So, when we bought the Fixer Upper Farm we ripped out all old barbed wire and multitude of post types and started from scratch. Put up 4' no-climb, horse safe, fencing with wooden posts. Although I bought all the materials to add the wide Ramm mesh tape (that can be made electric with a charger), I just never got around to it. I mainly bought it as an additional sight line for the equines, for them to be able to see the fence more clearly. The wooden posts have never been cut down (they are about 2' taller than the top of the wire mesh. I was waiting to shorten them until the tape went up, as I was going run the tape a few inches above the top of the wire mesh, along the inside of the pastures/inside of the wooden posts using all the components made for that type of fencing. I didn't want to cut down the wooden posts wrong and then not be able to do the tape as needed.
All that to say, life got in the way. All three equines lived peaceably and respectfully without the tape for quite awhile. Other projects took priority. I tend to get stressed out by electric fences due to being at barns where they were installed wrong and I got nailed, Fergus got nailed, or Fergus seemed to be able to feel the charge in the ground and wouldn't cross thresholds of gates...again, assuming fencing was done wrong. So, I was happy to put off this project.
Fergus was 17hh and, in the last year of two, easily reached over the 4' wire mesh to get outside grass in winter months when the pastures were pretty beat down. He also started to sit on favorite sections of fence and used it as his "hammock"...looking back, I wonder if this may have been related to all the mysterious aspects of what was probably going on with him physically. That definitely realigned posts and altered the wire mesh, lol. Again, DH and I tried to plan out how and when to fix and then run the tape (and electrify it)...and I still tried to avoid as I knew how Fergus (and I) felt about electric.
Fergus left us 1 month ago tomorrow. The other two equines are too short to try to graze outside the fence. They have plenty to occupy them now that there is all that space for only 2 mouths, and since they can have access to hay 24/7 now that Fergus' medical needs don't dictate an absence of hay in the pastures. DH and I have a plan to tidy up the posts that need some tidying and the wire mesh that is a bit folded and bent. Even there, the other two have shown no interest in messing with the fence.
I don't want to add electric, as I just don't like dealing with it to be honest. And I don't see a need anymore. I feel like it would be OK to try to sell what I bought to get some portion of the money back...it's been sitting, unopened, in it's packaging in the barn for 4 years so I assume it's still OK? And if I do that, I am so excited at the thought of FINALLY cutting down those fence posts to a more aesthetically-pleasing height. (One of those "drive me crazy" things I have been so looking forward to tidying up someday). But before I do that, I need some other experienced brains to help me run this situation please.
Dallas is 14.2hh and Junior is 12hh. I have seen them both itch their faces or necks on the fence posts now and then...nothing that damages the integrity of anything, just an observation. They also have trees to itch on, and the many posts of the barn and run-in that they can access 24/7. (and they do use at times). Right now, the fence posts are too tall for them to really want to itch on the top surface on the post, just the height of the post. I wonder about how to cut the posts down to be the safest/most injury-avoiding. Do I leave 4" (or more) above the top of the wire mess in case someday some situation changes and that wide wire tape is needed? Will that amount leave them more opportunity for injury by rubbing an eye or underside of their throat on the top/flat surface and getting a splinter or a corner poked into an eye? If I cut it down flush to the height of the wire mesh, and the tape or some electric option is needed some year in the future, can you attach insulators over the wire mesh to run some type of electric fencing basically over the surface of the wire mesh?
I don't want to run the risk of taking something away (post height) that I can't add back on if needs change, equines change, behaviors change...but I don't want to make a bad choice that sets the 2 boys up for a new way to maim themselves. This makes me feel a tendency to hover longer in avoidance, despite how much more "finished" the fence will look without all that extra post height everywhere. I thought about putting up the tape and not making it hot, then cutting down the posts...but I fear the donkey may see the wide tape as a fun new toy and see if he can us it for tug of war or maybe a slingshot to further torture the pony. When I initially planned to use it that way---unelectrified and just for increased visibility---I had two horses that were very polite about gates and fences...not a donkey who behaves like, well, a donkey.
Thoughts please? (I hope this makes sense without photos)
