We have wooden post and rail (3 rails) and horse wire. It’s pretty but it need some work. And you have to remove the posts to put in new rails- a pain in the —. I think a metal fence with cable would be more durable but would probably cost an arm and a leg. So what do you have/wish you had? Just curious.
We have wooden post with one 3-strand coated and 4 single strand coated wire. The top and middle single strands are hot.
The fencing is going well so far. It would be nice to have two gates per pasture section, since that area gets trampled and it would be easy then to block off that corner and use the other gate for a while.
We went for brown vinyl so that the inevitable mildew discoloration would not show - and I still think that was a wise choice.
We fenced some areas for paddocks, which we intended to finish with stonedust. We’ve been finishing them, and after the landscape cloth and stonedust layer, we now find the fencing there is 6-12" lower that it could be. So if you intend to finish the surface to improve drainage, plan ahead for it and make sure it’s a little taller.
Finally, the gate latches go out of alignment several times per year. I bought a big wrench to make those adjustments straightforward but it’s annoying to always have a gate or two that don’t swing freely through the latch. I don’t know the solution but I would have spent a bit more to prevent this problem.
I have no-climb on wood posts, with either electric or a top board depending on how pretty I wanted it to look. (Top board up near the road, electric out back.)
I love it. Someone would have to give me a really hard sell to swap to anything else.
I have page wire around the perimeter. On the inside I use electro braid. What I like about it is that I can easily create small paddocks and change the setup very easily with step in posts. Granted it’s for 3 horses on 30 acres but overall I find it super low maintenance and easy to use. My horses all very much respect the fence though and get turned out together.
[QUOTE=Mukluk;8667522]
We have wooden post and rail (3 rails) and horse wire. It’s pretty but it need some work. And you have to remove the posts to put in new rails- a pain in the —. I think a metal fence with cable would be more durable but would probably cost an arm and a leg. So what do you have/wish you had? Just curious.[/QUOTE]
In the smaller areas we have pipe panels.
Pipe and cable is what many use here, but cable is not very horse friendly, they can get cut on it very badly.
One reason, our vet told us, horses don’t respect it, it doesn’t bite like barbed wire, so they rub and lean and try to eat thru it.
Then, if another horse runs at them or something scares them, if they hit the cable, it degloves them.
If your horse herd is stable and very quiet, it probably is ok.
I have 3 strands of coated wire on wood posts, all strands hot. I use step in posts ans electric rope to divide paddocks- works great, actually looks good and very safe for the horses.
Love it!
Have wooden posts and 3 rail fencing. Want no climb on that.
I have a Centaur-clone on round treated wood posts.
Corner posts are 6", line posts 4" - set @ 12’.
Top rail is 2-wire vinyl rail, 3 lines below are coated tensile with top line able to carry a charge. But I have never added a charger as horses respect the fencing.
They do graze through it (cuz, ya know “grass is greener”) - but that keeps a 2’ perimeter looking mowed, so I don’t discourage it.
Fence is white & after 12yrs has yet to discolor from weather - if I search real hard I can find some small areas of greening.
Pros installed it and I have only had to retension one line in all this time.
If I could redo, I might replace that top rail - installed for visibility for horses - with coated tensile or electrobraid.
That change would only be cosmetic as it seems to me it would have a cleaner look without that rail.
Depends on size of pasture, terrain, climate, proximity to roads & other “nuisances”.
I have 4-board fence. It’s 15 years old and has done extremely well until recently. Now, I’m finding some posts have rotted at the ground level and need to replace several of them this year. The board fence was a good choice for the sections that go through or next to woods, because when trees have fallen on the fence, it has most often just popped the board right off (whole) and it can be nailed back on once the tree is removed. In cases where the board breaks, then I only need to replace that section. I think it would get much more complicated if trees were falling on a wire fence.
[QUOTE=moving to dc;8667831]
Depends on size of pasture, terrain, climate, proximity to roads & other “nuisances”.[/QUOTE]
Size of “pasture” more a large paddock= small (1/3 acre?).
Terrain= flat
Climate= four seasons but not a ton of snow.
Roads= none near the horses
Nuisances= none (other than myself).
[QUOTE=GoForAGallop;8667580]
I have no-climb on wood posts, with either electric or a top board depending on how pretty I wanted it to look. (Top board up near the road, electric out back.)
I love it. Someone would have to give me a really hard sell to swap to anything else.[/QUOTE]
This is what I have and would not have anything else. My Pop has what we call stallion wire fence, like the no climb but stronger with triangles of woven wire. I love that but more labor intensive to install.
DW is a Vet and we have fixed up horses that have been hurt by most of the other fences, why I love what we have. If I had anything else it would have hot wires that were always working along with it.
On the first farm that my husband and I built (many years ago) we started with 3 board wood fencing on 4x4 square posts, professionally installed, mostly because my husband insisted on it (he liked the look and I was so thrilled to be getting a farm that I didn’t fight it). During the 21 years we lived there, the fence drove me nuts - horses chewing wood, sticking their heads through for the “greener” grass, breaking boards, boards warping, posts rotting at the bottom. I even had one young big warmblood who figured out he could just lean hard on the fence, break a couple of boards and step over the bottom one. We eventually, gradually replaced the whole thing with 4 board fencing that we did ourselves which solved only the head sticking through thing because my husband also refused to have hot wire - geesh! Our next farm in TN had high tensile wire for cattle and four board black painted fence around the house and yard. We replaced the high tensile with v-mesh on large round, painted black posts topped with one strand of black Centaur 5 inch rail. It looked great even with rolling terrain and was low maintenance and safe. It was also very expensive. By this time my husband had seen the light of day about hot wire and we ran hot tape along the sections of 4 board that connected to the pasture. When we sold that place and moved back to FL we again had to re-fence (replace a really crappy, loose “high tensile” fence). This time I opted for 3 strands of brown Ramm vinyl fencing on large round treated posts that were left natural color to weather. I had 2 strands of coated brown hot wire between the rails to prevent graze through. I think I like this best of all - safe, very low maintenance and attractive (but again, not cheap). If you would like to see pics of either the Centaur with v mesh or the Ramm, just PM me your e-mail address. Good luck with your project.
I have four rail Ramm 4.25 flex fence and love it. Black.
https://www.facebook.com/347546461986279/photos/a.347546808652911.65310225.347546461986279/347546821986243/?type=3&theater
I am putting in 3 strands of Centaur HTP and two of the coated electric to keep them off, like cdalt. I am doing white because that’s what my DH wants. And since he is half the team, I am thrilled with white!
We’ve had Cenflex on my dad’s farm for 15 years in black and it still looks great. I also have 5 strands of coated wire already as cross fencing and have been VERY happy with that. I have had horses get caught in it and pull it halfway across the (large) field – they didn’t even get a small cut. walked away totally fine! I call that a good fence.
Wooden posts, electric wire (1 strand in most places, our fence is HOT HOT HOT and we have found that one touch is all it takes for all livestock to keep a safe distance!) In some areas its 5 strand but not very tall - the original owners had sheep so 5 strands is still only about 4’ tall and they even respect that.
Low cost, easy to repair
I refuse to use metal gates whether they are round tubular or flat. Horses don’t seem to respect them, and I’ve seen horses paw and get a leg through and then panic which results in either the horse getting a terrible leg injury, the gate getting ripped down while still attached to the horse’s leg, or both.
If my horses are going to go through a fence, I want it to be something that will cause the least amount of damage. It’s hot enough that they haven’t yet, but if they did, I’d rather deal with a loose horse than one that’s all cut up or impaled.
[QUOTE=khall;8667986]
I have four rail Ramm 4.25 flex fence and love it. Black.
https://www.facebook.com/347546461986279/photos/a.347546808652911.65310225.347546461986279/347546821986243/?type=3&theater[/QUOTE]
That looks very nice, how do you keep horses off it and keep it well stretched?
I have 3 rail SLIP board with pressure treated posts and boards. I love it. A board breaks? No tools needed, slip it out and slip a new one in. The horses respect it and honestly it’s the DEER that break boards, not them. I could have made it hot. I don’t know if that would have dissuaded the deer. I don’t think it’s necessary for the horses. I wouldn’t really change a thing.
For the pasture fencing I have exactly what I want: no climb, wood posts, board on top. My entire property isn’t perimeter fenced - one side is barbed wire (my no-climb fence is inside of that), the back side is no-climb that those neighbors put up, and then the third side is open to the other neighbors. It isn’t useable property anyway (very rocky), but I would love to have the whole perimeter in no-climb.
I’m pricing out for what many already have and recommend: wood posts with some from of no climb (the fence guy yesterday said it’s called “fixed knot high tensile”), and a top board or rail of either wood or Centaur/Centaur mimic. Keep horses in, have yet to have an injury on one, and keeps critters out. Also, hard as shit to climb as a human too :lol: I’m convinced that’s why it’s called “no climb.”
