What kind of gates do you have one your fences? Pros and cons? Thanks…
If you have horses that stand on the gates, get the mesh ones. Also, there are tube gates with more horizontal tubes, spaced closely together on the bottom. But for me, that invites a trapped foot…
1 Like
Heavy duty pipe gates locally made. This is a good video by a gate company about how to recognize a well made pipe gate. www.gobobpipe.com/heavydutygates.html
1 Like
I have the tube gates. 20 years ago when I had my little barn and paddocks built, I didn’t know that there was an alternative. I now have minis and the mesh gates would be so much better for them. I have to tie mesh fence to the tube gates in any case, because one of my minis liked to stick his head through the gates without it.
I’d love to replace the old gates with the mesh variety.
1 Like
Mesh. Horses get caught up in the tube gates. Hooves and heads get caught up.
1 Like
I put a metal mesh gate in to separate my horse pastures, (one horse per pasture), and it was bent down the middle within two weeks. I have metal tube gates on all perimeter fences and they’re still holding up. I can’t say the same would’ve or wouldn’t have happened with the metal tube but just thought I’d share.
Maybe I am thinking of the wrong gates but when I was gate shopping the gates with mesh scared me because the mesh was of a size that would easily trap a hoof.
[I]I don’t know how any of you keep horses behind commercially made mesh-filled gates. I bought a 10’ gate - the green kind - from TSC. It had the 2x4 mesh on it, which was what I needed to keep goat kids in…
It took my THREE Momma goats (Boer goats, about 125lbs each) all of 10 minutes of standing, leaning, and rubbing on the gate to pop every weld holding the mesh on. 10 minutes… I have since “sewn” the mesh back on using 14g steel wire, and it has held for years.
I will never buy another mesh filled gate. I would rather install my own 2x4 woven wire to a normal pipe gate. [/I]
I’ve used both, and both take a beating from my herd, but — I have less than 2 acres in pasture right now, and, my horses are really hard on gates. The mini’s use the mesh gates the shed themselves out, and they put a TON of pressure on, so they busted the mesh of the tractor-store ones within a few months. I just bought a heavy duty version from Behlen and it’s much thicker gauge and better welds, but, the edges of the mesh are rough and primed to give a laceration — to me or them. Going to be covering that up somehow, which is a pain.
The horse has stood on the bottom bar of every gate, and pawed higher up and bent the next few, too. I have wired 2x4 welded wire to them to keep the mini’s safer, but it doesn’t do anything to stop him from his shenanigans. He just bends the wire, then the gate. More pasture and there’d be less gate-abuse, I’m sure.
I have 3 tube gates in my pasture, and the horses never mess with them. They’re the same ones that were installed 17 years ago. I also have a tube gate in the middle of the barn, separating the stall area from the feed area, so that the stalls can function as a run-in shed as well. I don’t know exactly what happened, but one time it appeared that my head mare must have tried to double-barrel kick someone and ended up with both hind legs going through the gate. I came out later to find the gate tubes bent in the middle, and hair scraped off the fronts of the horse’s hind legs. Luckily, she was okay - no cuts and just minor swelling/soreness from bending metal pipes.
I also have one tube gate in the backyard, with metal 2x4 mesh wired on to keep the dogs in. The horses have no access to this gate.
The current farm I am at has a mesh gate similar to this one. I can’t find a picture of exactly what they have. The ones on the farm do not have the mesh on the top they have the mesh from the middle down and round tubes on the top. They seem to have held up well. I think it helps keep a horse from pawing/standing on the bottom. This one looks nice too. It sounds like some other folks have different types of mesh gates that are not as sturdy. I can’t imagine the ones at the farm I am at bending easily. The mesh is very smooth. None of them have obvious welds so I don’t know how they make it. None of the mesh is broken.
I far prefer the mesh gates. Trubandloki- the ones I have have big mesh at the top that gets smaller as it goes toward the bottom. Nothing hoof sized.
I’ve had horses bend and destroy both types of gates (for those of you saying your exterior gates have survived - yes, I’ve never had a horse destroy an exterior gate, only gates between horses or into the barn/food source). But I’ve had far fewer problems with mesh gates overall.
i do have one horse, though, that was a terrible pawer, and would occasionally hook a shoe on the mesh and rip it off. We ended up buying a thin sheet of plastic and used zip ties to attach it to the inside of his gate. It’s been an absolute lifesaver as he doesn’t paw against it either.
After having my mare kick out and get caught with her back legs through the tubular gate, all of the gates were changed over to mesh. Lucky I was home at the time and managed to get her out without her or me getting hurt.
Other than a huge tree falling on one of my gates (and barely denting it) from Hurricane Irma, I’ve had no problems with the tube gates from Tractor Supply. All of my fields have a 12’ or 16’ aisle between them.
I have a mesh gate only at my driveway, so my dog can’t exit our farm (whole perimeter is wire mesh fence).
Mesh - mainly to keep the dogs on their side of the fences. Mine are from Tarter. (And it’s totally cosmetic, but mine are dark blue to match the roof and barn trim, which I think looks spiffy.)
The pony is unshod and doesn’t abuse the gates, so the mesh works for me.
1 Like
Believe me, the back leg getting stuck thing can happen with mesh too.
We have tube gates, with closer spaced tube at the bottom. 7-bar gates is what the seller called them, and they have held up well over the years. Gates from barn area into pastures have a hot wire across in front of them to prevent horses getting close or touching them when closed. Hot wire works very well in preventing gate or horse damage, does not allow anyone to get “cornered” while the group gathers waiting to come inside the barn. Wire has two spring handles for hooking it on the other perimeter hot wire, so gate wire bites when in place. Two handle ends allow wire to be totally removed for taking horses thru the pipe gate. No chance of gate wire catching on anything or burning a horse because wire is totally removed when using the pipe gate. We have enclosed “dead zones” between fences so horses can’t touch over fences. That let’s us flip the wire and handles in there when not in use, safely out of the way. Easy to reach after putting horses out, rehang in front of the gate again.
Hot wire use in front of gates started when a young horse started standing on the lowest pipe of gate or pawing gate for attention. Hot wire was fast, easy to use, solved the problem before he hurt himself.
Horses just don’t bother gates in the line fences, do not see them as exits because horses never go thru them, only the tractors use them.
In either variety you can get gates of varying levels of gauge and rust protection. In general, farm store gates tend to be lighter weight - because it saves not just on metal but on shipping them to the store - and painted ones IME quickly have paint flake off and rust. Pay attention to the gauge if you can and buy the heaviest duty you can.
If you can buy locally made gates, those will usually be the strongest for your dollar, and in any case, I prefer to spend extra for gates that I can hang and forget for a decade or two. Sometimes I’ve had to buy in a hurry and of those the Behlen heavy duty gates are my choice. They aren’t my favorite but they have held up for me, of the national brands.
I have used both with success. I would only buy the 2x4 mesh for horses, nothing larger. That is a good choice for keeping toddlers or other small animals out of the enclosure. I also prefer mesh for sheep.
The pipe gates tend IME to be a bit stronger and it’s easier to get them in the heavier gauge.
I don’t buy any gates that have the flat metal pieces as verticals. I only buy ones made of the welded pipe. I prefer the ones with square welded corners also.
If you want color, get them powder coated, not painted. Usually you can see right in the store that paint is already flaking off.
We have had the same metal tube gates for 18 years. They are extremely heavy and are still almost as blue as the day they were hung. I do have mesh that we put on the inside but only because I have goats that use the pasture too. Never had a horse get a leg hung up.
Yeah, my one TSC mesh gate was trashed in a couple of weeks. The other one is still functional, but is left open most of the time (but it still bent in the middle where I guess it was leaned on). I would like good sturdy mesh gates though.
