Electric fences are being employed to protect various types of animals from rabbits to Elephants, Horses to chickens due to this type of fence’s ability to check vermin and teach the controlled animals not to break the perimeter. They are perfect for fencing animals such as horses that are smart and will instantly learn to heed an electric fence.

Horse behind Post-and-Rail re-enforced by electric strip.

Animal owners are increasingly looking to better forms of animal control and taking advantage of the technology of electric fencing in particular.

Horses and other animals often damage or escape fencing that costs the owner greatly, but electrified fencing actually reinforces an existing fence by altering the behaviour of the animals that are approaching or brushing the fence.

There are lots of reasons to select electric fencing for horses over traditional fencing, for instance it is a great deal better alternative to pointed fencing where livestock can be hurt or become entangled. Electric fencing is produced to a high standard using materials designed to ride out the weather which means they require repairing less frequently making them more affordable in the long run. Likewise, the fence will require less maintenance and is less labour intensive to maintain. Even erecting your fence for the first time is less time consuming.

One of the things that make electric fencing for horses so effective is that horses are regularly maintained and clipped so that the short hair makes them particularly open to the shock an electric fence delivers. They are also inquisitive and use their noses to investigate a foreign object – this nose is highly enervated so a shock to the nose is keenly appreciated. They are also domesticated so are quite happy to remain within the confines of a paddock close to the source of their food.

Consisting of four components, electrical fences should have:
1. An energiser generating regular pulses of electrical current,
2. One or several wires to transport the current,
3. Plastic insulators stopping the current from escaping into the ground,
4. An energiser which is earthed as deep as possible in the earth where it is most wet.

In order to safely contain horses you will want an energiser with no lower than 5,000 volts (sure 3000v will do the job in good situations but it is at the lower limit) in the fence line. Still this can depend on and be affected by vegetation within the area, the length of the fence and the type of wire being used. It is recommended that two lines of wire supported by posts is generally sufficient electric fencing for horses, and that vegetation is eliminated on the fence wire.