I have a section of 4 board fencing that I want to put climbing roses or clematis vine on. The field is large and my horses rarely go near the fence. Can you tell me potential issues this could cause? I live in zone 5, so everything would die back in the winter.
We had a climbing rose and my pony ate it.
He had plenty of other things to eat, but evidently thorns are a delicacy 
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Did this cause a vet bill? I was hoping to select a variety with extra thorns to keep them away, but I definitely don’t want to incur vet bills.
I would put up a trellis near the fence, but not ON it. Most of us spend our lives trying to keep the fence line clear, and here you are trying to make stuff grow all over it. 
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I have a wild rose that grows on/next to my fence in one field. Horses nibble the leaves off. I put honeysuckle on two parts of a fence, horses leave it entirely alone. Roses are tasty to horses. I’m not sure about clematis–safe for horse consumption? I’d just make sure whatever I plant is edible and assume they’ll try to eat it, regardless.
The honeysuckle gets very heavy, so ours is on a board fence that’s lined with no climb wire and we expect to not touch it for years…because it’ll have to be cut back drastically when you repair or replace fences. The rose we cut back almost to the ground (it had been there for 15 years, at least).
Try roses or honeysuckle. In my experience, clematis are entirely too delicate to make it on a fence. But, make sure that your fence is solid and well supported. A happy vine can get quite heavy. Roses, by the way, aren’t actually climbers. They are ramblers, so they won’t twine on the fence, but will lean on it. Unless you tie them to it. That may be a consideration.
Of course if you brace it really well, you could do grapes?
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This. Fences are for security, not growing flowers.
G.
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Grape vines wouldn’t stand a chance around horses.
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I had white star clematis. Self planted I assume from clematis that I had planted around my barn. It is very “light” and airy compared to other vine types. I would AVOID allowing honeysuckle to grow, let along take hold. It is aggressive and grows exponentially year after year. It gets thick hand holds water moisture greatly shorten the life span of the boards. It is a PITA to cut back when it does and a PITA to replace deteriorated boards.
Have no experience with rose type vines on fence lines other than the invasive, obnoxious multiflora rose, Smells wonderful but like honeysuckle takes its toll on a fence line. Takes over quickly and has nasty thorns. Multiflora rose should kept in check, killed off as much as possible when found. Regardless of where it is found. Both honeysuckle and multiflora rose is always found on fence lines because of birds eating and depositing/spreading the ingesting seeds while sitting on it.
No vet bills but one PO’d mom. It was her rose :no:
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Gawd, I have some wild rose that grows around and it’s SUCH a pain in the ass. Grows like crazy, terrible thorns, can’t kill it. You want to plant it on purpose???
Here’s another vote for putting whatever you plant on a trellis instead of the fence itself. And if it’s roses, I hope you never, ever have to go into that area of the property for any reason. Just walking near the stuff means getting grabbed by the awful thorns, and they’re HARD to get away from. And painful 
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Himalayan blackberry is the kudzu of the PNW, great thorny humps of vine with flowers and berries. My horse loves to browse on it and I’ve seen the vines stripped of leaves as high as the horses can reach in a pasture. My horse browses the leaves especially in winter when they stay green, and eats the clusters of berries off in summer ,(which is cute).
I doubt a rose plant would stand a chance around her.
Wow, both choices are quite edible here! My horses like them especially well in winter for browse when they want woody stuff to chew on. I consider honeysuckle an invasive species, cut it at every chance. NEVER would let it grow near my fences, because that twig of spring will be a good size bush in two years or less. Then it will be producing LOTS of berries to grow MORE bushes everyplace! Wild roses take slightly longer to get big, but they also are tasty to winter browsing horses. Thorns are not a deterrent! Roses are work to cut back and clean up later, stabbing you as they are grasped, whipping back to hit you dragging them away. They spread by spouting saplings that all need trimming back too, as bush is trying to turn into a huge thicket.
Maybe you could do a “spot of color” bed by the fence with small roses, like Knockouts in only one color. Or any of the newer, self-rooted, hedge type, small roses that are available now. They bloom heavily all summer, take winter cold pretty well with no extra care like cone covers or staking. Then a spring trim, ready to bloom again for you.
Or a bed of summer flowers from mixed seeds to attract butterflies, insects, birds. Being annuals, you can change the color, bloom types you plant every year. I saw a spectacular bed of sunflowers this year. Tall in the rear, medium height in the middle, short ones in front. Many red, orange petaled varieties, new shapes of yellow on various faces to the flowers, adding a lot of visual interest when looking at the bed. Many grasses are visually pretty with color in spots, red, black leaves and seed heads moving in the wind. Weed whack in spring to remove old growth, new growth will be lovely all season.
I really would think of other things to plant by the fence, instead of two potentially invasive, bushes you will need to deal with later.
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:lol: My thoughts exactly! #%&$# wild rose bush next to my run-in shed gets me every time. Chopped it down, carefully poisoned it … damn thing keeps growing back.
On the other hand if a thorny vine buries the fence in ten feet of tangle, you effectively have made a hedgerow and no fence repair is ever needed. I know some pastures that are bounded by ten foot thick ten foot high mounds of Himalayan blackberry. My guess is there was a barbed wire fence in there. Once.
I googled the multiflora rose and see its an invasive species in places. Have not seen that, just the true wild rose that is much more modest.
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I guess it depends on the fence line. I’ve very deliberately encouraged the native briars along one section of fence that is right next to a road and right across from a winery parking lot. The pain of periodically cutting it is balanced by the fact that it is far and away the best people deterrent out there. All the no trespassing signs in the world and all the electric fence won’t keep people away from the big, fuzzy, white horse. Or from trying to feed him things he will choke on. Whips of eight foot tall briar however!
So, actually, I probably will plant roses along a fence line. But not multiflora. Native wild rose (Dog or Carolina) as it is called, responds well to mowing to keep it in bounds and tops out at 4 or 5 feet. So does rugosa. You can’t kill it of course, but that is sort of the point.
I had knockout roses when I moved in and also some vine with flowers. I’ve seen the horses munch on both. No problems so far.
I intend to plant the old rose Louis Phillipe all down my driveway fence line as soon as I can afford to. A nice sunny spot, my favorite rose… I think it will be just gorgeous if it works out.
The Louis isn’t a rambler, but I need to talk to my rose guys about the logistics of having it near fencing. I imagine it’ll be off the fence itself, and will require mulching to keep weeds at bay. I plan to put electric tape up on the inside of the roses - if my ponies don’t eat the young roses, the deer sure will…
Also, my girls will both be 21 this year, and I have no intention of replacing them when they go. My eventual plan for that front pasture is restoration to the oak hammock it once was. Plus the roses along the drive. 
If I knew I wanted to have young horses, show horses, etc. sometime in the future, I wouldn’t put roses there.
If you have an old rose guru in your area, go talk with them. They might have some ideas for you. 
Whatever you choose, please make sure it is something native to your area. The last thing we need are more invasive species to battle & waste natural resources funding on! As a bonus, native species are adapted to your climate & require less care. I work in the SE so don’t know your species but you should be able to Google your state native plant society.
Asian honeysuckles, exotic rosebushes, asian wisteria are all big problems . we DO have native wisteria species and at least here, a native jasmine. do some research.
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I’ve been thinking about letting the briars (that we’ve spent years trying to destroy) grow over corral panels to make a New England version of a hedgerow. I wouldn’t have to use 2"x4" wire on them to keep local dogs out. I wouldn’t have to look at metal pipe fencing. It would definitely keep my herd in, since behind it on the neighbor’s property there are acres of just briars. It’d grow into a solid mat in a few years, tops. I don’t think I have the guts to abandon thousands of dollars of fence to the stuff . . . but it is tempting.
OP, as far as planting roses – my herd enjoys tearing out plants and shaking them, even if they find them inedible. They’re destructive to all plant matter – they peel trees, tear off branches they can reach and play tug. I think of them as junior-varsity goats.
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