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New gelding running through pasture fence

From: Susan

Hi Jessica, First, I love Horse-Sense. Thanks for making it available to us. My question is about my new 5 yr. old gelding, Asa running through the electric tape fence in the pasture. Asa was in the pasture 24/7 with regular wood fencing with an electric wire on top at his previous home. I bought him two weeks ago and moved him to where I board my other gelding. My boarding facility uses 2 strands of electric tape run between posts. There are 2 geldings(one is my older horse)and an older mare in this pasture. My older gelding is the alpha horse. Asa was actually pushed out of the fence by him the first time. The second time, he ran through it when the other horses were walking towards him.

I guess my question is in two parts. First, should I continue to try to put Asa in this pasture with this type of fence. Will he always try to run through it since he has twice already? This is a 70 acre farm with 4 big pastures. All the fencing is electric tape. Secondly, the barn owner said she will consider adding a third strand of electric tape to this pasture. Would that keep him in any better than the two strands and would I be responsible for part of this cost since it is my horse busting through it?

I really enjoy this barn and the owners. We all have Tennessee Walkers. I have a good relationship with the owners and I help out around the farm when they need help. Sorry this was so long.


Hi Susan! Thank you - I'm glad to know that you love HORSE-SENSE, and you're very welcome.

To begin at the end of your question, the issue of who would be responsible for the cost of upgrading the fences is something that you and the barn owner will need to settle between you. It's nice that the farm owners are willing to consider this, but the real question is whether adding a third strand of electric tape will make any real difference to your gelding. He's gone through the fence twice, and a third strand is unlikely to keep him from going through it again, whether he's running away from the other horses or just pushing against the fence until it pops.

Some horses can't be kept in by some fences. It's a sad fact of life, and one that often interferes with human plans for sensible things such as keeping all their horses at the same facility. You've got a nice barn run by people you like, and you want to keep both of your horses together - that's sensible thinking. Unfortunately, a fence-busting horse trumps sensible thinking!

The first thing I would do if I were you is to put the new gelding into a pasture adjoining the other horses' pasture. If he's only been at the farm for two weeks, he hasn't had much time to get to know the other horses - perhaps you added him to the group before he was quite ready. Even if you kept him next to the others for the whole two weeks, it may not have been enough time. For some horses, two weeks of fenceline contact is enough to get acquainted, but other horses need more time to get used to one another. But even if your new horse adjusts, there's no guarantee that he won't run through the fence again if something frightens him.

If you want to keep horses in, it's important to have fencing that can do the job. There may well be individual farms where electric tape is all that's needed to keep all of the horses in their own designated areas, and CAN do the job, but here are some thoughts to consider.

Not all electric-tape fences are equal. Some are more visible than others, some will break more easily than others, but all depend on the electricity itself for control. Electric fences are not particularly effective physical barriers, but if touching the fence results in a strong enough shock, horses and other animals can learn to respect such fences as though they were genuine physical barriers. That is, they can learn to respect them most of the time. A truly terrified horse may blast through even a fence that administers quite a strong shock. A frightened twelve-hundred-pound animal, moving at speed, may not be able to stop and turn regardless of the force of the electric shock. Even the popular, best-built and most solid electric fences, such as Electrobraid and HorseGuard, although much stronger than many other "electric tape" fences, are very likely to break if a horse hits them at speed.

Electric tape can be very useful for some purposes. For example: A strand of electric tape or wire, six inches inside the top rail of a fence, will discourage horses from leaning against or over the fence. Electric tape is useful for cross-fencing within a good, solid perimeter fence. It's also used by some farm owners to divide pastures into sections for rotational grazing. Horses may break through the tape, but since they're still enclosed by the proper pasture fence, they won't get out of the pasture or end up on the road.

I wouldn't want to rely on a couple of strands of electric tape to serve as a barrier between my horses and the road, or my horses and my neighbour's horses. This doesn't mean that electric tape is useless, but you may need to consider the fact that material that makes a perfectly adequate crossfence may simply not be sufficiently substantial to serve as a pasture or perimeter fence.

If you desperately want to keep your horse at this farm, it's possible that starting over with his fenceline introduction to the other horses will do the trick this time around, and give him less of a reason to run away (and through the fence) when he's reunited with the other horses. If the horses can get along better after a longer introduction, and if your new gelding learns to avoid being trapped between the other horse(s) and the fence, you may not have any more problems... but I don't think I would want to count on that.

You may find that the only way to provide your new horse with safe turnout on this property will be to enclose a few acres somewhere with a horse-safe fence. There are two problems with this idea - one is the fact that it isn't your property, and the other is the fact that even if the barn owners agree to the plan, horse fencing is not cheap, and enclosing even a few acres is going to be expensive. You can understand why they use the electric tape - 70 acres requires a lot of fencing, and it's probably safe to assume that they would have put up good horse-fencing if they could afford it. Keep this in mind when you talk to them about fencing changes and options - don't put them on the defensive about their fencing choices. They may be quite willing to put up good horse-fencing, but unable to afford the expense. If that's the case, you may need to take your horse somewhere else, unless you and the farm owners can come up with a clever, safe solution to the problem.

One option would be to keep the horse on the property but in a small, safely-fenced paddock of its own. Is there such a paddock on the property, or - this is a long shot - could you interest the owners in building one, or possibly get permission to build one yourself? Living in a one- or two-acre turnout is not as good for your horse as living in a nice large pasture, but it's certainly better than running down the road.

If they don't want a permanent structure, you could construct a tall, strong, temporary paddock with pipe panels such as those made by Priefert. The size would be limited only by your budget, and the modular aspect of panels makes them very convenient to work with.

Talk to the farm owners and find out what they're willing to do, what they can afford to do, and what they're willing to let you do. Then figure out what you can afford to do. Having a horse that leaves pastures spontaneously can be a real problem in terms of horse management and in terms of liability - for you and for the farm owners. And although you're all getting along very well right now, consider this: If your horse continues to break down their fence, he'll eventually end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only could he get hurt, or cause another horse to get hurt, but your good relationship with the barn owners is unlikely to survive the first serious injury or accident or lawsuit that results from a horse getting loose on the road.

You may decide that moving your new horse to a different facility with better fencing will cost you less in the long run, in peace of mind as well as in money.

I do know what you're going through, and I sympathize. One of my own horses went several years without pasture turnout - she had arena turnout only, and hand-grazing in the evening - because at the best available boarding barn in the area, the fences were only 4', some were sagging even lower in spots, and whenever she was turned out, this mare simply jumped from one pasture to another, or out of the pasture entirely, whenever she felt like it. This limited my options considerably - I didn't want to have horses at multiple barns, either. I finally moved all the horses to a much less conveniently-located facility where the fences were just under 6' (and in much better repair).

Good luck!

Jessica

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