Trail Savvy: Do-It-Yourself Portable Electric Fence

Try this inexpensive reliable means of containing your horses on your next backcountry trip.

Horse camping is good. Backcountry horse camping is great. A backcountry wilderness location with a spot where your horses can stretch their legs, lie down, take a nap, graze, and relax is even better. An electric fence can help with that. 

I don’t take feed when camping in the backcountry. The amount of hay, pellets, etc. that you’d have to take to feed even a single animal (2% of body weight per day per horse equals about 20 pounds a day. This would mean taking a pack animal to haul the feed and then yet another to haul the feed for the extra critter. I plan my trips based upon the availability of adequate grass and have cut pack trips short due to unexpected lack of grazing. 

For years the morning routine has been to get up, release the beasts from the highline, take them to water, then put the hobbles on and let them graze for their breakfast while enjoying my AM caffeine fix. Only after they’ve had their breakfast do I get mine. I want to be able to let the horses graze and relax while also getting meals ready for myself and whomever else joins me. (I like being the camp cook.) 

For trailhead camping, I love my Corrals2Go portable corral, but I’m not ready to pack-in hundreds of feet of steel panels. For backcountry use I’ve become fond of electric fences that keep our furry kids out of trouble. Cheap, easy to setup, versatile, and effective are my keywords for this type of temporary enclosure. 

Get Started on Your Own Electric Fence Setup

Here’s what you’ll need.

1. Posts—I use fiberglass step-in style posts such as the 4-foot Sunguard II Fiberglass Step-in Electric Fence Post.

• Post modification: 48-inch posts are much too long for convenient packing. I turned mine into collapsible posts by cutting the posts in half then epoxying a piece of brass tubing over the end of one half, leaving part of the tube open to slide the top half of the post into. With this modification, the posts fit easily into a pannier box. 

• If I were to do it again, I’d use a smooth fiberglass post without the clips and simply wrap the electric wire around the post to keep it from sliding down. The posts would pack down into a much smaller space. 

2. Electric Tape or Wire—Tape with imbedded conductive metal strands comes 1/2 to 2 inches wide, in white and colors. It’s highly visible. Wider tape makes a more substantial fence, but it’s more expensive, and the wider widths take up a lot more space. I use plain electric fence wire, which is less expensive and packs easier but breaks more easily. It’s also less visible than the tape. Flagging on the wire is a good idea. 

3. A Winder Reel—One experience with a knotted ball of electric tape was enough to convince me that an easy way to roll the electric tape or wire without knots was a must. I went with an inexpensive winder that makes setup and tear down quick and easy.  

4. Gate Handle—An insulated handle with metal spring core, a hook at one end, and a loop at the other for connecting tape or wire creates a gate at any point in the pen perimeter. 

5. Fence Energizer—This is the heart of the containment system. An electric fence needs a power source. Unless your wilderness comes equipped with electrical outlets, battery or solar are your options. Battery-powered versions are less bulky than solar. Mine runs on two D-cell batteries and can power more than a half mile of fence for more than a month. I use the Speedrite AN20 Battery Fence Energizer, 0.04 Joule. 

6. Ground Rod—Since the earth creates half of the electric fence circuit, it’s very important to have a properly installed ground circuit. I had a 24-inch steel rod in the barn that I repurposed. 

• Note: In areas where poor soil and poor earth-grounding conditions exist, a two-wire system can be used with one wire being electrically charged while the other wire acts as earth ground. This two-wire electric fence system is also twice as visible. 

Pros and Cons of This Type of System

Pros

• Flexibility. Size and shape can be easily modified to fit available space.
• Affordability. All the parts listed above price out to well under $200 dollars. 
• Easy storage and handling. One person can easily set up and take down. Tape or wire rolls up for storage. Posts bundle together. 

Cons

• Easily demolished. A horse panicked by a disturbance nearby can forget his reluctance to touch the fence and instead bolt through the wire or tape.
• It requires the charger. Many horses can tell when the fence is electrified and are quick to lean over it when it’s not. (One reason why a spare battery is a good idea.)

An electric fence of this type is purely a psychological barrier to keeps your animals from wandering. They’ve become “trained” (hopefully at home) not to go near the fence. The local wildlife haven’t had the benefit of this training and are apt to bolt through a hot wire instead of backing up. For this reason, I do not use electric fences overnight. The highline is a much safer, more secure option for nighttime or when you’re not nearby, unless you like walking back to the trailhead.

A portable electric fence system offers me and my animals more options and a better camping experience with very little extra fuss. For more information on trail riding and camping with horses, as well as the largest guide to horse trails and camps in the world visit us at TrailMeister.com.

See all Colorado Horse Source Magazine articles by Robert Eversole – TrailMeister.com

See this article in the July/August 2022 online edition:

July/August 2022