Young horses spooking through fencing

[4horses]

Any ideas how to prevent this? My colt has twice gone through the fence. Both times it was windy. My 2 yr old mare has gone through the fence once as well.

My colt had his feet trimmed today and napped through the entire thing and was being a perfect little angel. Afterwards I put him in his paddock and he started eating hay. I was leading my other mare out the gate and there was a big gust of wind. Both horses spooked and he ran straight over/through my fence. Not a mark on him. Took out the top rail so he must of jumped

Would adding electric help? Is this just part of having young horses?

[Scribbler]

@4horses

Any ideas how to prevent this? My colt has twice gone through the fence. Both times it was windy. My 2 yr old mare has gone through the fence once as well.

My colt had his feet trimmed today and napped through the entire thing and was being a perfect little angel. Afterwards I put him in his paddock and he started eating hay. I was leading my other mare out the gate and there was a big gust of wind. Both horses spooked and he ran straight over/through my fence. Not a mark on him. Took out the top rail so he must of jumped

Would adding electric help? Is this just part of having young horses?

I am not clear what kind of fencing you have but clearly it needs to be upgraded. A horse should not be able to run through fencing. Upgrade height, sturdiness, and visual density if that makes sense. It may cost a bit

[wsmoak]

What kind of fences are they doing this to?

I built horse fortresses so I could sleep at night. 5’ non-climb plus a top rail that puts it at 5’3" or so. Make sure to set the gates high enough that they don’t look like enticing escape option!

IMO young horses really don’t have all their brain cells installed and operational until at least 7, more likely 9. So things that work fine for older horses can be completely inadequate for the young ones.

[goodhors]

We have electric fencing and it carries a BIG jolt when they touch it! Your horses have no respect for your fencing, which is why they have blown thru it. Get some height of electric above boards, another line out some distance sideways in front of top boards. We use the white electric tape from TSC, very visible, carries a good jolt with the right fencer.

After raising fence and adding extra tape in front, make sure tape is HOT! Then walk the horse along the fence on a long rope (no nylon lunge lines, you will get burned as he pulls) you can let out a bit. Let horse reach out and touch the tape! Stand to one side, so no straight pull on the lead rope when he jumps away. Go with him. Then lead him to tape again, see if he will touch it again. Do this on all sides of paddock, field fence, so he clearly sees, KNOWS the tape bites. You may want to run a tape line with a spring handle at both ends for easy, complete removal when using the gate itself. Tape across in front of gate is so he won’the try jumping the plain gate. Do the same with the mare, she also needs this education to keep her safe in the future.

You may want to lead both horses around the fence lines a couple times over a couple days, see if they touch again, before free turnout. This will reinforce the lesson. Tape is very visible day and night. May need tightening if you get lots of wind or ice on it. Gonna cost, but having HOT tape in front at board height and up a foot above boards on ALL fence lines, is needed to fix this acting like an idiot when the wind blows.

If horses are not trained to stay away from the tape and fences, you will eventually have a hefty Vet bill for injuries. Letting horse get “burnt” on the hot tape is one of the life lessons they NEED to know for a good future life. Like tying well, standing tied quietly for long times, things will go better for the horse in the future. Life lessons can be harsh, but better taught under control with the lead rope, to ensure a good result

[Texarkana]

Definitely add electric.

[skip99]

I’ve had this happen when the paddock size has been quite small and a young horse doesn’t quite have the space to move when spooked (and perhaps hasn’t learned how to have a somewhat controlled spook). I have a paddock I never use as it is along a busy road but is narrow (40ish feet) so if something loud happens on the road the horses don’t have enough space to move away from the road and makes crashing through the fence more likely. The ones I’ve known who have gone through fence in this type of scenario have otherwise been very respectful of fence(knock on wood).

Now the ones who size up the fence, take a canter stride or two, jump, and go where they please… those do not get to live at my place

[clanter]

we have electric tape on nearly every fence, our horses respect the electric fence tapes even if it just a scrap piece on the ground

We have a weanling who tired to take a bite out of the tape, of course it shocked the heck out him but now he will not go near the fences. The other horses all learned in similar fashion so none challenge the demon fence

We had to start using electric fencing after one of our eventing horses showed us he he could clear jump our five foot fences

[trubandloki]

It sounds like your horse has now learned that leaving thru the fencing is a pretty easy option so that is the option they are taking.

Like several have asked, what is your fencing?

[4horses]

The fencing is mostly no climb wire with a top rail. The section he went through is no climb with a middle and upper rail. He jumped the middle rail, bent the wire and broke the upper rail. I went ahead and added an extra top rail. Planning on adding electric. With the added toprail, the fencing will be 5 ft tall.

He is bred to jump and it probably doesn’t help that I suspect he’s going to be much bigger than both his parents, so he has a height advantage. My fencing is due for an upgrade anyway. I want to put in a new paddock just for him. I’m just not certain where to put it so he can have shade. I might need to add more trees and some shade fabric behind the barn…

[sascha]

Fwiw, many moons ago, I had a giant youngster who would trot out of any paddock he deemed too small. Trot trot trot leap trot trot. It was a nightmare until we figured out that it had to do with enclosure size and nothing else.

Electric would not have stopped him. He cleared 5’ from a lazy trot.

Once we had him in enclosures he deemed acceptable he wouldn’t leave unless you were late with dinner. “Don’t bother, I’ll bring myself in. Save you some time since you’re LATE!” Same deal, trot to the 5 and a half foot gate leap, trot a couple steps, then walk demurely to the barn and into his stall where he’d wait for you to get your ass in gear and serve his damn dinner, tyvm.

Same horse would go section by section checking for loose boards if he caught sight of you having a beer on the back deck. When he found a loose one, he’d pull it off and just stand there staring at you waiting for you to bring the hammer and fix it. “You’d better come fix this board. One of us could get out.” He never bothered to step out even when he found a section with both middle and top boards loose. He’d just stand there with only the bottom board remaining and stare daggers at whoever was on the porch trying to relax. Never ever did it when no-one was relaxing or away from the property.

[lenapesadie]

On one occasion my homebred jumped out of a fence.

He was about 6 at the time and boarded out. He had a stall with a 12x50 run that was constructed with hot polywire about 4 1/2 feet tall. Late one night a new boarder horse was brought in and put into the stall with run next to my horse. New horse was a long yearling draft colt. My horse was evidently offended by this uncouth newcomer and walked to the end of his run whinnying at the BO and staff that were standing there observing new horse. When the humans didn’t come “save” my horse from the newcomer he jumped the fence from a standstill and made a beeline for the humans. Horses!

[MapleBreeze]

Electric and bigger paddock