Adding a hot wire strand at boarding farm

[Railbird]

I have a horse who is hard on fencing at a facility where the fencing is old and it’s a bad combination. I had previously offered to add hot wire but the trainers said when they had tried in the past, it was problematic, shorted frequently, etc. I am a little out of my element on this- it looks like the bipolar horseguard can save some trouble that can occur with the grounding when the ground gets dry, etc, but I don’t know that I have seen the tape type fence used as just a top strand on board fencing. It’s a big field but he won’t live there forever, so ideally something that’s easy and not terribly expensive with the understanding it doesn’t have to last for years.

This is one of those things where I worry I don’t know what I don’t know to even ask the right questions. Electric fencing isn’t common on the farms where I have kept horses, so I don’t even know what issues I am trying to avoid here.

[SusanO]

Wire conducts a charge better than tape. The easy way to make sure the grounding rod stays damp is to empty old water buckets there, but this is a PITA if the rod is a ways from the barn. Or you can use two grounding rods. But I see the trainers problem because tall grass, weeds or tree limbs on the fence will short it out. I only use electric wire in one place to reinforce a pasture separating fence and it is a short run. I just sprayed under the fence with a bunch of long lasting herbicide so I won’t be out there with the weed eater when it is 100 degrees. And that might not prevent me from having to use the weed eater, but maybe it will help. You can discuss with the trainer how you propose to solve this issue but I would not expect them to have to do extra fence maintenance. That sucks in the summer time.

[OzarksRider]

Is this something you have to or want to do yourself or could you hire a fence builder to do it for you? I’ve put up a single strand of wire for a temporary fence by myself, but I attached it to an existing electric fence and I only needed it for a few months. Someone who is experienced with electric fencing would know what size charger you need and would make sure the fence is attached to the posts, tensioned, and grounded properly. A professional installation might be worth it to avoid whatever problems the trainers had with their fence. If the fence is done right it should be effective and easy to maintain. And if it’s only a top wire you shouldn’t have any problems with brush growing tall enough to short the fence.

[LazyA1]

I use HorseGuard electric tape as a top tape. It’s great.

[amandaw]

I’ve done this a couple times to control my cribber, both on 3-board and 4-board wood fencing. It’s been successful and thus far has lasted over a year without issue.

I’ve had luck with polyrope (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/american-farmworks-poly-rope-656-ft).

I’ve used these short insulators, only because my horse will try to crib in places the 5" insulators were up (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/american-farmworks-yellow-slant-nail-insulators)

It was easy to cross the gate with a gate anchor
(https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/american-farmworks-wood-post-screw-in-electric-fence-gate-anchor-pack-of-2) and handle (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/heavy-duty-gate-handle)

We have a couple different solar chargers, depending on which electrified paddock, each with its own grounding rod. At first the chargers were too much in the shade but once moved to get more sun, now both keep their respective fences hot.

I think it works well for us because there isn’t brush or tree interference on the fence line.

[enjoytheride]

I use tape fencing as a top rail. It works great…with the caveat

1. Install properly without it going through a bunch of brush
2. Proper charge
3. Proper insulators
4. We can get windy so I purchased the narrower tape because it comes loose less often in high wind thus requiring less repair.

I use it because I have electric rope that is older and has less visibility.

[Shelbytwohorse]

Tape is great if you want additional visibility, but where there’s already a fence I would go with plain wire. Tape tends to stretch and is more expensive to install. You’ll need a good ground- sandy soil and rocks are hard to ground, arable soil can usually be made to work. Hot fences do need to be tested periodically and sometimes ‘walked’ to find out what is grounding it out where, but in combination with an existing fence it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world if it’s not solidly working 24/7. Electric fence is a psychological barrier, meaning the horse just needs to think he’ll get a shock. Some will test it repeatedly, or know if it’s not ticking, but most of my horses get zapped once and then not try it again for a long time. (Maybe I’m just lucky here lol) The cattle though- those buggers will test a hot fence EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I’ve never had good luck with solar fencers so I hook mine up to a car battery where there is no outlet.