Rather then piggy-backing off a similar thread, I started my own…
My DH and I recently purchased our dream farmette. 
I ride dressage and have a small (2 broodmares) breeding operation. Our barn is up and our fence contractor is starting Friday… and we still aren’t sure if we want to go with a standard 4-board fence (wood) or the coated high tensile wire (six strands with the top strand ‘hot’).
I am curious to see if anyone has any opinions on either fencing specifically related to having foals and young ones around…???
I think high tensile wire fences are very dangerous. I used to board at a farm with tensile fencing (heavy wire embedded in plank-like plastic strips). During that time, two horses fell into or flipped over the fencing and got a leg entangled in the wiring. You may not think there’s enough play for that to happen, but believe me there is, and only the heaviest-duty wire cutters can cut it. Both horses were seriously hurt. (On a more humorous note, one big draft horse learned to stick his butt between the wires to stretch them apart, then he’d carefully back through and walk down the road.)
I have the high tensile wire coated with a thick coating (that can run an electric charge - it’s called white lightning) that is about a 1/4" diameter. I have 4 strands, 12" apart. I have never yet had an accident - if it were to break, it can’t coil around them (as only 6’ maximum could get “loose” and it is too stiff to coil) and the foals that have hit it, and they all have, bounce off it unharmed. I do not have it electrified.
I would never have multiple strand high tensile wire as it is traditionally built.
Wood fencing looks lovely - but it rots, the nails pop when the horses lean on it, and they all chew it to a greater or lesser extent.
I’ve had both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I like the look of 4 board fencing much better than the coated high tensile but it will be more maintenance (when fencing my farmette I actually went with slip rail instead of nailed rails thereby avoiding the popped nail looking for horseflesh to cut problem. If I had a broken rail I could simply pull it out and slide in another without having to cut it to an exact size). You should go with a hot wire on top to keep the big beavers from eating the boards.
Coated high tensile will be less maintenance but it is not completely maintenance free. Where I work, we have 6 wires, every other wire being hot. We went with this configuration because we want the horses to stay completely away from the fence. We found out in a test paddock that if the top wire was the only hot wire, the horses would still play/fight over the top (but not touch it) and then get their legs stuck in the not hot wires if they kicked at each other. These leg injuries were not nearly as bad as if it had been non coated wire but still not pretty - bad scrapes and swollen legs. Having multiple hot wires helped with this problem. Our situation is different from yours though - we have to turn out mare groups beside gelding groups with a common fence line. I hope this helps.
I have four rail board fence, and have for more than two decades. I don’t find the maintenance particularly hard, and in all that time, I don’t think we have ever had an injury. I don’t like high tensile wire, and my vet says that he has seen some awful injuries from it; he votes it very high for fences that increase his income. I raise foals, and I wouldn’t want to put foals in tensile wire fencing.
I have the vinyl coated high tensile fence. If correctly installed and partly electrified it is VERY safe. I’ve never had an injury with mine, and know a number of people who have had horses impaled on shards of Oak planks from 4 board fencing. No fence is perfect. Vinyl coat is not to be confused with regular high tensile fencing…or rope…which is very good at slicing and dicing:(
Thank you all for your input. Very helpful!!!
Happy to help. Also meant to say that the plastic coated high tensile is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper…so that’s a nice bonus.
My beloved mare Mildred was supposed to be a high $$ show hunter until she met a high tensile wire fence. Only by the tenacity of a great vet did she survive to become an outstanding broodmare. Skinned her right hind leg to the bone 3/4s of the way around. I will NEVER put a horse in straight wire.
I was actually just at a fencing school today put on by the extension office today, and we discussed a variety of different fences. With any type of high tensile you have to have it HOT HOT HOT. One of the biggest issues in this country with high tensile fencing is that we over build the fence and the under charge or improperly ground it. The goal is that the horses never go near the fence. I like the look of board fence but have had issues with that as well and would not install it again without hot wire to keep the horses off of it. I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a “safe” fence for horses and even when the fence is as safe as possible they will still find alternate ways to damage themselves.
When we put our fencing in years ago, the part that went thru the woods was done with Bayco. It’s white, but has no wire in it. About 2 years after it was installed, hurricane Fran came thru, and we had 18 trees down across the fence. When the trees were cut away, the fence popped right back into place.
We had horses put their legs,heads, ect. thru it, and when they pulled back, no injuries at all. It just kinda stretched. When they’d run into it, they’d just bounce back. One strand was electric.
It’s gotten kind of brittle now (but it’s close to 20 years old). I’m not sure if it’s even made now, but Ramm Fencing used to carry it. I loved the stuff. No horses now so I’ve not really looked into replacing any of it.
I have both wood fencing with hot wire between so they don’t chew the wood, and coated wire. The smaller paddocks are wood, and the larger pasture areas are the coated wire alternating with hot wire that is intertwined with the narrow plastic strips. It will break easily if a horse were to get caught somehow, rather than cut him or her.
I start my foals out in the wooded paddocks, then move them to a small pasture with the coated wire until they understand what it is, then out to the larger pasture.
I had one very smart foal figure out how to squeeze between two strands that did not have a hot strand between them, so that he could get back to mom after weaning. I also had two foals run into the fence at one point. (Mom went through the gate that led to the dry lot when they ran off the pasture but the foal apparently thought he could go through the fence rather than follow mom.) He was fine, but I added a couple more strands of coated wire. A few years later, another foal did the same thing, but with the extra strands, she just bounced off the fence.
I agree that you can be as careful as possible, but they will still find a way to hurt themselves!
Then there is my neighbor, with barbed wire in places, nails sticking out of boards, etc. and his horses NEVER get hurt! Go figure…
If you’re going to be breeding, you are MUCH better off going with no-climb horse mesh fencing, making sure it clears the ground by 12 inches. You want it low enough a newborn can’t accidently roll underneath, but not so low that a hoof gets stuck between fence and ground. This no-climb fence needs to be stretched very taut and posts should be spaced minimum 8 feet apart. The squares should be very small so even tiny hooves cant get caught in the mesh. The theories abound with this type of fencing and Ive heard farmers state you either want the squares so big that if a hoof goes through it can easily slip back out, or you want them so tiny that they cant get through in the first place. Its the squares that are in between that are the problem - more than likely the hoof will quite readily go through, but can`t get back out. So either teeny-tiny squares, or humongous ones. My broodies are not shod with shoes so I have been switching all my fencing to this type using the teeny-tiny squares.
If you go with post/rail wood fencing, again making sure the bottom rail clears the ground by about 12 inches, again to make sure the newborn foal body doesnt roll underneath, or that a hoof cant get pinned. If the bottom rail is too high and foals gets under the fence, mom will risk her own life to go through the fence to get to her baby, especially if the foal is a newborn.
Ultimately, the safest fence is the one that horses cannot bust through as the last thing you want is horses running down the road getting hit by cars. Around high traffic areas, steel welded fencing is really good, in my opinion. I would rather they bounce off and suffer bruising than go right through and cause a traffic pile-up which would be most certainly fatal for the horse and possibly for the people in the cars too.
Psychological barriers work great (electric fencing) as long as it is a powerful zap and it is never turned off. Turning it off teaches a horse to test the fence to see if its on today. The quality of grounding is what provides you the best zap, so pay particular heed to doing it right and planning it out well, and it will save you a ton of grief down the road. We have a powerful zap in our electric fencing and our horses learn very quickly that the fence bites - hard! Our fence has such a strong bite we have to post signage along public roads because it just might impact an unsuspecting someones pacemaker.
I have PVC fencing that has a wire interior. Low maintenance and really only complaint I have isjhaving to tighten it every so often if I have a leaner on it. I don’t care for electric or tensel wire of any kind as of they get into it tend to panic and have seen more than one horse with a degloving injury. Downside to PVC - doesn’t break like wood of they try to jump it. Wood is obviously classy bit tends to be higher maintenance to keep looking nice as if you have Cribbers or chewers it looks rough quickly. Also there is curing time before you can paint it. In addition does have to be repainted every so often. If I could afford it I would go with diamond mesh but I think PVC is next best thing.
We have coated wire with a bottom rail of flexi-fence to prevent roll out. After an ice storm my DH slid down a hill in the tractor into the fencing and it jut sort of bounced off. Not a scratch on the paint. We’ve not had any injuries and is what the local vets recommended to use - good coating, never plain wire.
We have miles of Horse Guard fence and a few paddocks made of steel panels. We have never had an injury from the Horse Guard. In fact it just survived the blizzard “Atlas” with tons of snow and downed trees. What a mess. But we cut the trees and pulled it out of the snow and just like magic, the fence was fine! I shudder to think of what it would have been like to fix wood or non climb fencing.
Say NO!!! to high tensile!!!
I suspect the use of the term “high tensile” is garnering a lot of attention and people are missing what the product is. This is the coated Ramm or Centaur product, not bare wire. It is not the same thing and is much thicker/safer. http://www.centaurhtp.com/coated-single-wire.html
I know a large breeding operation that uses it and she raves about it. Has had it for about 10 years now. I think she only has 5 strands. Top and second from the bottom are hot. Wood posts only–no t-posts. The concern with six was getting two low to the ground and catching a shoe.
For those who said wood isn’t a lot of upkeep I’m curious if you paint or stain your fence?
FWIW, I think the safest fence you can build is probably this http://www.dennisfence.com/Jonabel.html with hot boards too. However it costs a lot of money. 4 board is pretty expensive too though. I know some very nice jumper barns where they did one flex board on top and three strands of coated underneath. Looks nice. I am going with a combination of 3 board wood (the fourth gets buried under snow and locals have advised me to do 3–open to thoughts) with no-climb also (around our yard) and coated centaur (5 strand) for my exterior fencing and horseguard for my interior pasture rotation.
I also had a mare that had a severe injury from high tensile fencing before I bought her.
What about 4 board with a hot wire on top/inside to prevent cribbing/pushing?
(Make sure you use locust posts.)
I’ve seen some nasty injuries with board fencing too.
The key is to keep the horses completely OFF of ANY fence you put up. Ive got 5 strand “Hot Cote” (Kencove) – same thing as the electrifyable 1/4" plastic coated high tensile wire others have mentioned here. Except with mine, I’ve got all five strands HOT. They steer CLEAR of that baby! The other nice thing about this fencing is that it’s highly visable. I also can electrify my gates as well, which comes in handy when you’ve got a butt-scratcher who uses gates as a scratching post. 
