Fencer, husband, ZAP!

Is there any way to fiddle with your fencer to turn down the juice?

Little horse, Chevy, is an absolute monster about crashing under, over or through barriers. If it looks like an electric fence, guess what, it can't hold her. After constantly finding her where I didn't leave her or didn't want her to be, I said to Hub, it is time to get a better fencer. Our old one, as experienced by Hub, delivered a hum. Just a hum. Annoying but nothing too worrying.

The selection at the hardware store was either battery powered or a bazillion mile fencer. We do not fence a bazillion miles. I doubt our perimetre is even a mile. Maybe half a mile? But it's been busted through and tied together so many times that I doubted it was even capable of carrying a current. So we bought and hooked up the bazillion mile fencer. The Yard Tazar, as we fondly call it.

I fear electric fences and at first always unplugged this one at the source when working in the horse pen. But lately I've been feeling brave and leaving it plugged in. Today Hub came home from work and told me about the early morning zap that he seriously thought would end his life.

He was throwing hay to the horses over the fence in the early morning dark. He stumbled, fell forward and grabbed the top, twisted wire strand to steady himself, but his other hand landed on the hot wire. He says the jolt that went through is body was excruciating. He felt it shoot up his arm, through his chest, and down his other arm where it zapped out his ring finger, which he claims was numb for at least and hour. He says his hand throbbed all day. Apparenlty sparks were involved. He was not joking and found no humour in this event as he solemnly warned me to 'stay the hell away from that electric fence!'

I feel cruel having the mother of all fencer juiced up for that little horse. That gate crashing, fence scooting, barrier busting little shit. Wait...no I don't feel too bad. She had it easy and decided to not respect that boundary. LESSON LEARNED. But maybe for the sake of any hapless humans...is there something we can do, because the fencer has no provided adjustments to dial it down.

Tough love, hunny Tough love, the humour will come later after the tingling stops LOL

I wonder if you could hook it to a dimmer switch? Some electronics will simply burn out when you do this though. Perhaps there is an electrician who might know.
Another option may be adding some current reducers by purposefully, but slightly, grounding the fence.
Your poor hubby. It is amazing how the location of the zap can make it feel so different!

You can buy a shock reducer. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] at $96 it might be cheaper to trade in your high powered fencer for one with slightly less juice!

Uno .....check out ....www.premiersupplies.com They sell feceing ,netting , wire ,and fencers for every thing from chickens to horses .It is in the USA ,but this years catalog says they do free shipping ? so you might get it here rather cheap if you find something there that you like .I wouldn't worry to much about a high charge fencer as far as the horse goes ,I have seen a full grown bull get knocked to it's knee's and with that same fencer a cow walked through it ? you could see her shudder every time it got the jolt ? but she was bent on getting through and did ! Bigger is better .....LOL....

Sounds like it is perfect. If you had that at the start, little monster horse would not be little monster horse about fences.
I have to say electric fences scare me to death! I grew up with them and have suffered what your hubby went thru many times. Ruffled, I am not sure if the humour ever comes, especially if dewy feet are involved! I break out in a sweat when I hear the 'tick, tick' but I will get a lawn chair and a beer if I fix a fence a horse has been abusing. There is something sick inside me that enjoys seeing them learn to respect the fence again.
I figure this may help with the whole wandering neighbour and visitor problem, but you may have to extend the fence to the perimeter.

coopslave wrote:I hear the 'tick, tick' but I will get a lawn chair and a beer if I fix a fence a horse has been abusing. There is something sick inside me that enjoys seeing them learn to respect the fence again.

Now that is just sick, lmao!!

We had a honker of an electric fence around our apiary back on the coast. Let me tell you, that would bring a grown man to his knees too (and seen that a few times, knocked right over). One dog got it two times before he finally clued in what it was. I picture the same amount of strength with Hubby, Uno. I have borne witness to the power of this kind of shock and it is not nice. I used to get it in the butt when I was bending over around the area weeding. Not nice, let me tell ya. Probably three times over a period of 5 years, whooda thunk, shoulda learned. Ouch. It really does hurt, horrible pain (almost as bad as the sting from a bald faced hornet, the big, big black and white ones, nasty suckers!! ) Tell Hubby, Uno, to stay far away when throwing hay to the stock! Have a great day, CynthiaM.

When I lived up north the town we lived in had this bright idea that we should fence it. Well don't just fence it electric fence that sh*t. It's main purpose was to keep those pesky bears out. They weren't really pesky but meerly taking advantage of the situtation. Somewhere down the line the towns people were starting to develop conscious about these bears forever eating our garbage. So fence that pile in, add electric to it, make it snap so they know we mean business!!

An at 15 with a couple of friends in a dare we took turns *testing* the fence. CRACK, SNAP, POW*.

So yes in my sick and twisted way I still hear that humm, I still hear that tick, I can still remember that feeling of getting my arse handed to me for being young and very foolish!! But it was a DARE I never backed down from any dare how could I. My other girlfriends each took their respective turns and I'm pretty sure they have done numerous things to forget what we stoopid children were doing that fateful day up north with nothing better to do.

We've needed a new fencer for a while, this the horse who thinks that fences are a 'suggestion' and not the rule. So Hub bought me one for Christmas. When we got it out this spring to install only to discover it was battery powered. Hub is not great at reading packages. We returned it this spring and bought the Yard Tazer.

Having spent a large amont of money on this fencer, we're not likely to replace it just now. BUt yes...small stinky horse has learned some lessons!

I rented a property for a residential program I was running, that had a sheep pen behind it with an electric fence. When my boss came to see the house, he went out to look at the sheep, I warned him about the fence. He looked at me and said this can't have too much charge and grabbed it with both hands before I could say anything. I laughed so long and hard, that the staff came out to see what was happening. No he didn't fire me.

We had an old pulsing one. I was working on the fence for the goose run one day, which was attached to the fence in one corner, so I had both my arms draped carefully over the electric fence. I wasn't walking back up that muddy hill to turn it off for two fencing staples. Last staple in, and I guess I relaxed my shoulders just enough to drop both elbows and SNAP is all I heard. I felt that current go through me and I can tell you there's a huge difference between touching electric fence in one spot, and completing the circuit by touching it in two spots. In the one arm, down through the torso, back up and out the other arm. I came to my senses about 15 feet later face down in the mud, heart sounding like a marching band in a parade with Shannon kneeling in front of me asking are you ok? I vaguely remember saying "ummmmmm no?" Questionlike.

I found out later, those pulsing controllers build up a charge until it meets a certain threshold to be released, so god only knows what current you're actually getting hit with. I figure if they're strong enough to keep a 1200lb animal at bay, they weren't designed for a human to play with!