Six of my eight horses are small, intelligent, mischievous ponies and I will admit to having
problems with electric tape in the past with them. They know every trick in the book and just when
you think you've faltered their latest escape plan, up crops another new one...My section A, Mystie,
would literally run on the spot, almost amping herself up before putting her head as low as possible
and running through the tape lifting it up over her back as she went. It was funny to watch the first
time, but quickly became frustrating. Similarly our old cobx, Bonnie, would pace the fence line
checking for weak spots, you could see her listening for the clicking of the fence and when she
found an area that she deemed weaker she'd be through it before you could blink! These two are no
longer with us, but I do feel they taught our little herd some of their tricks.
However one very simple fix for us was simply adding an extra run of tape, which just discouraged
them from trying their luck with the gap between just two lines of tape and then making a valiant
charge through it.
I'm slightly ashamed to say it took me as long as it did to simply add another line of tape, but now 3
runs of tape is just the norm for us (I think Mystie would have had more of a hard time with that!).
That paired with a good quality powerful Solar Energiser and the prison breaks are very much non
existent.
Solar Energisers are also something we've only been using for maybe 3 years now, I don't know
how we survived without them before. Well I guess we didn't, we always had problems with
escapees with battery energisers (Bonnie was a prime example of this!). This wasn't necessarily
because the energisers were bad but more because a battery set up just didn't work for us.. but this
post isn't about energisers! If you are experiencing some impressive prison breaks my advice would
be try an extra run of tape, your energiser attached to either the bottom or middle run (this seems to
work best for our ponies, I have no idea why!) and place your posts as close together as you can for
the length of run you're doing and the amount of posts you have! The closer the posts the stronger
and less baggy the fencing gets. Good luck!
Check out more of my blog posts:
Struggling with 12v battery energisers? Go for solar panel energises!
Tracking – The Electric Fence Way
Classical Dressage Trainer, Bit and Bridle Fitter & Horse Track System Enthusiast!
Tash has undertaken many different paths of training to ensure that the horses she works with have their welfare and comfort as the top priority. Horses having species appropriate turn out is something Tash is also very passionate about and over the last few years she has incorporated a track system into her own land, which has been a huge benefit to her horses both mentally and physically.
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