Just pull the trigger.

Here's the question: how many times do you attempt to catch your stupid, snotty horse as it does laps around the pen with 100 feet of electric tape and a fencer bouncing behind it, before you just call it quits and shoot the damn thing in the head?

Spent all afternoon taking down rickety, temporary fencing, moving steel posts, rolling up all that bouncy, obnoxious stucco wire, applying newly purchased metal post electric wire holders, stringing newly purchased wire, re-rigging the electric cords and fencer only to have Puke Face the horse run right through the works not 24 seconds after we put her back in the pen. Then, with a tangled mess, a few posts AND the fencer bouncing behind, does a few victory laps while I walk, as calmy as possible, with gritted teeth and halter in hand to catch her. But will she be caught? Oh no! No, today she has to run and snort and make one holy mess of everything. At any moment she's going to barrel through the twisted wire perimenter fence and hurt herself and at this point all I can think, through my red hot haze of fury is that I want nothing better than to be the one to end her life myself. Stupid idiot horse! Has NO REASON in the world to run through fencing other than has ZERO respect for boundaries. Probably out there in a tangled mess even as I type this, having spent another two hours putting it all back together again! THe neighbours think I have lost my mind as I shriek, "In Scandanavia you'd be dinner now!" They think I'm yelling at the dog and everyone knows Scandanavians don't eat dogs, so the neighbours think I'm nuts.

I hate horses.

I very calmly lead a horse on a halter and shank up to the electric fence and wait till they get ZAPPED.
Then I walk said freaked out horse all around the fenced area snorting and snotting till they know where the fence is.

If it is a colt then I tie little ribbons on the wire so that that ribbon hangs down about 4 inches and then do the zapp.

Horses that do not know what a live wire is tends to run forward...thus thrashing said fence.

Been there done that. Now I do the zap test first.

Am sorry UNO but I really had to laugh at the picture you painted!! I can totally understand the frustration felt as my husband has a gelding (whom I have hated from first sight which does not happen very often with me) who I tried to help out last winter with his skin condition by being a kind hearted soul and putting a blanket on him. He proceeded to rip it to shreds and get tangled up in the remains, and then when I went to rescue him he starts snorting, blowing and trying to run away, but kept falling because it tangled his front feet. I spent 2 hours trying to catch him and get the remains off him before I took my kids to their hockey game. Horses will do the darnedest things to upset us at times it seems they do it on purpose!! Hugs to you!!!

I have to agree with ab though I like to show them the fence

I agree... I always tied colored ribbons to the fence...... I guess I was mean because I would entice them to touch it by putting buckets outside the electric fence... but with horses, goats or cattle... the electric fence is a mental barrier... you still need a heavy duty fence along with it.

Laugh away, Smoky, I am SO not having a happy day!

Abpride, I had not thought of purposely electrocuting the horse. Although I will admit that thinking about that now gives me a fiendish jolt of sadistic pleasure. It's not like the fence was in a new location, exact same location, just little horse is obviously the economy model, the one WITHOUT a brain. SHe had no reason to run through it other than she's a pushy little brat. Put a board up to block her way and she will knock that board down if it kills her. And it very well may (grumble, grumble, itchy trigger finger)

Also, our fencer is pathetic and the wire has been broken and cobbled together so many times I doubt it carries much of a current. Once hubby got a leg on each side of the strand, going over, before he discovered that it was NOT off, as he had thought, and then he proceeded to do an improvisational version of River Dance with that wire between his legs. But really, if it was a strong current it would have launched him into space. Nope, just a jig.

I have re-inforced the visual presence with that all purpose and ever so attractive barnyard multi-tasker; bindertwine. THe orange kind. Once we fall the dead birch maybe we can put up some REAL fencing, but no sense putting in posts and boards just to drop trees on it. Well, I got my exercise today, that's for sure!

Grandma Art wrote:I agree... I always tied colored ribbons to the fence...... I guess I was mean because I would entice them to touch it by putting buckets outside the electric fence... but with horses, goats or cattle... the electric fence is a mental barrier... you still need a heavy duty fence along with it.

haha,most will be stupid and stick their nose on it if they have never seen one before.I like to be able to get them to at least go backwards when they get zapped haha

My old boy would loose it if you even tried to take him near a string stung across a gateway.
Its a respect thing .
Funny thing is ,he got tangled in wire one day when we were out riding..and stood like a rock till I got it sorted out.
We had some real wrecks over the years..but he was used hard pretty much everyday for 28 years.So I guess you just have the ods of wrecks.

Uno, those pushy horses drive me crazy too!!!

I get perverse pleasure in any animal getting zapped by electric fence. They should not be pushing, rubbing or feeling their boundries I figure.

I had one horse, years ago, that would 'test' the fence by rubbing his whiskers on it. If it felt like it was not on or working properly he would just push through it. That horse drove me MAD! He never got zapped as he was to smart, but any breach in the system he knew about right away.

I have done the same thing as abpride has done and had supervised zappings. I have to admit most of our horses over the years could be kept in binder twine tied together as a barrier as they respected the hot wire so much......not whisker boy though!!

Good luck with your mare, she is a tough cookie that is for sure.

I must say they seem to really understand the words " if you don't smarten up you will join the lead train" around here. They know when that phrase comes about they have pushed me beyond what they should have. I am very fortunate with the majority of our horses they won't touch the fences for their lives. I do have one, that same lovely gelding that won't cross a wire laying flat on the ground even if all the other horses do until he spots a cow, elk, moose or deer in the pen then he will go through a fence to put them out of his pen. He only goes through the fence if the animal stops on the other side of the fence. It does not stop him even if it is electric. He will quiver going through the fence chase the animal off our property and then stand their whinnying for us to rescue him from his stupidity!! Good luck teaching her to respect the hotwire

Uno
I can relate not about the horse but there are days
when I sware the critter around her wake up the the
so goal for the day to do everything they can to
piss me off. And on those days they are so lucky
I don't know where the keys to hubbys guns are or
where the amo is.

Sorry for your troubles, Uno! (I really am) .... but I admit to having a good laugh at your very picturesque tale.

Deep breathes Uno. Try and relax. Go rent The Godfather and enjoy the horse head scene.

We have a Russian house cleaner and she says that horse meat is a delicasy in Russia. You might want to whisper that in your horses ear.

karona wrote:Uno
I can relate not about the horse but there are days
when I sware the critter around her wake up the the
so goal for the day to do everything they can to
piss me off. And on those days they are so lucky
I don't know where the keys to hubbys guns are or
where the amo is.

Ditto! Only differance in our lives is I have the keys to the (new!) gun safe! Lol

Across the pond electric only fence is used 99% of the time(wood rail fence is not allowed since it isn't "esthetically pleasing", well to me it looks better then the yellow plastic sticks with white wire e-ribbon running along but law is law) so our horses are use to the electric and dont bother testing it. Only horse to have any electric on its fence since we moved here is our stud, and that is to keep the girls OUT!

My Ram pen for the sheep also has 1 wire at nose hight so the boys stop rubbing their heads on the posts, they all got the "no-touchy" rule after 1 zap, the 2 goat wethers with them however are absolutly brain-dead and twice a day I hear one of them scream cause he had to touch the fence......