I thought I remember you said you have an electric top rail?
I had a line of electric on top of a mesh fence with a centaur rail topper at our previous property. I have no beef with electric. I have no beef with using a break away fence for interior cross fencing. I would never use a break away fence as a perimeter fence. Sure, a horse can freak out and run through a more solid fence, but they sure have to work at that, and itās a lot more likely that theyāll bounce off and stay contained in a fence thatās designed to not break vs something thatās designed to come apart.
A horse rolling and getting caught up in the fence, pulling it down, isnāt a horse thatās upset and wants out. That horse isnāt trying to leave. That horse is just doing regular horse things, and thatās a fence thatās just not suitable as a perimeter fence.
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The horse who rolls into the solid fence and shreds their leg is still contained I guess, so thatās good.
If a solid fence is as bullet proof as you claim, there would be no need for an electric top rail though, right? That psychological benefit is not necessary when the fence is solid.
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ā¦what? Where have I claimed anywhere that ANY fence is bullet proof. No fence is bullet proof. Horses are idiots.
But, as I said earlier, Iām sure as hell going to stack the deck in my favor by using a fence thatās not designed to fail as a perimeter fence. There are a gazillion options at all sorts of different price points.
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Itās not designed to fail. Itās a psychological barrier, like all electric fence.
Iām putting no climb as my perimeter (keep dogs out is the goal), and Iām more nervous about my young one injuring herself on that than I am about tape.
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The break strength says otherwise.
If or when the tape breaksābe it when a horse rolls too close and pulls it down or whateverāthere is no longer a fence. I see that as a really serious problem. Horses who arenāt contained in a fence can injure not only themselves, but can cause horrific wrecks.
Yes, no climb is an excellent perimeter fence thatās a lot less likely to result in a horse thatās uncontained or off the property. Thatās exactly my point.
My young mare says challenge accepted. Except ones going to leave her very injured.
I didnāt see break strength as a spec on either fence type, so no. Its not a designed feature.
I think weāll just have to agree to disagree. Youāre entirely missing the point that the concern with tape only as a perimeter fence isnāt injury to the horse from the fence. Itās the fact that there is no fence when it comes down for whatever reason, which is more likely than with other fence types, because of something intrinsic to the fence itself.
You seem to be stuck that I must be saying ātape = badā which I am not.
You have a setup that will still keep your horse within the fence and on your property if the tape fails. Two thumbs up, great job.
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I think youāre neglecting the key thing - a horse who goes through a fence of any type is a loose horse, and a horse who wants out will get out.
Once again. The intrinsic nature of tape fence means it is more likely to come down, and as has been described in this thread it can come down when a horse is making zero efforts to get out.
What insulators do you use for your tape?
The official HG insulators
Is there any way to rig these as caps for tposts, too? Their ācapsā are really for their tpost sleeve set up, and donāt look like they clamp onto the tape well.
Rig the insulators as caps? No, they arenāt designed for that at all. Theyāre designed to either be screwed into wood posts, or slide over their fiberglass posts (or any post with the same diameter). Iāve never used the t-post sleeves, and canāt tell on the website how the tape goes through the insulator
Youāre talking about these, correct?
https://www.horseguard.us/product/t-postguard-capsins-br-25/
I originally ordered these, then returned them. Didnāt like the look, especially since I was only using toppers on the posts on our cross-fencing (not the entire sleeve). I agree that the tape clamps look as though they wonāt will hold up as long term as the HG post insulators will (which is a very long time IME), although Iāve seen that same type of tape clamp on other brands of caps ā so I guess they work for somebody.
What I did was use another brand of T post topper (the rounded type with a larger head than the HG ones); I ignored the built-in clamps and used HG insulators to hold the lines of tape on the posts below the caps.
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Good idea. I like the idea of the clamping, and the top rail will be all tape. I donāt want 500ā without a clamp, else it will flap and sag.
I like Horseguard fencing. One of our paddocks is HG and other than trees perpetually falling on it ( 
) itās been minimal effort to maintain. Our main field is some sort of off-brand electric tape that we bought a huge spool of at discount decades ago. Itās been up for 20+ years. I have to occasionally replace a strip, and thereās yearly re-tightening, but otherwise itās been alright. Looks uglier than HG but gets the job done.
Weāve had 3 strand electric tape for perimeter fencing for the last 20 years. Up close to the barn is a mix of hot tape and wood. The pros of the tape is it doesnāt obstruct wild life and things rarely get stuck in it. Low maintenance, easy to fix. Very few actual fence injuries when collisions happen. The cons of the tape is itās better keeping horses in than wildlife out. Itās not as strong (in some ways) as wood, but it doesnāt splinter, have nails, or impale like wood can.
Iāve owned a few horses who learned to lean on a wood fence until a board popped off. 
Fixed that by hot-wiring the top, but nothing will keep a horse in if they donāt want to be in barring cement. Iāve worked at farms with every kind of fencing you can think of and seen injuries and escapes from all of them. But Iāve seen the most injuries from wood. I like wood less and less as I get older. Rots too quickly, leaves nails if it falls in the middle of the night, gets worn down by weather and chewing, and expensive to repair. Always fails on me in 14F weather when the spare wood pile is under 4 feet of snow. 
Everyone has to work with what they have and what works for one farm or set up might not work for another.
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When I was in graduate school, one of the yearling Thoroughbred colts tried to jump a four-board wooden fence overnight, failed, and impaled himself through the chest. The farm crew found him the next morning, dead, still stuck on the fence. It was an awful, awful scene.
I still love the look of a traditional board fence. But thatās an image that sticks with you. [shudder]
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These stories are why I went with HDPE fence. Still not perfect, but seems to me to be the best balance of all of the factors.
The worst Iāve seen with that type of fence is two geldings roughhousing and one reared and fell to the side, right on the fence. Fence shattered, he was scraped up pretty good but nothing career or life ending.
