This may be a dumb question but I have an area I would like to fence with electric tape that crosses over a piece of land that drains to the pond. The horses would be able to access the drainage area at other points so I would think this would be a hazard for them being electrocuted if there were a heavy rain or the tape sagged enough when there was some water in the area. Does that sound right or do they work differently than say a power line that falls in the water? The other thing I was thinking was to put a more permanent type of fencing over this area and then continue on with electric tape beyond that it’s just awkward because this is cutting across the middle of the property and I was trying to avoid permanent cross fencing.
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Just make the bottom line not hot over the pond, but make it hot everywhere else. They are not likely to test it, and if they do you can always charge it up temporarily.
No, they will not get electrocuted. The pulse is high voltage, low amperage. It will just make the pond a giant electric fence ground, and weaken your charge everywhere else.
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That’s good to know, that’s going to make expanding their grazing much easier.
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I don’t like to argue with you because you have much more fencing experience than I do 
but a puddle under a gate adjacent to an electric fence absolutely held a charge resulting in 1) me getting dumped into the puddle and being shocked after forcing my horse to walk into the puddle, 2) her being terrified of water for about 10 years (she was turned out in this field and had to cross the puddle/gate opening daily).
This was almost 20 years ago and I have no idea the type of fence charger or if a ground was used. Would that make a difference?
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Oh I’m sure it shocked the jesus out of both of you.
You were in the middle of the electric’s path to ground.
But - you did not get “electrocuted” in the sense of permanent physical harm. The horses won’t die if the fence is in the water. They will get shocked just like if they touched the fence. The fencing beyond this will be weak or non-existent, because all of the charge is going to ground in the water.
I hope that makes more sense.
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Ah, okay! Yes, makes sense. It definitely shocked the bejesus out of us. She was 4 and it was the first time I fell off of her and I thought she was being silly for not going through water until she dumped me in it. She was much smarter than I was and I have tried to listen to her more ever since! 
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now I don’t know what to do, it sounds like I’ll be creating a terror pit. If there are plants growing in this area will they be electrified or will they be a ground?
Can confirm that a puddle with a current running through it messed up my mare for a long time. We still have issues (although eventually she will go into water) and she is 22 this year.
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Anything touching the fence will be electrified, and if it’s touching the ground, a ground.
The exception are dedicated insulators, which are designed to be non-conductive.
I suggest you contact your fencing brand of choice, and talk them through what you’re wanting to do. They can explain everything and give you part #s for what you need.
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I will say though - in order for the puddle to be electrified, there was something wrong with the fence.
My personal pet peeve is being able to hear an electric fence going zap-zap-zap. If you can hear it, it is arcing or shorting. Fix the fence!
In your case there was some way the charge was making it into the water.
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100% sure that was the case. The barn was run by someone who wasn’t exactly the best at maintenance.
A few months after that experience I went to walk into the arena and grabbed the gate to open it and it had a current running through it as well. Poor mare had walked up behind me and was touching me with her head so she got it too.
Both of these experiences solidified my hatred for electric and I try not to use it at all if I can help it.
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I hear you. I was bringing two horses in at once, and they started fooling around, leaning me into the tape fence. All 3 of us got it.
I’ve also had to move some tensioners on my fence at home so the gate doesn’t interfere with them.
The barrier that’s provided mentally is worth it to me, not to mention the lack of property damage when they can’t chew on it. To each their own! 
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It definitely has its place! I have all centaur fencing but I’ve even had to put electric up a couple of times for short periods to keep horses off the fence. The centaur is indestructible but it’s really annoying when you see them leaning over it to get to something on the other side. 
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Before I re-fenced my veggie garden I had armadillos showing up at night and digging my plants up. I ran a strand of electric wire around the plants and put down black plastic under the wire. Took the hose and wetted down the plastic. That backed those suckers off my garden. You could see where they were digging and hit the wire standing on the wet plastic and left the area. It didn’t kill any of them. Unfortunately. A horse can take a bigger charge than an armadillo.
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Likely, your electric fence charger doesn’t have enough “juice” to “electrify” your horses like you are thinking it will. However, it could put a charge into the water and most certainly would make your electric fence not work.
As you suggested, you could put something permanent around that in leu of the electric.
You could also use floatation devices to keep the the tape far enough out of the water that it’s not going to short out your fence. In my neck of the woods, folks often use simply PVC-pipe “boats” that float on the surface of the water, to ensure the wire/tape stays out of the water.
Just figure out something to keep the tape out of the water; whatever you have to do.
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From the Mike Holt forum for licensed electricians:
“Electrocution means that you were killed directly by electricity.”
If you receive an electrical shock from the fence and fall into the pond and drown, you were not electrocuted.
Semantics is for the living, because either way you are dead.
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Electricity just needs to be well insulated in order to keep it where you want it.
The horse stepping the puddle and getting shocked means some wire pretty close by either wore through the insulation and touched a conductive post (like a t post), or it popped out of the insulator and touches the post that was also in the same puddle. An awful wreck for sure.
For the section of hot fence that will be over the water, make the bottom strand not-hot to soothe your concerns. Whatever you do, An electric fence isn’t “hot” enough to electricute any horse or human. It’s not akin to a hairdryer falling in a bathtub, not at all.
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Someone didn’t know how to build and manage an electric fence. You can’t have the hot elements touching conductive materials or they will carry the current.
I have seen problems where they needed to “hot up” the fence on both sides of a gate. To do so they buried insulated wire in the dirt under the gate opening. So you have hot wire tied into buried, insulated wire to carry the current across the gap underground, and that wire is then tied into hot fencw wire again on the far side. If that insulated wire gets compromised by driving over it and rocks in the soil cut into the insulation or horses walking over it in rocky soil, etc…tada…the electricity leaks out and if the dirt is wet guess what…that’s right, it’s conductive. Now when you are standing on that hot ground and you touch the gate…you carried the current to the gate. Most days if your shoes have dry, thick rubber soles you’re fine, but if things are just right, damp, wet, etc…zap!!
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