>As an aside, horses like to touch things they plan on jumping with their
>noses before they do so.  The nose is one of the most sensitive parts of
>a horse...

Once a horse is aware of an electric fence, it will not go near it. One of
the products around for setting up electric fence lines, on a temporary
basis, consists of an orange plastic strip (a bit like the plastic banding
strip for parcels) with a single strand of wire through it. This sort of
stuff is often used for partitioning up a field where it is desirable to
restrict the quantity of feed an animal can access (can be important for
horses as they get colic if they over eat, and they tend too when there is
plenty of feed). One person I knew found that once the horses were used to
the idea of the orange strip being an electric fence, then sometimes they
could put it up without the shock unit turned on, and the horses still would
not come near it.

>Cows, on the other hand, won't jump a fence so much as run
>it over (or get tangled in it).  They are affected very little by
>fencers and thus barb wire is still preferred to a fencer.  I don't know
>about sheep, though.  I suspect that they are more like cows, but you
>don't want to damage the skin/fur with barb wire (if it reaches all the
>way through the fur - curious thought).

Another scheme has used poles stuck in the ground, with the shock unit
connected between poles. This creates a potential across the ground, and
with the distance between front and rear legs on a cow, could give them
sufficient shock to discourage them from coming that way. Other animals such
as horses tend to jump such "obstacles". :)

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