, so what if you have had a drink and can't drive? Just playing devils advocate because I don't believe for a second that all the indignant posters on this thread would have been sober, or had leccy fencing to hand, or been able to source leccy fencing, and had help, etc etc late at night despite what they may post
And it happened late at night, so what if you have had a drink and can't drive? Just playing devils advocate because I don't believe for a second that all the indignant posters on this thread would have been sober, or had leccy fencing to hand, or been able to source leccy fencing, and had help, etc etc late at night despite what they may post
I mean, I genuinely don't drink (not "bull" I'm afraid) but for those posters that do, it's not like you're confined to the house/ pub just because you've had a drink? Ask a friend/ family member for a lift or get a taxi...hardly rocket science!!And don't come at me all high and mighty and tell me 'I don't drink because I have horses' because we all know that is bull
To be blunt, if you're drinking enough alcohol that you can't hope to cope with an emergency situation should it occur (either by dealing with it yourself or arranging cover), then you are drinking too much alcohol and should stop doing so. HTH.
I've had the opposite problem, my YO (horsey, former event rider, from a seriously horsey background), rather under the influence of his lunchtime gin, decided to shoot crows in the same field as my horse and pony, and then rang me, knowing I was 300 miles away, to tell me that the pony had gone through the fence "and destroyed the fencing!!" and he couldn't catch him because he couldn't get anywhere near him. Meanwhile my horse was still in the field, stressing out ....
Drunken YO seemed to have forgotten that the (thoroughly reliable) person who was looking after my horses lived about a mile away.
So there I was 300 miles away, having a canary, having to ring my reliable friend who went out, rattled a bucket and reinstated the pony to his field, and then fixed the "destroyed" fence (one staple and one insulator).
The YO then insisted that the top wire was electrified, in order to "sort out" my horses ....
So happy I'm out of there.
But to return to the subject of the thread, and without being holier than thou, I wouldn't leave horses in a field that I knew had an escape route, whatever time of day or night.