I see more and more farms using this. It’s like wire strand fencing, but it’s got a white coating of some sort on it. I’m wondering if anyone uses this and how safe it is? I’m looking to move my horse somewhere that uses this kind of fencing, and I’m curious about safety. Thanks in advance.
I have it on my farm. I was already looking into it, then I bought a place where it was already installed.
I have 5 strands. Only the top strand is the hot stuff with the carbon inlay embedded. If it was my choice, I’d like one of the lower strands to be hot as well- it’s really popular to have the second from the ground hot. Without a lower hot strand, while they respect it, they learn they can put their heads through the bottom. One day I’ll probably make the change, but it’s a lot of effort for something that isn’t a huge deal.
I find it very safe.
My horses have ran into it full speed and bounced right off. They have stupidly come down on top of it while being rowdy and slid right off no worse for wear. I’ve had very little maintenance- multiple trees have fallen on it and the fence bounces right back.
The one thing that I don’t like is the corner bracing. The corners have to be braced because of the tension on the fence. There are safe ways to brace with wood and cement, and then there are cheap/easy ways to brace with wire— and most installers employ the latter option. You can improve the safety by covering the bracing from horse access.
But otherwise, no complaints! I’d install it again.
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Thanks so much!
I boarded somewhere for years that had coated wire fencing. As the sole fencing material, the horses learned that they didn’t have to respect it. Lots of heads and necks through, and pushing against it so it would stretch out and need constant tightening.
Injury-wise, the direct injuries were generally just finding scraped skin with traces of white plastic on it. Indirectly, however, the lack of fence respect led to a very bad cut on my mare’s leg (and she wasn’t even a horse who was otherwise rough on fence lines). She put her back foot through the fence, probably stomping at fly, and panicked when she felt the fence grab her foot, and sliced her leg wide open with the edge of her shoe while kicking the fence off it. Obviously a horse could stick their leg through any fence and get injured, but the horses just spent SO MUCH TIME right up against and through the coated wire, more than I’ve seen with any other fence material.
Did they have any electric on it at all?
I don’t think I’d like mine if the top wasn’t hot because they do learn to stick their heads through it.
A farm down the road has a lot of horses in a field with it and it clearly isn’t hot. They are pretty rough on it and it’s constantly getting pulled down or stretched out.
Mine has never been pulled down or stretched out by horses, only trees falling on it.
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I have the coated wire fencing, 4 strands. The top and #3 strands are hot, #2 & 4 are not. The T post have the plastic cover on them to keep the horses “safer” from getting impaled on it. The fencing has held up very well and I’ve had no horse accidents, so far.
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Boarded at a place that used it for the pastures and it held up well and was safe. They had four or five strands with two hot (top and I think second to bottom), and it was properly installed, so braced well and tensioned like it is supposed to be. I watched a young stud colt run into it and bounce right off, no injuries. No worries putting any of my horses in those turnouts.
Properly installed, I think it is great. I did board at another place that did not put it up right so it was not well braced and tensioned, so it sagged and got pulled loose, etc. Looked awful too. I would have been hesitant to let any of my more adventurous (or young and dumb) horses out in that. You can always tell who has read and followed the manual and who has not!
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I think this is true of almost any fencing material if there is no electric involved.
I have three board wood fencing (with two strands of electric, one above the top and one between bottom and middle board) for my sacrifice area and when the electric is not on the horses are putting their heads through and pushing on the boards. They have even broken a few boards that way.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
My larger turn-out is three strands of coated wire. Top and bottom strands are hot.
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My coated tensile is 20yo & mostly as good as Day 1.
Three of four strands, top rail is a Centaur clone: 4" with wire embedded top & bottom.
First line coated can carry a charge, but I’ve never bothered to make it hot.
In all this time, I rarely have to retension anywhere & when I do it’s a simple operation using a wrench & not a whole lot of physical strength.
Horses do graze through the 3rd line, but the only damage is pulled Staples that I hammer back in & of the 3 (horse, pony, mini) horse rips out a chunk of mane, giving himself Equine Combover 
. I roach him & problem solved.
I have one top line that broke, have spliced it twice, broke again. But it hasn’t compromised the fence & noone has hurt themselves.
Worst accident in all this time was when my TWH got his foot stuck in the uncoated wire bracing that @Texarkana mentioned.
I found him there when I got home from work, judging from multiple piles of manure, he’d been stuck a while.
Gave me a heart attack, but he was fine, mostly because he didn’t struggle.
If I could Do Over, I’d replace the rail - for cosmetic reasons - & 3rd line with Electrobraid & make them hot.
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one day while always counting the horses to see if all were where they were supposed to be I noticed daughter’s buckskin standing over at the common line fence looking at the cows next door. Really did not think much about that.
A few hours later I saw that he was still there so went out to see just what he was looking at.
Nothing, he had hooked his left front shoe on the bottom 9 ga wire of the cattle field fence. I had to take bolt cutters to get the wire loose them pulled it out from between his hoof and shoe. He just stood there once he realized he had trapped his foot.
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I have coated hot tensile wire fence. Mine is 4 strands, all hot because it needs to keep cows and calves confined as well as horses. The horses don’t bother it, and when cows are not in the adjoining field I turn off the electricity. If the horses start to rub their butts on it I turn it on for a quick zap and they won’t touch it again for a long time. Calves will touch it once and then leave it alone, and I’ve never had a calf come under the fence like they used to do with barbed wire. I think this type of fence is much, much safer than barbed wire. FWIW, my horse vet says this is what he uses for fence, and he’s seen a lot of injuries caused by unsafe fences.
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I put in 12 gauge coated wire - black and so happy with it all. It’s my perimeter fence and inner turnouts. 5 strand. Have had a couple incidents without any serious injury. One was my guy pawing waiting for dinner and got his foot through and then drug it down the line 3 feet or so and didn’t even break the skin. There was a burn line from the drag but I kept that coated with zinc oxide and it healed within a week or so.
My mare came to me out of a terrible situation and wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been cattle prodded. She is so quick all the time to think the shoe is going to drop. She cannot take the electric being on and panics. So mine is off and yes, she puts her head through the fence. She has popped staples. If I had to do it over again I’d have all the line run inside the posts on the dry lot. That’s the only place she does it.
I’ve had big trees and huge limbs come down on my perimeter fence and it bounces right back. No tightening needed.
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A Good Mind on a Good Horse: Priceless
My traitorous TB had been in the same pasture.
When he saw me drive up, he left TWH, heading for the barn & dinner
I saw him & didn’t think anything unusual was going on…
Until I looked out my BR window & saw Walker still standing in the same spot 
TWH did not lose his mind at being deserted & stood like a rock while I worried his trapped(unshod) foot free.
It was wedged so tight I was afraid the wire was acting like a tourniquet & once I got him free, he’d bleed out 
He took a single wonky step, then walked with me to his dinner.
Horses!
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