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Horse 3, humans nil
This morning, it rained quite a bit, so we waited until after Pilates to make a decision on putting the boys out in the field.
(Pilates sucked, big time. The class is nominally 9:30-10:30, but is usually more like 9:40-10:45; this must annoy the people in the next class even more than it does me. Today, though, she spent until 10:05 (not that I was watching the clock) telling us about a new book she's reading. At least when my old riding instructor used to go on about a new book she was reading, you could ride around in a circle while she was doing it, and try out the things she mentioned. I really hope that it's not going to be a regular thing. *And* the actual class, what little there was of it, was dull and easy. Bah.)
We decided that they could go out, but just in the top half of the field. Half an hour later, we looked out of the window to see Bugs in the bottom half, but decided that at least this meant that they weren't chasing each other around and churning the place up.
Then we looked out again, just before we took Jo for her walk, and found him on the unused part of the field.... Mike went and captured Bugs and brought him back to where he should be (for 'at least they aren't chasing each other around' values of 'should') and we let him go again. Bugs walked over to the wire, ducked his head and walked back under the fence to the fallow part. I've been saying for a while that I didn't think the fence there was working properly, because I've seen Baby sticking his head right under it so that it rests on his mane, so Mike went and recaptured Bugs while I deployed sophisticated measuring equipment (aka the back of my hand) to determine that there was no current in the bottom strand of the fence on that side of the field (the other side and the top strand are fine. Given that it's a continuous piece of wire, there must just be a break in it), which we fixed by tying a spare bit of tape between the two strands. Testing showed that it was live, so we let him go again.
This time, he walked over to the fence and then pulled back when he realised that it was live. Then, I swear, he paused to get his timings (it's a periodic pulse, not a continuous thing), ducked his head and walked quickly back under the fence to the fallow part.
We only have two strands to our electric fence, because that's all you need for horses other small ponies. The posts do have space for more, though, so we got the spare tape out and put another, lower strand in. Mike recaptured Bugs again, and after I'd put the power back on he let him go.
Bugs walked over to the fence, made a couple of 'will I fit?' motions under the bottom wire with his head, decided he wouldn't, trotted up the length of the fence to check it was like that the whole way, then took a small run up and (fairly) neatly popped over it. (He did clip it with a back foot, and pull some of it over, but it was quite a nice jump on awkward ground.)
We left him to it and took Jo for her walk, which was nice other than the hail shower. We realised after leaving the house that we should have put a grazing muzzle on him before we went out, so that he at least couldn't eat the tasty grass he'd escaped into.
When they come in this evening, the plan is to put a second line of tape about 1.5m from the first, in the hope that he'll decide that that's too far to jump. And, apparently, always *always* remember to turn it on....
(Why did we have no problems when he was out there in his little pen on his own? I suspect that it was because that was in the already-used part of the field, so the grass on the other side of the fence wasn't literally greener than what he was supposed to be eating. I have a nasty feeling that Bugs might be smarter than GB, in which case I fear for what he'll be like with a couple more decades of experience under hisbelt girth.)
(Pilates sucked, big time. The class is nominally 9:30-10:30, but is usually more like 9:40-10:45; this must annoy the people in the next class even more than it does me. Today, though, she spent until 10:05 (not that I was watching the clock) telling us about a new book she's reading. At least when my old riding instructor used to go on about a new book she was reading, you could ride around in a circle while she was doing it, and try out the things she mentioned. I really hope that it's not going to be a regular thing. *And* the actual class, what little there was of it, was dull and easy. Bah.)
We decided that they could go out, but just in the top half of the field. Half an hour later, we looked out of the window to see Bugs in the bottom half, but decided that at least this meant that they weren't chasing each other around and churning the place up.
Then we looked out again, just before we took Jo for her walk, and found him on the unused part of the field.... Mike went and captured Bugs and brought him back to where he should be (for 'at least they aren't chasing each other around' values of 'should') and we let him go again. Bugs walked over to the wire, ducked his head and walked back under the fence to the fallow part. I've been saying for a while that I didn't think the fence there was working properly, because I've seen Baby sticking his head right under it so that it rests on his mane, so Mike went and recaptured Bugs while I deployed sophisticated measuring equipment (aka the back of my hand) to determine that there was no current in the bottom strand of the fence on that side of the field (the other side and the top strand are fine. Given that it's a continuous piece of wire, there must just be a break in it), which we fixed by tying a spare bit of tape between the two strands. Testing showed that it was live, so we let him go again.
This time, he walked over to the fence and then pulled back when he realised that it was live. Then, I swear, he paused to get his timings (it's a periodic pulse, not a continuous thing), ducked his head and walked quickly back under the fence to the fallow part.
We only have two strands to our electric fence, because that's all you need for horses other small ponies. The posts do have space for more, though, so we got the spare tape out and put another, lower strand in. Mike recaptured Bugs again, and after I'd put the power back on he let him go.
Bugs walked over to the fence, made a couple of 'will I fit?' motions under the bottom wire with his head, decided he wouldn't, trotted up the length of the fence to check it was like that the whole way, then took a small run up and (fairly) neatly popped over it. (He did clip it with a back foot, and pull some of it over, but it was quite a nice jump on awkward ground.)
We left him to it and took Jo for her walk, which was nice other than the hail shower. We realised after leaving the house that we should have put a grazing muzzle on him before we went out, so that he at least couldn't eat the tasty grass he'd escaped into.
When they come in this evening, the plan is to put a second line of tape about 1.5m from the first, in the hope that he'll decide that that's too far to jump. And, apparently, always *always* remember to turn it on....
(Why did we have no problems when he was out there in his little pen on his own? I suspect that it was because that was in the already-used part of the field, so the grass on the other side of the fence wasn't literally greener than what he was supposed to be eating. I have a nasty feeling that Bugs might be smarter than GB, in which case I fear for what he'll be like with a couple more decades of experience under his
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