The grass is greener on the other side of the fence - Paw Talk

**Scarlette** · #1 04-22-2004, 05:31 PM

It's that time of year again......break out season! My fences are about 28 years old and not real strong. The page wire pretty much disintegrates when you touch it and the deer don't even bother to jump over it, they just run through it. Every spring and summer my old mare Foxy decides to just push her way through the fence and get out. If she can fit her head through a spot she will just force her body through the rest of it.

The amazing part is that she is getting pretty arthritic and I don't see where she's getting the energy to walk the fence line to find a weak area to break out.

She can squeeze through the tiniest areas and it's so frustrating. I came home from work last night and she was standing in the neighbor's yard. GRRRR!!! So I tried to guess where she got out and did some fence mending in the dark. I got out of bed this morning and guess who was standing in the back yard?!

I walked the whole fence line and I have no clue where she squeezed through. I'm guessing it's an area close to the house because Foxy just doesn't move as well as she used to. I keep going outside and watching her, hoping to catch her in the act but to no avail.

So far I've been lucky and the other 3 haven't learned how to do this but I can't imagine they'll stay stupid for long.

Deja · #2 04-22-2004, 06:12 PM

In the last house we lived in (same town I am in now - a LOT of horses) the people next door had a couple of horses. One of the horses *loved* getting out and coming to my back door!
I'd walk into the kitchen and get startled by this huge horse face at my window

He also loved Jack - and loved to tease Jack! It was the funniest thing to watch.

I know it's a pain that your horse is getting out - I used to watch this horse get chased by his owner - through the woods sometimes...

It sure was funny though when he learned how to open my garbage pail and root for something good to eat

He'd pop the lid with his nose and it would go flying!

I love horses

Chrisanne · #3 04-22-2004, 06:18 PM

awww the joys of horses. HEHE

I love horses, and someday will have one. Its nice to hear the stories about what i have to look forward to

**Scarlette** · #4 04-22-2004, 09:13 PM

Most of the time when Foxy breaks out she will walk back up to the house and stay in the back yard. What makes me nervous is the thought of her getting hit on the road. I live in a rural area on a dead end dirt road but some of the idiots that drive by here think it's a free way and drive quite fast. Thoughts of my horse becoming road kill and whoever hitting her being seriously injured or killed scares the crap out of me. I don't need a dead horse and a law suit.

I wanted to replace all of my fencing and fence posts. I got an estimate to fence in 20 acres with the fencing that I want/need it's like 8k.

animal813 · #5 06-19-2004, 04:46 PM

wow, that would be very scary. How do you get them to come back? Lure them in with food?

**Scarlette** · #6 06-19-2004, 07:02 PM

They come running to me when I whistle.

animal813 · #7 06-19-2004, 07:49 PM

oh! that works! hah

Eli · #8 07-08-2004, 09:16 PM

lol, there were these 2 mules, and 1 horse, that would get out, whenIlived in the country, and they wold come and see me, cuz I always had some kind of good food for them, be it grain or carrots, or hay. They loved me and their owners knew right where to get them. They always got all three of those treats. so they knew that they'd be fed lol

XTRAWLD · #9 08-26-2004, 06:02 PM

I used to live in a pretty small town. My dad had to travel about an hour to work at around 5 am. There was a house with 2 horses and large paddocks down the street from us - I eventually became very good friends with the owner. As he was driving into work he saw a horse, just trotting along nicely down the center line of this 2 lane road. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Eventually, the horse was caught and brought back to the owner. If I remember correctly that night was a terrible thunderstorm and the owner had forgotten to bring the horses in before her time to leave for work. Needless to say the horses were spooked and just jumped the fence. Yours is arthritic, but do you think she coulda jumped it?

**Scarlette** · #10 08-26-2004, 09:37 PM

Quote:


	Yours is arthritic, but do you think she coulda jumped it?

Nope, not possible for her. I have watched her walk the fence, find a small hole to stick her head through and just push herself the rest of the way through. My fence is quite old and not as sturdy as it used to be. Heck, the deer don't even bother to jump it anymore, they just run right through it.

I've been putting money aside every month to save up for new fencing. To re-fence 20 acres....well, it's quite expensive! I haven't had any break outs for awhile now but I do walk the fences every week just to make sure the deer haven't made any new holes.