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by PaulHoule 883 days ago
It is one of those things like an electric shock for which the reaction to the pain is much worse than the tissue damage. I was quite surprised to see how terrified a Percheron draft horse (who hated fences and would go over or through them if it could) was of the electric fence that felt like a tiny ‘pop” to me. When I touched it while standing in a puddle with rubber boots that had a hole in them I understood a little better…
1 comments
acchow 883 days ago
Sounds like the horse really did feel significant pain but you didn't realize it at first because you had protection from shoes?
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PaulHoule 883 days ago
Somewhat. That horse really hated fences, which was one reason why he didn't fit in on our farm. If he really knew the shock was harmless and that freedom was one the other side I can picture him crashing right through it. But I'd imagine it hurts more with four feet pressed hard into the ground by a ton of weight.

Other horses really don't mind fences. Our neighbors got their SUV stuck driving around one Saturday night and then got a truck stuck trying to get it out (forgot the law of physics that says you should always tow a vehicle downhill if you at all can) and they came over looking for help. We took our tractor out there and cut a hole in the fence to get in to get them unstuck.

They never patched the hole but the horses they had stayed in for about a year and half until they discovered we had horses too after which they would come around to see our horses whenever they could and they learned they could just jump over the fence and come up to our place on the road.

They didn't have the right equipment to hitch them so I would take the horses to their place and tie them up with haystrings and such and leave angry messages on the answering machine.

At one point I changed my tack and decided to leave a nice message on their answering machine requesting that they pick up their horse. I offered them a pail of grain which would have let them catch the horse easily but instead they chased the horse around the outside of our electric fence which is bordered by hedgerows on both sides and after they got around to the other side I caught the horse immediately with the grain and handed it to them. After that they sold it right away.

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