Centaur vs Ramm vs Hotrail and other flex fence

[gypsymare]

I just found one of my mares cast against the fence… The high tensile wire fence that was installed before we bought the farm last year. Luckily I was home today and ran out to pick up some dog food, saw her on the way back so she wasn’t there for long. No injuries, wasn’t in much distress. She got herself up after I unbuckled her blanket she was able to push off and slide out a few feet. I tried rolling her first with ropes on her lower legs but didn’t quite have the strength to do it by myself. Neighbors were called and on their way.

I had intended in replacing all of the HT wire with an HT vinyl rail and this incident just pushed it into priority level one status. Is there an appreciable difference between the types of fencing? I’m thinking 3-4 rail in around a 4 inch height, with the top uncoated wire being hot. I’m in Maryland, can anyone recommend a good dealer? I have a 2 acre pasture and two half acre paddocks to re fence. The posts aren’t that old and are in great shape. Will likely do the installation myself.

[SouthernYankee]

So glad your mare is fine!!!

I put up Centaur because it’s made less than an hour from my farm. If Ramm was made that close I probably would have gone with it, there isn’t much of a difference between the two so check into shipping and see how much it’s going to cost you.

Personally I prefer Centaur over Ramm but that’s comparing Ramm flex rail that is 10 years old against multiple Centaur products that are brand new. I have 4 rail flex rail and 4/5 strand coated hot wire (had 4 strands up, now making it into 5 strands since we bought cows). I love Centaur fence, and would sell it if they would give me a dealership. It’s safe safe safe!!! I had a filly born on the farm and she slid into the coated wire a few times, hard enough to break the insulators, and has yet to have a scratch on her from the fence. I have no doubt if it had been wire or wood board I would have had a major vet bill.

Someone on here sells Centaur fence (Julie @ centaurfencing.com or Double J Fencing) She’s located in Texas but I’ve bought from her in the past and have been happy, plus she’s cheaper than the Alabama dealer. Since you’re going to be doing the installation yourself you should be able to buy from her.

My only piece of advice is brace your corners much more than you think you need to. Fill the holes up with concrete!!

Finished fence

Looking up driveway

[gypsymare]

Is that the 5 inch rail? It looks fabulous! Our posts are in great shape and are driven 3-4 feet into the ground. Everything is already braced for the high tensile 5 strand that we have. I was just going to pull down the wire and replace with the new railing.

[Charliezmom]

You might also want to check HomeDepot online. I recently found out that they carry the cenflex rolls and all the accessories. Order online and pick up at the store. They have the install videos and things available too. I’m sure if you needed help that you could also contact Centaur directly. We are thinking of doing this when we set up at our next farm.

[spotted_draft_x_fill]

the last farm I worked on had that type of fencing. It is very flexible, but since you’re in a colder climate, it will harden up with the cold weather. We had an usually cold summer last year and first thing in the morning, those boards will really stiff. That farm also ran electric at the top to keep the horses from leaning on and over the fence.

[YankeeLawyer]

Ditto. I just ordered centaur sleeve covers for TPosts and delivery to Home Depot took 2 days and was free. The shipping costs from some of the dealers are HIGH.

[2DogsFarm]

I have a Centaur clone as top rail and while it has worked effectively for 10yrs, I am seeing some chipping in places.
Damage is cosmetic only, but makes me wish I had gone with the same coated tensile I used for the other 3 lines.
My thought was to have the wider top rail as a visual barrier for the horses.

If I could do over I’d use electrobraid - both for the way it looks and ease of installation.

[gypsymare]

I lost a horse to electrobraid… :no:

I am thinking about putting a white lightening strand at the top or just leaving my existing HT top strand energized. Do you think the chipping you have experienced would be lessened if you had a hot top wire?

I am thinking wide rail for all 4 lines… Not sure if I trust the thinner stuff. I’ve had them paw and hook a hoof over the High Tensile wire, the railing should angle to release but I’m thinking the coated wire would still make it difficult to release.

Great tip on the Home Depot stuff, hubby can get 10% off there too.

SouthernYankee, is your railing black or brown? I’m not sure if I like the lighter brown of the HD stuff but I love how your fence looks!

[khall]

I have Ramm and love it! https://www.facebook.com/347546461986279/photos/a.347546808652911.65310225.347546461986279/347546821986243/?type=1&theater

I prefer the tightening system (at least at the time 10 yrs ago when it was installed) on Ramm to Centaur. Mine is 4.25 rails, we put up 10,000 ft of it when we built our farm. Post and everything. I put hot wire on top of the fence, just the small plastic wire that breaks easy. I have seen a horse run full tilt into the fence and bounce off, no injury to horse or fence. VERY safe fence.

[Edgewood]

I have had Centaur now for 12 1/2 years in one field and 7 years in the other field. I really like it and it does keep the horses from hurting themselves. It does need to be loosened in the winter and tensioned in the summer (because cold causes it to shrink/tighten). It can pull posts out of alignment if you do not untension it some with the cold weather.

We did just have to repair a small section where after 12 yrs some of the psots had heaved up some and the Centaur was too loose to tension (meant unstapling it from the end and restapling tight). My husband loves the new end spoolers vs the original in the middle of the line spoolers.

We have had trees fall on it with almost no damage to the Centaur at all.

You can see some photos of it here. The cover page photo shows the 12 yr and 7 yr pasture http://www.edgewoodmeadowfarm.com/

[2DogsFarm]

[QUOTE=gypsymare;7902935]
I lost a horse to electrobraid… :no:

I am thinking about putting a white lightening strand at the top or just leaving my existing HT top strand energized. Do you think the chipping you have experienced would be lessened if you had a hot top wire?

I am thinking wide rail for all 4 lines… Not sure if I trust the thinner stuff. I’ve had them paw and hook a hoof over the High Tensile wire, the railing should angle to release but I’m thinking the coated wire would still make it difficult to release.

Great tip on the Home Depot stuff, hubby can get 10% off there too.

SouthernYankee, is your railing black or brown? I’m not sure if I like the lighter brown of the HD stuff but I love how your fence looks![/QUOTE]

So sorry - I have no experience using the electrobraid, but have friends who did their fences with it around 10yrs ago and no problems.

The chipping in my top rail is only where the rail meets the bracing & is bare wire.
A hot top wire might prevent this if it was caused by horses, but in my case they seem to prefer going through the coated tensile between lines 2 & 3 - thus giving themselves notches in their manes.
My 2nd wire can carry a charge, but I’ve never bothered making it live.

[CrowneDragon]

I had Spur, which is the 4" Centaur fence. Loved it. I needed hotwire over the top rail and midway down the posts as well, otherwise the horses lean through it and they will bend the rails. Centaur has a flexible fence now, called Hot Rail, which is electrified, which seems like a really nice option. I would certainly investigate that. The safest fence is the one they are afraid to get near.

I was in a climate without any real cold weather, so it didn’t need a lot of tension altering. That is something you will have to deal with more frequently in Maryland.

[gypsymare]

[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;7904897]
So sorry - I have no experience using the electrobraid, but have friends who did their fences with it around 10yrs ago and no problems.

The chipping in my top rail is only where the rail meets the bracing & is bare wire.
A hot top wire might prevent this if it was caused by horses, but in my case they seem to prefer going through the coated tensile between lines 2 & 3 - thus giving themselves notches in their manes.
My 2nd wire can carry a charge, but I’ve never bothered making it live.[/QUOTE]

It really was a freak accident and accidents can happen with any fence but I just can’t bring myself to chance it again. The fence was hot and tight. I can only guess that the horse rolled next to it, somehow got his leg over it and in standing up got it wrapped around his leg completely. Freak part #2, if he had run away from the fence it might have released him, or broken all the clips, but he bolted along it and it cut/rope burned through his entire back leg to the bone, all the way around. On the flip side, the herd of 5 did run straight into the corner of the fence one night, snapping the 4x4 treated corner post off at the ground and they were all still contained without a scratch on any of them.

I saw the Hot Rail stuff, but the insulators looked insanely expensive. My current fence is 5 wire, top hot, ground, hot, ground, ground. I’m wondering if I could leave the top 3 wires in place, though that sort of defeats some of the safety benefits…

[Delaine]

The coated wire from Ramm fence is totally amazing. I have had horses get in situations that they should have been severely injured, and not a mark on them. Make sure it is hot. I have had a huge oak tree fall across it, and as soon as the tree was cut off, it bounced right back to perfect. Shock thru coated wire is the way to go!

[ayrabz]

Have to agree with Delaine. I put my ramm in , 3 rail flex…with the coated wire above bottom rail everywhere (mini) and also above top rail everywhere. I love the Centaur product as well, but as already mentioned, what is close to you, available, and installers is important! I’m so happy with mine, I smile at it every time I walk out of the house. IF you want that electrified protection? Yes…COATED is the way to go.

[poltroon]

My Ramm is 10 years old and doing great. For me, I chose it for logistics - Centaur wasn’t available in my area cost-effectively unless I was buying a lot more fence. I think you’d be happy with either.

Do make sure your corners are well braced. Ramm had a very good installation manual on their site which I assume is still there. You might read it now so you get a sense of what you’ll need.

[TheJenners]

I’ve been in two barns with Centaur, and I love it!!

One of my lesson horses got running with the herd in a ton of mud, they all came in hot to the fence and he went down and slid completely under the fence and out the other side. Other than being half App and half brown, he was otherwise unmarked. Watched it happen and thought I was going to vomit, it looked like I was going to be putting one of my fave lesson horses down…

My only complaint was the barn was installed with the 4’’ rails at the front of the farm for aesthetics, and then the coated wire (not hot) five strands and I think a two or three inch rail at the top. Horses pawed at the fence and hooked the bottom or second to bottom wire between their shoe and hoof more times than I can remember, and it was a huge PITA. No blow ups over it, no injuries at least, I’m sure the horse pulled for a bit before getting discovered, but irritating.

Also, they did all lean through the coated wire and stretch it out, and it rubbed their manes out. I asked the BO repeatedly to install the hot coated wire, to no avail, even though she bitched endlessly about her fence being stretched and the manes being rubbed out (on her horses only, figs to us).

Here are some pics, keep in mind all this fence was installed in…mmm…2000, and is 11ish years old in the pictures. This AL, so freezing and hot temps.

Back fencing
More back fencing
Horse leaning thru

[GallopHer]

I’m a big fan of Centaur. We’ve had our fencing for about 10 years and it’s in great shape. Aside from a little mildew, it looks like new.

[Veronica23682368]

We have the centaur black “rails” and we love it…the black always looks nice, doesn’t weather and look dirty…
The top rail that we have is actually electrified…the top part of rail actually has a wire embedded in it and is hot…you can’t see it, it looks just like the other rails, but it’s much safer than wire.
I actually just went out and tightened the rails up a couple days ago. Super easy to do.
There is a place in Gap pa and a place in Lovettsville Va I think…if you go on the centaur website or call they can tell you where the nearest ones are. We are in central pa so to save on shipping we drove to Gap.

[SouthernYankee]

[QUOTE=gypsymare;7902935]
I am thinking wide rail for all 4 lines… Not sure if I trust the thinner stuff. I’ve had them paw and hook a hoof over the High Tensile wire, the railing should angle to release but I’m thinking the coated wire would still make it difficult to release.

Great tip on the Home Depot stuff, hubby can get 10% off there too.

SouthernYankee, is your railing black or brown? I’m not sure if I like the lighter brown of the HD stuff but I love how your fence looks![/QUOTE]

Sorry I’ve been MIA

The wide stuff is 5", and while we love it it is a pain to put up. The Centaur accessories are much better than they were 15 years ago when my parents put up Ramm flex rail.

Our fence is Black. We went with black for 2 reasons, we couldn’t get brown T-post insulators for the coated wire and we wanted the ‘Kentucky horse farm’ look. Wood post are stained, not painted.

I’ve got both the 5" rail (along the road frontage, driveway, house, and will be around the arena) and the coated white lightning (in black) on the rest of the farm. I love both for different reasons. If the fiancé didn’t want the road frontage fence to be ‘pretty’ and a statement piece I would have put up the coated wire on the entire farm. We do have t-post toppers and 4 strands, will be adding another strand of coated wire in the next few months, only because we now have cows to contain too. All the coated wire is electrified and the 5" has 2 strands of hot coated wire on the inside to keep everyone off it.

I know you said you were concerned about the safety of the coated wire. When we were fence planning I had a very pregnant mare, so anything we put up had to be ‘baby safe’. We were bouncing back and forth between electro braid and coated wire when we were trying to decide what we wanted to put up. And I had the same safety concerns you had experience with the electro braid. So we went with the coated wire because of it’s rigidity. And I am very glad we did, the filly is supposed to be a big eventer but she thinks she’s going to be a reiner :winkgrin: and always practices her sliding stops… a few times she’s slid so far she hit the coated wire, hard enough to break brackets. She bounced off it without a hair out of place.

I cannot express how safe I feel this fence is, and I will never put any other type up.