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Hi Peg,
Glad you liked my thoughts on Fjord gaits. Can't think of any snappy
comebacks to your worse-than-mine puns, so I'll just mention how honored
I am that the Queen of Fjord Comedy would even deign to reply to a weak
attempt at humor from a neophyte such as I!
When you ask about fences, though, I have planned, built, repaired, and
watched Fjords test quite a bit of fence in my day, so thought I would
offer some comments in reply to your post. In fact, the "education
article" in the soon-to-be-released Herald is about fencing. These
comments I'm making will be mostly in addition to the Herald article,
i.e. not in the article.
>I have another question {and another loose association] - what model
>fence charger produces the most bang for your buck? And with what kind
>of wire? "Super Grunt" has been recommended. Is this the noise the
>installer makes when he/she encounters the hard-pan soil? All
>suggestions [about fence chargers and hot wires] appreciated.
You will save yourself untold amounts of horse chasing, fence repairing,
and vet paying if you buy the best fence charger you can afford. Like
Marsha Jo, I have used a solar charger, but my 6-volt solar charger just
did not have enough oomph. Just one short in the fence and the shock
would decrease to a tickle. I'm sure a 12-volt solar unit would have
performed better, but I finally ran an electric line underground and put
an outlet at the fence. If you can go electric, do it; The solars don't
even compare.
The newer chargers have a plug-in module that can be replaced when the
unit goes bad or gets hit by lightning (which is covered by the
warranty). They put out around 7000-9000 volts. That's what it takes to
keep a goat from getting through it, and if it will stop a goat, it will
stop a horse. That may sound like alot, but remember - It's the amps
that kill you. The volts just make you wish you were dead. : )
We're all tempted to skimp on the grounding system, because that seems to
be the most difficult part (driving in all the ground rods, etc). But
that is also the most important part to your fence. Put it in the
wettest area possible, and if the manual says put in two ground rods, put
in two. If it says put in three, put in three.
In very dry weather, the shock is not as good. Especially if the horse
is standing on bare dirt, not in deep grass etc. To help with this, you
can connect some of the wires to the ground system. If the horse just
hits the hot wire, doing this does not have any effect. But if he hits a
ground wire and an earth wire (one that's been attached to the grounding
system), he gets a jolt like he's standing in water.
Put in lots of cut-out switches. These are the switches that let you
turn off electricity to different parts of the fence. They're very nice
for tracking down shorts and for allowing you to work on one part of the
fence without turning the whole thing off. Also nice if you want to tie
a horse to the fence to trim a mane or something; It's not very fun when
they hit the electricity when you are doing that.
The bigger diameter wire you use, the easier the electricity flows
through it. This means that high tensile wire or aluminum wire is the
best to use. Yes, the electric tapes are useful, but just remember it's
harder for the fence charger to push the electricity through those tiny
wires. Electricity is like water; At the end of the line you will have
less pressure (less voltage) than you did at the beginning. The bigger
the pipe (wire) though, the more water (shock) you will get at the end.
If possible, have empty lanes between your corrals. The biggest reason
horses get tangled up in the wire is that they're fighting with or
fooling around with another horse across the fence. I'm a big proponent
of high tensile wire with two caveats: 1) ALWAYS keep the electricity on
(so the horses are never tempted to mess with it), and 2)don't have
horses right across the fence from each other. Keep an empty lane in
between. Yes I know that means more fencing, but it's well worth it. We
are seeing more sliced tendons from horses kicking at each other through
the wire than ever before.
Brian Jacobsen, DVM
Norwegian Fjordhest Ranch
Salisbury, North Carolina
