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Most of my pastures are permanent 5 strands of barbed wire, but I have a couple of smaller areas on which I use electric fencing. It's a pretty hot fence, and the horses and cows never get out. I found out why this morning. I forgot about it being there, bent down to pick something up, and rammed my head against the wire. Growing up on a farm, and having farmed about all my life, I've had numerous experiences with electric fencing, and have been shocked many times. I didn't get just shocked today, I literally got knocked down. I've never, ever, ever been shocked that hard. I swear I saw stars. My head is still hurting. It stunned me for a minute or so, and made me think about the people who get hit with a taser gun, and how it must feel.

Fence the Liberals!

It's hard on cats too. I put dat sheeit around my garden. Sounded like a billy goat being castrated.

If it was that bad something is askew IMO.

The only reason a taser makes you fall is because of the arc between two points of contact. A fence shouldn't do that.




Clark

Damn!

I crossed one of those while hunting a few years back. Held the wire down with the butt of my rifle and was in full straddle when it slipped off!

The "light" went through your CNS, grounding out via your feet, and that ain't a good thing.
I wouldn't make a habit of using your head in that manner.
Very different from touching with a hand or other bodily extremity.

I used it to keep dogs from getting out.It worked really well. The beagles never got out after that.

Must have a pretty good ground! Is your ground rod into the water table or something?


Done right, an electric fence is something to behold. Ours are pretty lame out here. Not enough moisture in the ground.

Ideally you would run a ground wire in between the hots to make a better circuit. That is a doozy if you touch both.

How is your fence set up?


I know I have told this story before, but a few years ago I was fighting fire in Roosevelt county Montana. North of Wolf Point on the Reservation's buffalo pasture. These were special "pure blood" buffalo from Yellowstone.

As in a lot of line breeding and crappy results.

Anyway, those buffalo were fenced in by a 5 wire hot fence. When the fire came they just went to a corner and burned up. I guess they decided a firey death was preferable to touching that fence. It would make the hair on your arms stand up from 10 feet away.

Was the ground abnormally wet.

Then again there is nothing quite like the 5 second ride.

I know the feeling, I got my thumb on our electric fence last month while whacking weeds and it left my hand numb for few minutes. We have a 50 mile fencer on less than a mile of wire and have it grounded well.

It depends on the controller and the amount of moisture in the ground. A 50 mile controller designed to work on sheep and other livestock with long hair will make you see Jesus. They won't kill you, but they'll make you think you're dying. I've tested them once or twice and have no desire to do it again.

We've got a 200 mile fencer. I don't know how many miles we have, but it isn't a massive amount. I've been hit by it several times. The pop is always directly related to how well grounded you are. My worst has been when holding a ground wire with one hand and accidentally touching the hot with a pair of fencing pliers in my other hand. Went up one arm, across my chest, and down the other. My chest muscles locked up/tensed so hard that I was sore the next day.

In dry climates, I run a 6' piece of 5/8" rebar into the ground to the hilt.

That'll ground it.

Too much juice can be hard on horses. I knew a guy who led his horse up to a water tank when the ground was wet. The horse touched a nearby fence and died in it's tracks.

We run three ground rods as well as tying the ground into our barb wire...which is touching every metal post along the fence. Ground is fairly wet much of the year as well.

Never thought about it killing a horse.... We keep horses separate from goats but occasionally they are in areas were they could touch it.

I missed the portion of it contacting his head.

Yeah. Don't do that. Don't ever do that.





Clark

I found this guy last week. I think he saw the light....

Look on the bright side, JR. The next woman takes you on is gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!

Bullets designed to tumble and fences killing horses.

Fun day on the 'fire.




Clark

We buy those 8 foot ground rods from the power company and still have to dump water on them to get them to ground.