# Horse panels oops



## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

I have 5' horse panels. No, Rex, I wasn't born that way. ;-)

Normally I take my goats out of the back all at once off leads, or two at a time on leads. When I am using leads, I usually take the two oldest, then the two youngest.

Today I took the senior goat from each buddy pair, leaving the other two behind.

This was a mistake. I watched in awe as they both climbed the horse panel until their front feet were on the top wire and their hind feet on the second wire from the top. Then they jumped over from there.

This was Mikey, the 200 lb 5 yr old and Moe the yearling.

I am hoping that they were so panicked losing their buddies that they don't realize they learned something new.


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## ryorkies (May 4, 2010)

I'll keep my fingers crost for you. 

That has been my worries with Sully. 
Because he was all by himself. I did not want him to learn
he could climb the panels.

So I went and I went and got him a buddy. But that is another
story.....


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

I am going to reset them so they lean inward.


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

It's working so far, Moe had gone over twice more before I reset them. It's been a couple days and he hasn't done it again.

It's really spooky cause it sure looks easy for them to break a leg doing it.


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## 4-Hgoats (Feb 6, 2010)

Yep- He'll keep jumping. I had a goat that kept getting his stuck on purpose between two boards because he liked the attention he got when we rushed out to save him. :roll:


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

If I had to do it over again I would probably us horse panels again just because they are quick to put up and I got the goats before even thinking about how I would keep them in....

But if you are actually planning to use them... I now have a row of chicken wire above the horse panel to keep Moe in.


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## ryorkies (May 4, 2010)

Bob: Does your place look like you are keeping inmates rather than
goats?


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

ryorkies said:


> Bob: Does your place look like you are keeping inmates rather than
> goats?


Not at all... the guard towers on the corners are not as high.


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Flying Pie,one of the Lazlo breed, could repeatedly jump cattle panels to get to girls. It looked like I had a lion enclosed with electromesh fence above the cattle panels.


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## Nanno (Aug 30, 2009)

The first time Phil and I drove off, leaving Cuzco at "goat camp", he sailed over a 6' horse panel in an attempt to follow us. Since then we've always tied him up until we're well away.


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## Dory (Apr 27, 2011)

Hi there. I am brand new to this forum but not livestock (Horses, Black Angus and Boers  A good trick with horse panel and jumpers is to add electric along the top and keep it hot. 

Granted Boers don't jump like other breeds of goats but we get some that do and with the electric it's never been a problem after their first "try". :lol: 

Dory


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## crossroads (Nov 5, 2012)

My 1 year old lamancha got out one day and I blamed my children for not closing the gate. Then about a week later they saw Felipe use his house for leverage and climb over the cattle panel. Then about a week later both goats were crying at 2:00 am , so I went out to check on them and found Felipe piled up outside of the pen with a broken back leg. Splinted it as straight add I could and got him to the vet for pictures as soon as possible. The vet liked the splint that was already in place, so were just letting it heal now. The vet seemed to think it would heal fine and he would still be able to pack. I wonder if he learned that is a lot less painful to stay inside the pen, than to go over the top?


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## Charlie Horse (Dec 16, 2012)

With animals it is hit-and-miss as to whether they learn from a bad experience. Perhaps you'd say, its a stupid brain that repeats a painful action... The cat that jumps on a hot stove never jumps on a stove again--smart cat. But it wont jump on a cold stove either, and is that smart? I think depending on the brain, it may take a couple negative experiences to solidify a life long aversion to something.

My parrots simply do not respond to negative reinforcement, AT ALL. I've seen horses have to re-learn the terrors of the hot-wire every few months. Then again one of my horses never forgets. Got stung by a wasp in her shelter (a hive had formed) and she wouldnt go in there for a year. 

I'm just hoping that goats have the horse's natural fear of snakes with no need for a negative experience.


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## Dwite Sharp (Jun 2, 2012)

A note of warning about Horse Panels:
If you use horse panels (2"x4" openings) to separate two pens with horned goats and the goats engage in a little head butting with the horse panel in between the horned goats you risk broken horns. One goat gets some of their horn through the 2"x4" opening as the goat on the other side slams the horn sticking through the panel resulting in the horn being snapped off. We have a Nubian doe that broke one horn off 1/2" from her head, A Saanan doe that broke 3" off both horns and an Alpine Pack wether that broke 5" off of one horn. You can use horse panels without worry as long as they are used as exterior fences and don't tie goats to the outside while others are on the inside. I have never had this horn breaking issue with goat panels (4"x4") or cattle panels (6"x6"). But the cattle panels (6"x6") have a tendency to snare some growing horned kids leaving their heads caught on the wrong side of the fence making them highly vulnerable to dogs and other predators.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Yep over the years we have had 3 broken legs do to hog panels but never cow or combo panels. The main reason for this is, we dont keep jumpers. Thankfully (knocks on wood) we have only had 1 jumper in years. She did break her leg and is now living with a locale family who uses her milk for 2 lactose intolerant children. She wasnt really a jumper but was on the low end of the pecking order and tried to jump outta the pre milking loafing area to get away from a herd boss.

As for penning bucks, it can be a pain to pen them next to each other regardless of what you use. We use the spendy round bar horse panels and give them a 4 foot walk way between the older bucks as they are more likely to be more agressive. We had a older buck who would still slam his head on the panels. Now though we have two fairly nice boys who do just fine with just the horse panel between them with out a walk way.


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## idahonancy (Dec 13, 2008)

We have had real good luck with an electric hot wire at 6 feet high. This wire is above a 4 foot welded wire cattle panels with the 6'x6' squares. We also ran the electric wire at goat chest level inside the panels. My boys don't touch the fence. We have a terrible deer problem. This hot wire has stopped these hungry critters from getting in my garden.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

hehe I like it ^^^


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

This is why hot wires are a good idea.
[attachment=0:1jzdnwve]Goat climbing the fence.jpg[/attachment:1jzdnwve]


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

^^^ if I saw one of my goats doing that, it would either end up at the sale on Sat. or wear a hobble


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## Bob Jones (Aug 21, 2009)

Rex said:


> This is why hot wires are a good idea.
> [attachment=0:18qb0j4q]Goat climbing the fence.jpg[/attachment:18qb0j4q]


The obvious problem here is that you don't keep the brown weeds as brown on one side of the fence as the other. ;-)


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## idahonancy (Dec 13, 2008)

I wouldn't sell him, I'd crank up the amps from small animal to large livestock. If he some how got over the 1st hot wire at goat chest level he would bean himself with a sap to the face at the top of the fence. Man they hate that. They do learn to respect fences. I use a portable electric mesh fence camping and they don't touch it. I forget to latch the gate sometimes for a whole day and they don't touch it. They are Oberhasli and are content to stay where I put them.


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