# Electric Fence Question



## Shropshirerosie (Jan 24, 2012)

Nothing has to be a particular brand, just stick to the basic physics: 

Connect charger to tape/wire

Remember to connect charger/battery to ground

Ensure tape/wire is in a loop for best conductivity.

Fix tape/wire only with plastic

The thinner the wire, the bigger the 'zap'

Do not allow tape to touch wood or metal unless you want your electricity to 'escape' 

Do not allow tape to touch long grass or bushes for the same reason.

The tape will sag over time, ensure you keep it tight.

Some horses and ponies will respect temporary elec fencing and never cross it. Some will always get in trouble with it - only you will find out which your horses are. 

A horse with a rug on will find out very quickly that rugs make great insulators against electric fences.

I think that's about it for Basic Eleccie Fencing


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

All I will add is to buy plastic caps for the tops of the T-posts to reduce the risk of serious damage from impalement.

Getting impaled on a T-post is not common but that's why they call them accidents.

Were it me, I would make three strands because some horses are also very adept at crawling under a fence. My Arab/Saddlbred was around 15H and would crawl under the fence when the creek bed went dry - every summer. 

He would never go anywhere except back to the barn so we would put him back in the pasture and he'd do it again


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

Shropshirerosie said:


> Nothing has to be a particular brand, just stick to the basic physics:
> 
> Connect charger to tape/wire
> 
> ...


Ok thanks!  That is all very helpful. I do have one question though. When you say the tap/wire needs to be in a loop what do you mean my this? Do you mean that the top and bottom need to be one strand and the top row loops to the bottom?


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

walkinthewalk said:


> All I will add is to buy plastic caps for the tops of the T-posts to reduce the risk of serious damage from impalement.
> 
> Getting impaled on a T-post is not common but that's why they call them accidents.
> 
> ...


 
Yes thank you for reminding me about the caps for the T-posts. I do need to get some of those. I have seen some really bad pictures of horse's getting hurt on the t-post tops an it is not pretty.

Ok three strand may be a better way for me to go then. She is pretty respectful of the fence but I don't really want to take too many chances.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

they make t post caps that are also fence insulators two birds with one stone. I dotn lie the tape, it always sags and lools like crap, get the poly 1/4 inch line. It is easier to work with, just as visible and strong enough to keep deer from running into it and breaking it. DONOT waste your money on that aluminum wire junk. It constantly breaks. The wire all needs to be connected, one giant circle, then connected over to the charger. DOnt go cheap on the charger, look at tthe joule rating, those cheapy chargers will ground out with a couple wet weeds, more power the better. Two strands should be fine for a horse.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

The other thing I want to mention is that is it always a good idea to lead your horse around the perimeter of their new pasture, so they know where their boundaries are. 

If she has never been in an electric fence before, chances are, she'll lean on it to get some grass on the other side ...... and then never do it again!

We always have our fences electrified. It keeps them respecting it. 

You'll want to check your fence on a regular basis to make sure it is still "live". Sometimes wires can get unhooked, or weeds/grasses can ground it, or other random things can happen. If your source doesn't have a beeping sound to let you know if it is working, a simple "tester" you can make is to tie a piece of wire to a plastic wire holder. Make the piece of wire have two ends. With you holding the plastic of the wire holder (so YOU don't get zapped), hold the two ends of the tester so it's almost touching the live wire. You should get a nice arc and spark of the live wire jumping to your tester. Then you know its working. If the fence is not working, walk the perimeter and follow the wire to find out where it is shorting out.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

We use two strands. One about knee high and the second about waist high. Don't know how the tape type is because we've never used it. If you use the solid wire, you need good solid posts and use tensioners to keep it tight. We use the 1/4 inch rope wire for our permanent fencing. For temporary, like when we go camping, we use the smaller rope wire. 

The two most important thing about setting up a fence are not having shorts to ground from the wire and having a good ground at the charger. If the soil is dry, you may have to use a grounding rod. They are long and you have to pound them into the ground. You probably won't get them back out. For temporary fencing, we've used a long screwdriver. Again that only works if the soil has decent moisture. You could run a third wire between the two hot wires of the fence. Then use that as a ground wire. When the horse touches a hot wire and the ground wire, they get shocked. 

If you were setting up a permanent fence, I would suggest getting a charger that plugs into an outlet. For temporary, a solar or battery type would be fine.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

If your horse(s) mind an electric fence, one strand of 1/4" polyrope at 3' with posts 30' apart is all you need. We use 1 strand in the main pastures, 2 strands where there are foals (2nd stand at 1 1/2'), and 3 strands by the corn fields to keep the deer out. We've been like this for many years without any problems, and it's inexpensive and quick.


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

Joe4d said:


> they make t post caps that are also fence insulators two birds with one stone. I dotn lie the tape, it always sags and lools like crap, get the poly 1/4 inch line. It is easier to work with, just as visible and strong enough to keep deer from running into it and breaking it. DONOT waste your money on that aluminum wire junk. It constantly breaks. The wire all needs to be connected, one giant circle, then connected over to the charger. DOnt go cheap on the charger, look at tthe joule rating, those cheapy chargers will ground out with a couple wet weeds, more power the better. Two strands should be fine for a horse.


Thank you for your suggestion on the t-post insulator caps. I didn't know about those; I will go that route for the top part. And that does make since that your need it all to be one peice that is connected, I guess I just needed someone to point that out for it to get into my head . Do you have any suggestions on chargers? I am going to start looking online at different ones sometime tonight I think.


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

Could someone explain how the grounding rod works? I live in Kansas and right now the ground has been pretty dry, hopefully we wll be getting more rain soon (at least the weather channel is saying we are suppose to...) Also, do you just need one grounding rod and where does it need to be in respect to the charger?


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

The charger gives the wire a charge. The horse touches the wire and the charge goes from the wire, thru the horse to the ground. Then the charge goes to the grounding rod back to the charger. If you don't have a good ground connection to the charger, you'll have an open circuit and the fence won't shock. 

Usually, you ground the charger right below it. They do suggest using three rods spaced apart. We are only using one for ours.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

Here is a diagram that shows all the parts. You don't need as many wires as they show:








_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## loveduffy (Dec 22, 2011)

I have a draft horse and use a soler charger and he dose not go nere it


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

We have one that is plugged into an outlet and one that is solar. The solar one isn't working very well with the cold temps we have in winter. I think the battery is getting frozen. 

I think the solar would be fine if it was used for a temporary situation but isn't the best for permanent. In the spring, we will be switching it to a plug in type.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## GallopingGuitarist (Jan 8, 2013)

Electric fencing is a great thing! At the farm we run one strand of it with the barbed wire fence (not touching, barbed wire is NOT electrified), and that keeps the horses from leaning against our poor fencing, until we can fix it up (we haven't had this farm for very long). Make sure the horse knows the boundary of the fence, they run faster than they think or see. Also, just a personal preference, but we found Dare to be very cheap. I prefer Gallagher. It might be a bit more expensive, but IMO, it's worth it. 
Just one tape or electric rope will do. Once zapped they don't trust that innocent looking stuff again. 
I turned a new gelding out with our herd of horses, he touched the fence once, got zapped. Half a minute later, the two lead mares are chasing him straight towards the fence, he sees it last second, and almost lays down he was stopping and turning so fast.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

Some horses need a couple good zaps before they stay away. Some will test it every so often. I think some can tell when it is off or on.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## GallopingGuitarist (Jan 8, 2013)

usandpets said:


> Some horses need a couple good zaps before they stay away. Some will test it every so often. I think some can tell when it is off or on.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Oh trust me some animals are too smart for their own good. Some, like that gelding, never tested a fence again. But we had a calf, he was a rope chewer, he could tell the fence was off, even if it was off for only a couple of minutes so we could fix something, and he would have 5 feet down his throat (we used poly wire for paddock grazing our cows).


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

My 2 cents:
Grounding rod: Use stainless steel for best effect, at least 2 feet long. The deeper it is the better the circuit created. If it is really dry where you are, put a water bucket near the ground rod and when you top up the bucket, let it overflow and soak the ground where the rod is. Ensure the rod is away from where a horse could reach it.

Sagging tape: tape is not supposed to be tight; it should be slack enough that you can see it move in a bit more than a light breeze.

Alumunimum wire: I agree. That stuff is a waste of money and my valuable time. Go with tape or rope.

# of strands: depends on the horse, training of the horse (they have to learn about it first), number of horses and size variety. I use only one strand like PHM - a mix of two different kinds of tape and rope. I can't always get the same stuff where I live, so I just mix it up as I need it.

Posts: t-posts for corners and rods for support in between. I can't find long enough rods where I live, so I go to the steel supplier and ask them to cut up some 3/8" hotroll into approx. 5 foot lengths. The ones at the farm store only came up to my horse's chest after I put them in the ground. Sink your t-posts nice and deep with a postsetter (MDH made me one) or a sledgehammer. The rods you can put in with a framing hammer.

Charger: I agree, don't cheap out. I have a battery powered one so I can take it with me when I go camping or to a friends. I bought a trickle charger for it that I connect to the battery when it's running low. I used to use truck batteries because we had lots of them around, but now I use a marine battery. A regular car battery doesn't stand up well to frequent charging/discharging.

A fence tester is about $10 and worth it if you're not willing to test the fence with your hands. I check with my hands when I can, but I have some kind of resistance and I'm not always sure that there is a charge so I had to buy a tester once my kids got to be too old to bribe to check the fence for me! 

And yes, some horses can tell if it's off or on. I think they hear the clicking. I had one horse that would graze under the fence once she realized the fence was off, but I swear if I had a mechanical clock nearby, she wouldn't have known. My other horse could care less if it's off or on. She just never has any inkling to go anywhere but where she is. What a good horse.

I guess that was more than 2 cents. Hope it helps.


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

Flagging tape, hot pink or orange every so often so horse sees where fence is at is a good idea.

And if horse is TB? I would not do it as they do not do well with it, tend to get shocked, panic and run through it.


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

Palomine said:


> Flagging tape, hot pink or orange every so often so horse sees where fence is at is a good idea.
> 
> And if horse is TB? I would not do it as they do not do well with it, tend to get shocked, panic and run through it.


Yes, I was going to pick up some of that tape just to make sure she sees it well. No it is not a TB, she is approx. 8-9 months old but she has been in a pasture with electric fencing before and she was fine with it and she is respectful of the fence(not going to say something wouldn't happen as it seems that horses are always gettting into some freak accidents).


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

usandpets said:


> .


Thanks for the diagram that makes since now that you explained it. I will most definantly be reading some more before I set it up.




NorthernMama said:


> My 2 cents:
> Grounding rod: Use stainless steel for best effect, at least 2 feet long. The deeper it is the better the circuit created. If it is really dry where you are, put a water bucket near the ground rod and when you top up the bucket, let it overflow and soak the ground where the rod is. Ensure the rod is away from where a horse could reach it.
> 
> Sagging tape: tape is not supposed to be tight; it should be slack enough that you can see it move in a bit more than a light breeze.
> ...


Your 2 cents was very informative though!  

I still need to get a grounding rod. So far I have the the insulators I need, and I am going to go with polywire for the fence. I do have a fence tester also. The charger I am still trying to figure out which one to get. The fenced in area will be about 125ft by 150ft. 

I am going to remeasure tonight when I go to feed.


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## peppersgirl (Aug 24, 2012)

We used 1 inch tape and those step in posts so we could move our horses are for grazing.. We did the two strands..Once they hit that tape and zap themselves the likely hood of the horse having the courage to "crawl under" is pretty low. the will just stay the heck away from it once they know it bites ( our was even grounded unknowingly for a week and the horses never tested it).. as for brand of tape I don't think that matters. BUT you will want to put your money into a *good* fencer. We bought one with a 15 mile range, that is made to fence off corn fields..and grass and sticks wont ground its zapping ability. I can not for the life of me think of the brand we bought, but your farm store people should be able to point you in the right direction. Ours was $100.


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## SorrelMystery (Jan 8, 2013)

Ok so I went to our local farm store and they showed me the fence chargers that they have. Any suggestions on which of these would be best?

Gallagher Yardmaster 110 Volt Fence Charger
　
Blitzer 115 Volt Solid State Fence Charger
　
Blitzer 115 Volt Solid State Hot Spark Fence Charger


Thank you guys you have all been a BIG help


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## GallopingGuitarist (Jan 8, 2013)

The Blitzer is going to cover more miles of fence... but, I have never heard of that brand before so I won't say whether it's a good or bad fencer. 
Gallagher is usually a pretty good brand. We had a Gallagher fencer that powered two quarter sections (320 acres) fenced and cross fenced. It would go up to 15 jewels of voltage. And boy did it ever hurt when I was soaking wet crawling under the fence (it was shorted somewhere so it was at 15 J), and touched my back on it! Threw me flat on my face! I've also so seen it drop a cow to her knees. It worked very well for the 6 years that we had it, then we moved and left it there. So I would recommend the Gallagher. 
Looking forward to hearing the others comments!


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## minstrel (Mar 20, 2012)

> Originally Posted by *Palomine *
> Flagging tape, hot pink or orange every so often so horse sees where fence is at is a good idea.
> 
> And if horse is TB? I would not do it as they do not do well with it, tend to get shocked, panic and run through it.


I've met loads of horse like this, not all TBs by a long shot (although I've met plenty TBs who jump it...). However pretty much all horses have more respect for the fence if you keep the strands taught, and don't let them get saggy. I think all the rest of the electric fencing basics has been covered...

I use electric fencing primarily as an inner ring of fencing inside my main post and wire fencing, and for strip grazing. It's also good as you can change gateways so that your gates don't end up knee deep in mud all the time... 

One thing I will say is, you will at some point be electrocuted. Your horse might push you into it, or you'll try and climb under it, or you'll change a rug too close to the fence so that the surcingles hit it and you'll both get electrocuted, or you'll hold your gate latch in the same hand as your lead rope so it zaps both you and your horse, and gives your horse a fear of the gate for a few days... or maybe it's just me that things like this happen to -_-


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

We use the Blitzer brand. No issues so far after we got a good grounding rod and the shorts to ground in the wire fixed. Nothing wrong with the charger.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Basuto (Jan 15, 2013)

It is my opinion that tape is an over rated product. There are so many negatives to using it;-

Very prone to flapping in the wind and the metal filaments breaking because of that.
The electric filaments are arranged parallel so when one is broken it is not reconnected so is out of the equation from there on.
The surface area open to the sun is much greater than any other product (it is the UV rays in sunlight that breaks down plastic) so has to have a greater component of stabilising compound - the price goes up.
Tape is always more expensive.
The tape insulators are more expensive.
The tape tends to become knotted so looks ugly.
Rope is by far a better option as it negates all those objections.

The only advantage tape has is its perceived visibility and I feel at 6mm rope is just as visible as tape. Are horses really unable to see a fence? - There are plenty of authoritive trials to show that is not the case.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I've done them all. You don't need to worry about visibility of you tag it with survey tape. Cut off a piece about a ft long and tie a simple knot and pull it tight. Not ever section between posts needs to be done, alternate is fine. The horse will memorize where the wire is so if the tape blows off it doesn't have to be replaced unless the wire is moved. Wire is cheaper and won't break in high winds whereas the ribbon may. If ribbon breaks just tie a knot in it, it will still work. You will have to buy insulators to suit the posts: and get the better ones as they are uv treated and last much longer. I have some that are 5 yrs old. You can get away with a single strand if she won't be on any snow. Then two strands are needed, a live and one to the ground post on the charger. This also has to go to a ground rod, a min. 3' length of steel rod driven into the ground. If the ground is very dry dribble a water against the rod so it seeps deeper into the dirt. If the pipe is hollow, fill it up a few times. A horse foolishly touches the wire with his nose, gets zapped then stays away from it. I have a single wire that hasn't been plugged in for two years but the horses don't go near it. It is their day only pasture when I am home.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

We use wooden posts in corners and at intervals where we are having to use electric tape as a more permanent thing - you can tighten it up much better so looks tidier and doesnt all blow away in a gale force wind!!!


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

But, jaydee, I have read on the install instructions for tape that it is supposed to be a bit loose. It is not supposed to be tight. I think that tightening it up would be damaging to the tiny strands of wire. 

Mine fences never "blow away," but they do definitely move in the wind. The movement is a nice "flag" for the horses to see as well.


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## GallopingGuitarist (Jan 8, 2013)

If you give the tape a couple of loose twists in between each post the wind can't catch it and it will help it last longer.


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## Basuto (Jan 15, 2013)

jaydee said:


> We use wooden posts in corners and at intervals where we are having to use electric tape as a more permanent thing - you can tighten it up much better so looks tidier and doesnt all blow away in a gale force wind!!!


By doing that the fine metal filaments tend to break as the strength of the tape is dictated by the woven plastic strands. whether you twist the tape or not it will swing in the wind and does nothing to prevent the suns UV rays attacking the plastic.


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## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

I didn't read everything, I just skimmed. It's my experience that the solar fencing doesn't work as well as the hard wired fencing. I know they sell based on distance, I believe my fencing was always within the guidelines. However one zap and the next zap is lesser, there just isn't the amount of charge stored in the box or something. 

This wasn't my best subject at school, so I can't be scientific about it, maybe someone else can help me out.


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