[AT] OT - Electric horse fence

Indiana Robinson robinson46176 at gmail.com
Thu Jul 16 05:31:33 PDT 2015


Why yes, this is long...   :-)
Steve O. I agree completely with that assessment of mixing metals. In your
house (and inside of barns) you just can't be too careful...
On electric fences I have been mixing materials for many years without any
problems.
My biggest electric fence problem with the horses has been deer... At one
time I could just assume that if I put up a new electric fence a deer would
run through it at night at least once. If it was up a week then it seemed
that they all learned it was there and stayed out of it, mostly by just
hopping over it like it wasn't there. I believe they only got into it  when
being chased by dogs.
Over many years we have fenced hogs (just a few), sheep, cattle and horses
with electric fence. The toughest by far was the sheep. Wool is very good
insulation... and sheep are only slightly  smarter than a brick... I used
to have to keep constantly retraining them to the respect the fence. That
was done two ways. One was to hang old tinfoil pie pans from the wire and
they would go stick their moist nose up to it to smell it and ZAP! Another
way was to run a hot wire along about 6" off of the ground and scatter some
shelled corn under it. You wouldn't believe some of the contortions they
would go through to get that shelled corn without touching their face or an
ear to the wire. They would all be lined up doing that and somebody would
make contact... SNAP! and every single one of them would react like they
had been shocked and run away in freak-out mode.
The generally placid old black faced Suffolks were not too bad to fence but
we got heavier into North Country Cheviots which are more of a mountain
country breed. Tough, more self reliant and prone to jump over fences.
The hogs were "interesting". I trained them by putting a band of lime under
the wire much like striping a sports field until they were used to the
fence. They would associate the white line with fence and stop for the
line. For a while you could then stop them with just a line. They were fun
to watch. They were "playful" and got to pushing each other into the hot
wire. It didn't take them long to learn that the proper way was to  run and
bump the other into the wire but to not be touching the other at the time
of contact or they got zapped too. I swear at times you could hear them
giggle first.
Horses are generally pretty easy to fence with a hot wire. At some point in
there lives almost all horses have been around an electric fence. Any time
I turn any of ours into a fresh lot you can see them watching the
perimeters for a wire and they know the lot boundaries in a minute or two.
When we had a number of boarders I used to have folks walk their horse
around the perimeter of their lot once before removing their lead rope.
That really only seemed necessary on the thoroughbreds who are prone to
being a bit unstable.
One very old rescue horse we had used to constantly "test" the fence to see
if it was hot. She would step to the fence and rest one hair near her mouth
against the wire. She could tell if it was hot through that single hair but
not get shocked. The funny part was that she never challenged the fence
even if it was off for a few days. She just wanted to know if it was on or
off.
Most of my fences have become rather "patched" together over this too long
run of medical problems and most of it needs a rebuild. I am expecting a
small $$$ transfusion  soon and hope to rebuild some of them.
I have pretty well developed a fencing style over the years that suits our
needs. Most materials have pro's and con's. In the old days I used all
wire. Then I started using Equirope. About a 1/4" rope with 11 fine strands
of stainless steel wire woven in the surface. Works well for corral type
setting where you can put post close together but tends to sag some on long
runs with longer post spans. It can soak up a lot of water and gets heavy.
It is also bad about loading up with ice and snow in the winter here.
Now I use more Poly-wire than anything. Much smaller with about 7 strands
of fine stainless wire woven in. It is extremely tough and does not sag
even when wet or iced.
These days my standard run of perimeter fence consists of step-in
fiberglass post (I dislike the common plastic step-in post that get brittle
and break and I hate the common smooth fiberglass post that splinter off
into my hands) with built in clips for wire or ribbon. I also use a lot of
the steel rod post just because I own so many of them from over many years.
I run a polywire top wire and a metal wire a foot below it. The poly wire
is tougher but can be hard to splice in a manner to keep full power going
through a long run. Both Polywire and Equirope have less capacity than a
wire but both are much more visible to the horses, the deer and me. By
running the regular wire (I prefer aluminum) below I am assured of a good
full capacity feed even on a mile long run. I connect the upper and lower
wire in several places along a run so that if there is a splice in the
polywire I am sure that the polywire is hot both before and after the
splice.
When I divide a lot I just use a single polywire.
I intentionally make all lots as long and narrow as reasonable so that I
keep the horses walking as much as I can. I have 3 sod waterways that run
along the edge of fields and I graze those too. I believe that keeping them
on pasture 24-7 and keeping them walking as much as I can accounts for most
of their very good health. We never have colic and we never have founder or
any of the other multitude of problems that I keep reading about others
constantly having. You have to let a horse be a horse and not a pet
confined like a hamster.
I tend to use what ever I find for powering under gates. I often use 1/2"
black poly pipe (cheap) with a wire through it. The wire might be an old
salvaged piece of Romex with the jacket removed. Sometimes I just buy a
piece of bury wire if I'm not feeling too poor.
Recently I wanted to run a feed under the road to some lots on the other
side. The county wants over $100 for a road cut permit (even if it is a
bore under) so I went north down the road toward son Scotts house and ran
it through a culvert. I needed about 60' and I didn't want any splices in
it. About everything is in either 50' rolls or 100' and the price was kind
of high for the 100'.  I am trying something. I just bought a 100' outdoor
extension cord and cut 60' out of the middle of it. It is feeding my fence
and I will put an end on each left-over piece to make two short extension
cords for the shop.  I buried the fence feed about 6" deep except for where
it runs through the culvert. I only expect it to be in use for maybe a year
or less.
I do use a number of the wire gates but I don't like most of the hooks they
sell. Most are made of flat steel on the hook end which makes an awkward
hook and they rust badly especially right where they hook. I much prefer
the ones made with a small round rod. Those just don't rust and are easier
to hook back up.
One of the more common connectors I use especially where I am connecting
several kinds of wire or rope together is a 1/4" plated bolt and nut with 2
plated fender washers and just sandwich everything between the 2 fender
washers (large washer, small hole). I have some that have been in use for
about 5 years and they are still like new.
Just like old tractors (tractor reference) you want A VERY GOOD GROUND... I
have 3 ground rods spaced about 20' apart all connected with a #8 solid
copper wire using good ground clamps.
I use a charger rated for 100 miles of fence and claimed to be able to
shock through 10 miles of wet weeds. Yes, it does hurt. It will also jump a
1/4" air gap. I have one of those testers that you place on a wire in your
house and it will light and buzz if the wire has current in it. It starts
clicking and flashing if I get within 10' of the fence. I can check the
fence from the truck.  :-)

No extra charge for typo's...

.


On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 11:36 PM, Cecil R Bearden <crbearden at copper.net>
wrote:

> Dave:
> Si....
> The extent on my Spanish is "Dos Cervezas Pour Favor et Quanto Dinero"
>
> Cecil in OKla
>
>
>
>
>
> On 7/15/2015 8:08 PM, Dave Rotigel wrote:
> > You To, Cecil?
> >       Dave
> >
> > On Jul 15, 2015, at 6:58 PM, Cecil R Bearden wrote:
> >
> >> I never heard of it either and I had 4 years of Latin......   All I
> >> remember from it is "Et Tu Brute"
> >>
> >> Cecil in OKla
> >>
> >>
> >> On 7/15/2015 2:48 PM, Mattias Kessén wrote:
> >>> 13 years at school sometimes even lucubrating just went down the
> drain. So
> >>> I'd better go back to "I have a cat. My cat is black. "
> >>>
> >>> Med vänlig hälsning
> >>>
> >>> Mattias Kessén
> >>>
> >>> www.rodjagard.n.nu
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my not so smart phone.
> >>> Den 15 jul 2015 21:13 skrev "Dave Rotigel" <rotigel at me.com>:
> >>>
> >>>> I think we BOTH depend a LOT on GOOGLE!
> >>>>          Dave
> >>>> PS, I can't believe that you had never heard "lucubrate" before!
> >>>> PPS, Neither had I!
> >>>>
> >>>> On Jul 15, 2015, at 2:31 PM, Richard Fink Sr wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> WoW Dave you and Charlie are friends that can be depended on
> >>>>> R Fink
> >>>>> PA
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 7/15/2015 12:53 PM, Dave Rotigel wrote:
> >>>>>> See: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lucubrate.
> >>>>>>       Dave
> >>>>>> PS, Google is your FRIEND!
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Jul 15, 2015, at 12:16 PM, Richard Fink Sr wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Ok I want to know what is it, or them lucubrate
> >>>>>>> R Fink
> >>>>>>> PA
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Charlie -----Original Message----- From: Spencer Yost Sent:
> Tuesday,
> >>>>>>> July 14, 2015 5:53 PM To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> >>>>>>> Subject: Re: [AT] OT - Electric horse fence You have to love spell
> >>>>>>> correct: I did not even know lucubrate was a word If I did I would
> be
> >>>>>>> able to lucubrate better (-: Spencer
> >>>>>>>>>> On Jul 14, 2015, at 16:22, Thomas Mehrkam <
> tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net>
> >>>>>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>> lucubrate
> >>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com



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