Electric Horse Fencing

Legacy Habitat offer a variety of Gallagher electric fencing products that are specifically tailored to the needs of horse fencing. Horses present a specific set of problems when it comes to fencing including injury through spooking/bolting, cribbing or chewing of timber fences and the habit of using fences as leaning or scratching posts.

The Gallagher horse fence products are all designed to cope with these issues, ensuring that you are able to construct a cost effective durable fence that is both safe and effective for your horse.

We are able to offer both permanent and temporary electric horse fence designs, and a range of budget options within each design criteria.

Permanent Electric Horse Fencing

We are able to offer two types of permanent fence design, one based on Gallagher 40mm TurboStar tape, the second uses Gallagher Equifence, a plastic sheathed high tensile steel wire.

The TurboStar tape offers a number of advantages:

• 7 year UV warranty, maximising the value from your investment
• High levels of conductivity, so ensuring that the power from your energiser is delivered to where you need it.
• Minimal chance of injury to your horse.  The TurboStar tape is designed with a low breaking weight so that your horse will not injure itself if it bolts through the fence.
• Low levels of wind disturbance.
• And easy of installation.

While the TurboStar tape can be used in a variety of designs, for greatest durability and effectiveness we recommend a post and three tape design. This is analogous to a post and three rail timber fence. The tape comes in white and brown (Terra). The Gallagher advice is that both of these products are equally visible to horses, but the Terra is more sympathetic in landscape terms. Please see our installation advice link for details on fence design and the appropriate energiser for your needs.

The Equifence system offers the following features:

• A ten year product warranty,
• An very high level of conductivity
• The safety of a conducting exterior plastic sheath
• High tensile strength, allowing for tensioning in the manner of a traditional post and wire fence.

The Equifence wire has a 2.5mm high tensile steel core with an aluminium coating to promote conductivity. This is surrounded by a 3mm radius plastic sheath which minimises the chance of your horse injuring itself against the wire. The conductivity is maintained through the use of lines of carbon in the plastic sheath to create a conductive polymer. Again this is available in both white and Terra. In order to increase the safety for horses of this product, it can be installed using tensioning springs rather than simply pulling and permanently fixing to a straining post, thereby ensuring a greater level of flexibility in the system.

Gallagher recommend using three strands of Equifence wire tensioned against straining posts set in the ground at 50-100m centres, supported by intermediate posts at up to 9m centres. Please see our installation advice link for details on fence design and the appropriate energiser for your needs.

Temporary Electric Horse Fencing

For use as a temporary horse fence we recommend the use of Gallagher TurboLine rope. Turboline rope offers the following features.

• A durable semi-permanent product with a 7 year UV stabilisation offers great value.
• Woven structure minimises stretching.  Easy to reuse.
• A 20% higher level of conductivity compared to  a standard rope ensuring fences maintain effectiveness along the length of the enclosure.
• The rope has a relatively low breaking strength, ensuring that the risk of injury to your horse is minimised in the case of breakout.
• Easy to install.

TurboLine rope is of a woven fibre construction, as opposed to a twined construction. This offers a number of advantages. Stretching of the rope under tension is minimised in a woven construction. This means that the fence will require little maintenance once installed. This construction also increases the lifespan of the rope by up to 30%, making it makes it better suited to re-use than standard lines or ropes. The TurboLine rope’s high level of conductivity is down to the use of a combination of conductors within the rope. Three mixed metal wires ensure the power loss over distance is kept to a minimum, while the eight strands of stainless steel wire ensure that conductor strength is maintained and that conductive material is spread evenly over the surface of the rope.

Another consequence of the woven fibre construction is the relatively low breaking strength of 225 kg. This combined with the relatively large diameter of the rope, and its soft touch finish, all contribute to the high level of safety of TurboLine rope.

The rope comes in white and brown (Terra). The Gallagher advice is that both of these products are equally visible to horses, but the Terra is more sympathetic in landscape terms. Please see our installation advice link for details on fence design and the appropriate energiser for your needs.

TurboLine rope is also well suited to other applications, such as electrification of an existing post and rail or post and wire fence, or temporary subdivision of an existing field.