Bit of an unusual one this, in our furthest turnout field for the horses, which is probably a good 1km away from the house, we segregated this 7 acre field into 3 separate paddocks each with standard wooden post and 2 strand electric fence through the divides, the perimeter is wooden post with livestock netting and electric strand top, with elasticated bungees into each of the three paddocks. The whole perimeter of the field is 6ft wide 8ft high hedges so relatively secure.

During lockdown we have been able to cut all the brambles between the hedges and the electric fence, replaced 85 rotten fence posts and ensured we have good electrical continuity around all the fields.

As ragwort season is in full swing plenty of that is being pulled but as two of these 3 paddocks are quite bad we decided wed try spraying it to see if it made our lives any easier. The only issue with that is as an EU agreement we are in until 2023 we are basically limited to the strengths of anything we can use against weeds. Its virtually Round Up!!

Anyway needless to say this had very little effect on the ragwort but in order to spray it the horses all got jogged around and there was 4 in paddock 1 and 2 & 3 remained empty.

Wednesday morning Mrs EC found a horse out of the field and in the strip allowing access to all 3 paddocks. As his only had 1 bungee across the gateway it is plausible that he has stuck his neck under the wire and been able to stretch it up over his back and get into the strip. He was returned and a 2nd bungee was installed inline with the lower strand of electric fence. He wont be able to break out again.

So yesterday morning Mrs EC again goes down into the field, the same horse is not in paddock 1 with his mates, hes not in the strip, hes not even in paddock 2. NO, hes in paddock 3 and probably 600m away from where he should be with at least 2 runs of electric fence between himself and where hes meant to be.

Weve checked the fence, theres no way hes barged out, no damage, the fence is definitely live!! And if he jumped out, why did he jump another fence and get further away from his mates he could of jumped the first one and got back with his mates.

So through the night hes been moved by someone who can handle horses. A phone call was made to the Rural Crimes section of Leicestershire police and we got a crime number and told to ring them regarding anything else or 999 if its desperate!! Oh and they want to know if we have CCTV protecting that part of the land!!!!!

This one particular horse is obviously a target so he has now been moved 3 fields away and visual from the house, the other 3 have remained in paddock 1 because we have no where else to put them.

Throughout the day a quick check was made and everything was all good, apart from this horse screaming his head off as hes not with his mates.

So 10pm iwent for a little trek down the fields and see if anything was happening, interestingly the 3 left in paddock 1 were right at the bottom of their section of field all quite close together eating, the fence was still secure and live and all the gates were shut properly and roped over the gate posts.

11pm I went for another wander, again all the gates were secure, the horse in question was starting to settle with his field mates and now as it was virtually dark the 3 left were no longer at the bottom of their field but right up against their bungee gateway, if this is their behaviour, which Mrs EC confirmed most of their muck is in this top section then he would be very easy to grab out of the section.

2am and 5am routine checks were made but no attempts to grab or move any happened through the night BUT clearly someone wants him away from us, he can be very viscous particularly in the stable so if someone tries it again I might find someone spark out in the field with a nice hoof print in the side of their head.

We can but hope!

Another few nights of no sleep coming but alot easier to stomach then a £10k horse disappearing!

I'd say so!

@exmouthcraig sorry for your troubles. It's got to be a worry for the pair of you.

Have you thought about installing some 'Trail/wildlife' cameras? A friend has a couple down his yard, they're quite effective, motion triggered, reasonably good night pictures. He's captured a lot of picture of people hopping over his gate to take a leak. They're not big money and a couple of them could provide some clues as to what's going on.

What colour is the horse? Certain sections of the community seem to favour pie/skewbald, preferably without paying for them. Also, check the horses manes for any tiny braiding, it's used so a horse can be identified in the dark by running a hand down it's mane. Small bits of cotton etc. on gates/posts and items in the gateway arranged in certain ways are also used as markers by them.

Best wishes.

We've been using headland polo for ragwort, so far this year we're controlling it by digging it out, not too much of a problem with 5 acres. Over the years I've known some very clever horses that have learnt how to escape their paddocks, they can be quite inventive. A friends mare would grab the plastic posts at the base and lift them out, she would work her way along until the section of fence fell over and step over thus undoing the attempt at strip grazing. Another used his rug to insulate himself from the fence, my youngster appeared to listen for the buzz then push through before the next pulse from the mains powered fence.

Gary

Will have a good route around in the daylight Mike, typically he is a piebald and as soon as Mrs EC told me which one it was that was my first comment.

Gary, the sole reason we dont use plastic poles, mind you one used to scratch himself innocently on the wooden poles but barge them in a way hed wriggle them loose!!!

We only use plastic ones as a temporary barrier these days. Before we had our own land the horses were at a livery yard that inexplicably had barbed wire on some fences so our plastic/electric fence was to give some protection from that, now we have post and rail. My youngster came in with a plait in his mane one day when he was at the livery yard so we put trail cameras around. Never found the culprit, I suspect it was one of the casual girls on the yard, caused us to worry for a while though.

Gary

I'm impressed that yours can be contained with a 2-strand electric fence.

I eventually found a formula which would keep ours in ... a wooden post every 4 metres, and 4 strands of electric tape. (The bottom one isn't actually electrified, since it would inevitably be shorted out by wet vegetation growth ... but it stops them from getting their noses under the bottom strand)

Quote from: PGN on June 10, 2020, 09:01:06 PM
I'm impressed that yours can be contained with a 2-strand electric fence.

I eventually found a formula which would keep ours in ... a wooden post every 4 metres, and 4 strands of electric tape. (The bottom one isn't actually electrified, since it would inevitably be shorted out by wet vegetation growth ... but it stops them from getting their noses under the bottom strand)

Haven't they sussed out that the bottom one isn't live?

I remember staying on a farm when I was a kid and the farmer told us that he had to be careful how he laid out his electric fence for strip grazing because some of the cows had worked out that a post with a thick bit (the insulator) just below the wire was safe to push over whereas if the thick bit was at the bottom of the post it wasn't.

Quote from: chrism on June 10, 2020, 09:18:30 PM

Haven't they sussed out that the bottom one isn't live?

They probably have ... but it doesn't matter.

They can't push through it with their noses, and they can't get under it ... but if they try to go over it, then sensitive parts (like ears0 get zapped by the next strand up ...

Do people not use barbed wire at all anymore?

Its now getting on for over 20 years since I had much to do with the Equine world, but back then several strings of barbed wire on proper posts, certainly kept the horses in where they should be, and also pretty much kept "sections of the community" out  - which is kinda the idea of a fence being there in the first place.

If something spooks my horses sufficiently that they take my fence down, all other things being equal I'd rather they didn't tear themselves to shreds in the process.

We have NO barbed wire anywhere, none of the cattle or sheep are controlled by it and most people take a dim view of using it now.

Wire netting is bad enough with greedy sheep stuffing their heads through a six inch square to get to a better bit of grass. Many an hour spent tipping them to rotate their heads out!!

As for keeping any one out, they just cut through anything in their way, nothing less then a 12bore tapped on their kneecaps deters them.

"Many an hour spent tipping them to rotate their heads out!!"

oops, thought for a moment the 'i' was meant to be a 'u' 

agree with the 12 bore comment, much less forensics than using a 9mm 

I dont seem to recall any horse ever even getting more than a minor gash at the  40 plus inmates livery yard where I did a lot of work in the early 90s... I also recall no one randomly wandering around their fields.
Then again, most of those fences were built properly not just thrown up...

If you really needed to, putting rails on the inside face of the posts kept the horses from all except the top and bottom string of wire.
I should also add that most of "our" fields were surrounded by drystone walls, which did present an obvious obstacle to the equine mind, so they didn't generally try to hard to get out or over, but not to the human one....

Sounds like your circumstances were very different from ours, Jason ... and circumstances alter cases, as the old saying goes.

Our paddocks are in the middle of the brickfields. Soil is pretty much pure clay ... winter paddocks turn to thick soup every year without fail, and all fence-posts have to be re-sited every 3 or 4 years.