Has anyone had any experience with hacking/trail riding out under the trails of high voltage power lines? There’s supposedly a trail that connects to them where I board and a couple of people have mentioned that they’ve been on them but not recently… Is it safe? Is there any risk of getting shocked (especially if the horse has shoes)? Maybe this is silly question but I really want more places to go hacking and I just want to be sure!
TIA!
I’ve done it some- never gotten shocked but you do get a weird buzzy sort of feeling go under them (I always get goosebumps from it) and some horses are a little freaked out by the noises
I have ridden under high voltage lines alot, both as a kid and now as an adult, where they are part of our fairly modest trail system at the barn. I had no problem with them at all as a kid, but as an adult find them a little creepy 
but have had no actual problems with them either. I figure they are unavoidable in trail riding as often they provide the only right of way through some areas.
The only situations I have heard of there being stray electricity, which I have never experienced myself, is in rainy weather. Also I understand that the amount of voltage through the power lines varies and if it’s heavy, you can hear them crackling and popping and fizzing overhead. If you have to cross a powerline, it’s said to be safer to cross near the towers rather than under the middle of the cables, but honestly around here people rack up hours and hours on hydro right of ways and no problem. People hike on them, and our local powerline is also a bike route.
All the accounts of potentially dangerous stray voltage that I’ve read about have come not from big powerlines, but from infrastructure breakdown in urban areas,
Go out and enjoy!
I have ridden them with no problem.
There is a line that runs up the middle of our stable, which is located in an urban area that would otherwise probably be houses. The horses don’t seem to mind. Once in a great while I hear a strange noise that may be coming from one. Occasionally they come to work on the towers with heavy equipment, including cranes, and that can make the Saturday Hack lesson a bit more exciting. An electrician was at the barn one day with something that tested current (at least I think that’s what it did) and got a reading at ground level under the cross ties.
I’ve ridden under them for practically my entire life. I honestly don’t even think about it anymore. So far, I’ve only had to turn around once while riding on the street because a tree took a line down, but that was just a regular powerline, not a high voltage one. You do hear noises. Buzzing mostly.
I don’t just ride under one, I’ve lived under one (or, technically, about 100 yards or so to the side) for almost 30 years. We’ve raised horses, pigs, goats, sheep, and cows on pastures that ARE under it with no issues (no spontaneous abortions, no low fertility rates, nothing born with three heads, etc.). There was a guy some years back who claimed to have all manner of evidence of danger but it turned out his numbers were “cooked” and he was a fraud.
Being out in the open in an East TN thunderstorm may not be as dramatic as being in one in OK (and I’ve done both ;)) but they are not to trifled with and if you see one coming get back home. But that’s true whether your near a power line or not.
In short, they don’t add any specific level danger to a hacking out trail. Enjoy!!!
G.
Used to ride under the west side transmission lines powering the city of Atlanta. The static crackle sounds of the lines was interesting. Awe inspiring that a few skinny lines powered thousands of homes & offices. Some places, seemed like I could touch the lines from horseback. Likely more than thirty feet away. Horses ignored it. Enjoy the trails.
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