Is Electric fencing needed?

It is not necessarily "needed", but I would strongly recommend it. I wouldn't be concerned about jumping it, we have a mare that used to jump fences when she was younger and go visit around the neighborhood. Thank god, she didn't go far because her buddy wouldn't jump, and there weren't many people around there then. She jumped higher when we put hot wire around the top. I would put it up simply because horses like to lean on fences (you know "the grass is always greener . . . ") and vinyl will break, especially during the cold months. It will encourage them to stay off it. We had a 18 month old paint mare who started running into the gate to stop! Needless to say, the hot wire stopped her. We have our electric fence anywhere from 6" to 18" off of the fence depending on what pasture you are in - and which horses are pastured there and most of the wire is a 14 gauge wire. In the five acre pasture, my dad made insulators out of PVC pipe that are 18" in from the wire. This pasture has ...  more