[RC] E-collars and horses: caution - LStewart/KWeickhardt
Hi- I did not see the original
post, but our experience with using a dog "zapper" collar on one of our horses
is as follows: We had an escape-artist. She would seemingly "time"
the electric pulses on the electric fence and then charge through. We have
a 3 level dog shock collar. I researched what was available for horses,
for comparison and to decide whether I really wanted to try this on a horse's
neck. The horse collar version had 12 levels. I decided to try the dog
collar using the mildest setting AND having the collar on over a thin towel to
reduce the level of shock. I had thought about putting the collar on
loosely, but decided that would be asking for trouble (envisioning hoof through
it or some other hanging-up). I timed the shock to when the mare slowly
stuck her nose out to "test "the fence...she was pretty tricky. When the
moment came, I used the lowest setting for just the briefest second.
She reared up, back and then over. She got up fairly quickly, but just
stood there looking undignified! Then she meandered along near the
fenceline. ( I did check her and she seemed none-the-worse). I
waited around behind a tree for about 20 minutes. Lo and behold if she
didn't start acting like she was going to test the fence again. With my
zapper at ready, i gave her another mild jolt just as she put her nose to the
fence. This time she just backed up....way back, and she stayed completely
away from the fence for the next hour, at least until I left. I never did
have any problems with her "escaping" again!!
