Electric fence turnout

[taylorelaine]

My two horses are home now, and for the first couple of weeks, I’ve been turning them out for about eight hours during the day when it’s cooler. I wanted to keep an eye on them to see how they were settling in, and they’ve been doing so well. I really want to start them on night turnout, and I know they handle it well, too.

However, the paddocks they’re in right now are only separated by vinyl fencing, and I’m not sure if it’s really safe to turn them out at night without a hot wire at the top of the fence. One of my horses is a mare, and the other is a gelding. She’s very used to being around other horses and being in pastures with them, so I felt bad about the idea of her losing that social connection if I put up an electric fence between them.

My gelding, on the other hand, came from a barn where socializing between horses was very limited, if not nonexistent, unfortunately. So far, though, they have been great together. The past three nights, they have gone out overnight without any problems.

I’m just worried because I know all it takes is one time for something bad to happen. I was also told that my gelding can act like a stallion sometimes around mares. Right now, it’s just him and my mare here, and I really haven’t noticed anything concerning—maybe some light sniffing and flirting—but for the most part, they mind their own business and keep to themselves.

My mare is a lot bigger, and she’s definitely more bossy and dominant. If he goes to sniff her, she usually just pins her ears back and walks away. Like I said, for the most part, that hasn’t really been an issue. The first week they came home, she was in heat, so there was a lot more flirting and standing next to each other at the fence line, my gelding pawed at the ground a few times, but it never went beyond that or became dangerous.

I just want to know: is it a bad idea to do night turnout without a hot wire between them? I haven’t seen any alarming behavior, but I know anything can still happen, and I’d rather them be safe—even if it means sacrificing some socialization.

[Simkie]

This is not something I would worry about until you have a reason to worry about it. They’ve been fine so far.

[NancyM]

Well there is risk in every option, always, with horses. You choose the risk you can accept and what works best for YOUR situation. With just two horses, if they live together, the greater problem is often taking one out to ride it, leaving the other behind. If they live separately, it’s often easier to separate them. With more than two horses (3 horses), it is usually easier to take one away to ride, because the two left behind still have each other. Horses are herd animals.
My horses live together, mares and geldings. No problems usually. Sometimes some minor scrapes or cuts. Sometimes, they do play some sexual games too LOL (mostly among youngsters). Previously, we had separate paddocks, had more problems with horses getting mixed up with the fences, cast under fences etc, as they did horsie things. So we changed our ways of keeping horses… got rid of the fences. Less injuries now. All horses are barefoot, obviously.

The electric fence you are using is a deterrent to playing together, yet they can still “hang out” together, which is a bonus… if you can separate them to ride one and leave the other behind successfully. If the power to the fence malfunctions, you may have a problem, if the left behind horse causes a ruckus. Normally, if they have experience with touching the fence and have felt the shock, they will not touch it again. But if acting up due to separation, if they touch the fence and do not get the shock, they may continue to bull through it. If a horse challenges the electric fence, you may have a problem. The aluminum wire breaks easier than some of the plastic or tape stuff. If you get a horse wrapped up in the electric fence, you WANT it to break.
What works for you and your horses is what you have to discover. Good luck!

[RMJacobs]

I kept my mare and two pony geldings together all the time. I had sheds but no barn. One of the ponies could be a bit of a problem when the mare was in heat, as he’d been gelded at age ten and I think he had been used for breeding. He had some stallion behaviors, but he was the smallest of the three and lowest in herd dynamics, and the other two horses seemed to find him amusing. The mare was clearly the boss, and kept the boys in line. There was hot wire about halfway down on all the fences, but it never separated them, and after a while I turned off the power as they seemed far more interested in when the servant would come out to feed them than in testing the fences.