Do they really help if a horse comes down on the post? Do you only use them in smaller pastures? Are they part of the package when you are putting in a fence with steel posts (do you factor in their price along with posts, wire, etc)?
I guess I can’t imagine any reason to not use them? They might not prevent injury but they have to make it less damaging than coming down onto a metal t-post.
If someone is fencing your pasture with t-posts, I would not assume caps are included.
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I was a grunt/extra pair of hands for a vet office when I was just out of college. We had a horse come in that managed to run backward and “sit” on an uncapped t-post. She missed her rectum by less than an inch, and the wound was probably 9-10" deep. She survived, it managed to miss vital structures, but it wasn’t an easy road.
Pay extra for the caps.
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FWIW, sliding into a t-post can cause catastropic damage as well. How big is the pasture? How many horses?
At a minimum, I would put the vinyl slip-on covers on any that can’t have a bulkier cap to at least eliminate a scratch risk, even if a puncture could theoretically still happen. We know horses are accident prone (to put it nicely), so it becomes an ounce of prevention, a pound of cure situation.
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That’s what I am wondering about as far as installing them. I’ve driven through miles of country side with metal post fencing on every farm and I don’t remember very many that had caps (if any). But I wasn’t really paying attention until my friend mentioned the rescue.
I can definitely see needing something on smaller pastures and I wouldn’t want to put my horse in a paddock or stall run that even used steel posts. But for something like a five+ acre pasture I could see only using them on the area around gates.
I don’t own property so I’m just curious about people do that use the tee posts.
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Back when my small pasture was fenced with barbed wire I put yellow caps on the T posts to make them more visible. I also put flags on the wire to make it more visible. That field is now fenced with high tensile coated electric wire and fiberglass posts, and I don’t worry about it as much anymore. Although, horses . . .
No, they aren’t usually considered part of a package. Whoever puts in your fence will likely itemize the cost of supplies, and if you want caps you need to specify that.
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All of the T posts on our place have the plastic tops – the more round style with insulators-- not just the ones closer in. Not expensive in the greater scheme of things.
Like these:
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Those look nice, the slot for a hot wire is a good feature.
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That’s what I have between my sacrifice pasture and main pasture. It’s just one lenght of t-posts with 3 strands of solar tape. My horses are mares, and are now old, so never really had any shenanigans but these made me feel better about the t-posts, plus hold the tape securely.
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The caps are easy enough to put on and I’m sure they help. I think it also helps to choose taller posts rather than shorter ones, so a horse is less likely to get over one.
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Very good point about fence post height!
