Electric Fencing information needed

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

I recently started doing some research on electric fencing for friends here
in Egypt. Wood is very expensive and hard to maintain. Pipe fences are also
extremely expensive, although easier to maintain, making decent paddock
sizes prohibitively expensive. I realise that may seem weird in a country
that is 99% empty desert, but most of that is either inaccessible, has no
water, or is owned by either the army or the antiquities department. We've
been trying to figure out how we can fence in an acre or two (actually
measured here in feddans, but close to the same size) without going into the
poorhouse. I've corresponded with Terry Wise of ElectroBraid, but do others
of you use these materials and how do you like them? How do they hold up? We
have rotten electrical supply in the countryside so we would be looking at
solar panels (LOTS of sun!) for power and probably local wood for posts to
make life easy on carrying or shipping the fencing materials. Our horses,
while being those wily high strung (?!) Arab types have so far shown
themselves very adept at lifting pipe gates right off the hinges and doing
other such creative acts to get out...not that they ever go very far. They
are not the types to go crashing into walls of any kinds and are all raised
with almost every variety of livestock underfoot, so this also isn't much of
a problem.

All feedback most gratefully accepted.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net