Fencing for goats and horses

ladywoodworker · Mar 7, 2015

I am planning to acquire a couple of goats and a horse this year. I've been shopping around for fencing and thought I had settled on 5 strands of braided electric wire but then a friend told me that electric fencing won't work in the winter. We tend to get quite a bit of snow up here in Quebec. I have also heard that anything that won't hold water won't hold a goat, and that they test the fence constantly.... so I'm at a bit of a loss. It seems to me that so many people wouldn't invest in electric fence if it didn't work five or six months out of the year. Does anyone out there have any advice?

sleepybozo · Mar 7, 2015

No experience with horses, but four strands of electric wire did the trick with my goats ... except for that one! He would go straight through, you could watch him twitch every time the fence sent out a charge, usually two or three times every time he went through, but he went through anyway. Goats in general are considered escape artists, and the smaller the goat, the more fence you need. Pygmy goats are the worst, pretty much need deer fencing for them, they don't jump as high as deer, but they climb and crawl under any thing they can. Some folks in 4-H claimed their pygmys even climbed trees to get out!

If you have every other wire a ground wire they'll be sure to get a strong shock if they try to get through. That might not be enough, though.

hoho · Mar 7, 2015

Have had horses for 40 years used it all now use cattle panels 16 feet long 54"high.keeps every thing in sheep to .Replace rolled wire every year till its all cattle panels.

mddorange · Mar 7, 2015

:welcome:
To TBN Ladywoodworker from Alabama. As Sleepy said, a ground wire in between the braided electric wire is REQUIRED to have enough jolt to do any good. Otherwise you are just wasting your money. What they are talking about for the snow, is that if the electric wire gets touched by anything, including grass or weeds, it grounds it and it no longer works until cleared. We use electric fence to keep the donkeys and horses in just fine.

ladywoodworker · Mar 7, 2015

mddorange said:
:welcome:
To TBN Ladywoodworker from Alabama. As Sleepy said, a ground wire in between the braided electric wire is REQUIRED to have enough jolt to do any good. Otherwise you are just wasting your money. What they are talking about for the snow, is that if the electric wire gets touched by anything, including grass or weeds, it grounds it and it no longer works until cleared. We use electric fence to keep the donkeys and horses in just fine.

In that case, should the lowest wire be a ground rather than a hot wire? What I read was that the reason the animals would not receive a shock by touching the fence in winter is that they are standing on snow and not touching the ground.

Stimw · Mar 7, 2015

I just bought a 10 acre property and a neighbor told me they used to lease it and had about 50 goats on it with some horses.
In the pic I just added a new gate to the pasture and you can see the type of fence surrounding the pasture.

phiferpharm · Mar 7, 2015

I am using no-climb, which has a much smaller opening than the field fence, topped by 1X6 boards and no barbed wire. On my field for the dogs, I did the same thing but used 5' high no climb buried in a trench to discourage digging under it. My neighbor has barbed wire and I've noticed all of her Horses have nicks in the necks I think are from the barbed wire.

This is the outside of the fence (I'm keeping one of my Halflinger's tied up to dry after his bath). The board are on the inside so that the horses push against them, and will be get treated once they've been allowed to dry a little. I'm lucky to have a fellow who saws the stuff exactly like I want it and the extra thickness (not to mention cost) is great.

ladywoodworker · Mar 7, 2015

All of the advice has been great so far. I'm thinking that in spite of the extra cost the no-climb fencing with wood posts and a board at the top might be my best bet. I would rather make a bigger investment at the start and save myself the hassles of making a lot of changes down the road. My neighbour's goat was hit by a car last summer and I sat with her in the ditch for two hours waiting for the vet (she died just as the vet was arriving). I really want to avoid putting my own critters through that. We also have coyotes on the mountain so burying the wire mesh might be wise.