I have a post driver that is fab, it’s easy to use but it’s cumbersome getting it lined up and posts put in.
If you only need corners hire it out.
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Do note that the break strength is horse guard is 600#, with a five year warranty.
The break strength of electrobraid is 1200#, with a 25 year warranty.
The break strength of, oh, Finish Line (which is just the first coated high tensile that comes to mind) is 1250, with a 12 year warranty.
They all have their pros and cons.
Horse guard goes up easier, but also comes down easier. Horses are more able to bolt through it. Horses doing totally normal, non stupid, horse things, like rolling too close to the fence, can yank out whole runs.
The high tensile options are harder to install. They HAVE to be kept tensioned appropriately. Corners need bracing. But a horse is far more likely to bounce off rather than run through. They’re a lot less likely to yank it down.
No doubt there are areas of the country where horses out of the fence just isn’t a big deal. There are other areas where horses out of the fence is a much bigger deal.
If you’re already worried about not having a perimeter, it’s worth really considering how “hard” you want your fence to be.
I also don’t have a perimeter, and consider horses out of the fence a “never” event in that I expect it to happen never. The risks if they get off the property are very concerning. I’d never consider a fence like horse guard because of that. That the strongest proponents are so blase about “has a horse gone through it a few times? Sure” is kind of mind boggling to me. Is it possible that a horse can run through any fence? Yes, absolutely. Are certain types of fence more secure? Also–yes, absolutely.
I can share that I never had a horse go through electrobraid when we had a farm with it. No one got hurt on it. No one ever pulled it down (even rolling too close to it.) We did check and adjust tension a couple times a year. We kept it hot.
I’ve heard several people talk about their coated high tensile in the same way.
Horse guard is a great product. But not a great “only” fence, at least for some circumstances. Like where it really matters that horses stay inside the fence.
Yes, leaving the fence is very much a concern for me. We have a decent buffer of open land, but not huge, and we’re on a busy road. Where I envision this pasture is set back behind the buildings and towards the center of the open acreage but the idea of a loose horse still gives me hives of course.
At my current place we actually had a horse get out of the electrobraid a couple weeks ago- still no idea how he did it. Luckily none of his friends followed so he just ran up and down the fence trying to get back in 
But goes to show that there are always freak accidents, so very much trying to weigh the pros and cons for convenience/cost/security.
Yep, absolutely, weird shit can happen for sure. Horses, man. Always finding new & creative ways to freak us out.
One horse out is much less scary, though, than a bunch of fence down and allllll the horses out. At least for me. I figure one will stick around, but the whole herd? They’ll go adventure. 
I love love love my coated high tensile, but I wouldn’t consider it a “moveable” option. That wire is a pain in the butt to work with, especially off the spool.
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Oh totally. Just one more thing to consider in the never ending equation. Perhaps more likely to get a degloving from electrobraid or high tensile with an errant roll than from horseguard, but perhaps less likely to get a whole herd escape if one dummy somehow goes through the electrobraid than with horseguard.
Maybe we need a frankenstein fence with two lines of electrobraid on top and a line of horseguard below where legs are are more likely to get stuck!
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Yes this is my thinking. High tensile will certainly be on my option list for eventual permanent fencing
I seriously love my coated high tensile. My only complaint is how mine was braced when it was installed. But otherwise I can’t imagine going back to anything else.
Plain high tensile wire without coating is a hard pass for me, though.
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Do you need that final ideal barn build immediately? Do the horses need to go in stalls every day? Could you build your ideal pasture now and put in a basic shelter for the horses until you can build dream barn?
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Great question, also something I have thought about a lot. I could theoretically start by fencing in the ~1 acre bit I envision as an eventual dry lot and part of what will be the full pasture. Here’s where I’m at with that (prepare yourself for an essay):
Option 1: Fence in a couple acres surrounding where the barn will eventually go and throw in a big run-in. Horses would likely be fine with this and it would be cost effective BUT
- Not having any sort of enclosed or even covered space to deal with vet/farrier/misc would be fairly troublesome. We have lots of fun weather here and a real deal winter.
- This would be far enough away from the existing barn that I’d need to think about temporary solutions for feed/tack/hay storage. Would a little prefab shed or something work for feed and tack? Possibly.
- Separating for meals would require some creativity.
- Small point, but if I put up a run-in near where the eventual barn would be, I’d then want to move it out to the pasture once barn went up. Just an extra bit of pain to deal with.
If I were thinking of building in 6 months/1 year, I could probably survive with this set up. Not sure I want to deal with it for multiple years.
Option 2: The cockamamie scheme my husband and I have come up with is to essentially build a shed row that could later be converted into the full barn. Basically picture 1/3 of Horizon’s modular monitor barn structure:(https://commercial.horizonstructures.com/products/horse-barns/center-aisle-horse-barns/monitor-modular-horse-barn)
The “back” wall would be a full wall, later to be torn out and replaced with stall fronts when the other side plus monitor goes up. This would provide stalls for separated meals, a spare stall for feed/tack, and with the overhang, at least some coverage and dry ground for vet/farrier. BUT this would still be a fairly sizable investment.
I could retrofit existing barn much more cheaply. Some of that retrofitting would surely be wasted down the line if/when we build but we could at least endeavor to repurpose materials as much as possible.
A horse running into a fence with their whole body is going to hit with more force than any fence can handle, unless its for an elephant. More than 600#, more than 1200#.
Electric is a psychological barrier, not a physical one. Knowing that, I want the one that is least likely to injure my horse.
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Could you use the existing barn for those situations? I get the existing barn is far, but it’s also not a daily thing to have the vet/farrier out. I would even consider it for tacking up too. And then do a temporary structure for feed near the run in shed, since feeding is definitely a daily thing you’d want to keep easy and accessible.
You should be able to put in some strategically placed gates or panels for separating at feeding time.
Agreed moving the run in to the pasture would be annoying. You have to decide if that’s less annoying than moving fencing.
Of course all this may also depend on your herd dynamics and if that setup would work for them.
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Then put up a single strand of electric twine with a break strength of 100#s.
Oh, you didn’t do that, did you.
I guess you could say most fences are predominately a psychological barrier. I’ve seen horses attempt to go over or through just about every type of fencing in existence when determined.
But I don’t have a dog in this fight; I am a lot more tolerant of different types of fencing than some people. Tape alone doesn’t bother me. Hot wire alone doesn’t bother me. There are times when something more substantial is necessary, but other times they can be sufficient. It just depends on the circumstance. Every fence on the planet has the ability to fail.
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I’m not sure why you’re so upset.
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That is the truth.
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I’m not sure why you think I’m upset.
You can really reduce the risk of fence injury to your horses by using as little fence as possible. Or, hell! None at all!
It’s certainly ridiculous to suggest, isn’t it? I guess it’s not just about being a psychological barrier. And I guess that having horses outside the fence also carries risk of injury.
Weird.
ok.
High tensile wire for everyone! Things like visibility and shear, who cares! 
Electric is psychological, else we wouldn’t use it. If the fence is strong enough to hold the horses, we wouldn’t need it, eh?
Stronger isn’t always better/safer for the horses. See: halters and tying. (Also a risk of a loose horse there, too.)
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You can buy pre-made shed row barns, so that is a good idea.
The only problem I can think of about your shed row plan is - what will you do with the horses while you have the full barn built around your shed row when the time comes for that?
If you buy a small run in type shelter, with an added feed room, you can put it not quite where you want the new barn eventually. This will allow your to build the new barn more easily (when the time comes) and you can likely just leave the run in where it is, to provide shelter in your dry lot.
I second the thought of what @rulex posted above. You can use the existing barn structure for the farrier and vet until you get your final barn built.
Clearly not optimal, but it would work temporarily.
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Yeah, excellent compare/contrast. We tie with break away stuff, in part because we’re there. The horse leaves, we can react right away to prevent it from, say, leaving the property and getting injured.
Break away fencing is a concerning risk because we’re not always there to react immediately if it fails. People work. They sleep. They do things other than observe their horses, waiting for the fence to fail.
This suggestion that horses are just going to run through fences on the regular, so they should be breakaway, is weird. In a dozen years of having horses at home, and even longer boarding, I’ve never had horses run through a fence. Can they? Yes, absolutely. Shit happens. Does it happen regularly? Certainly not that I’ve ever seen, thank god.
Touting a breakaway fencing material as the only fence keeping the horses inside with “yeah they go through it but they don’t get hurt” is weird. Being outside the fence risks harm, too, and often a lot. No, it’s not just to be expected that horses are going to run through fencing frequently. Yes, different fence types vary in the risk of escape. Fencing that’s the only fence keeping horses in shouldn’t be able to come down with horses doing normal horse things.
Coated high tensile and uncoated high tensile are two different products. Coated is pretty danged visible. Horses tend to bounce off it. Many options can be made hot. No one is suggesting uncoated.
