Long time browser, but figured I might as well get involved now that I have property to bring my horse home! We are considering a few options for fencing and would love some input on what others have done successfully (or not!). The pasture will have horses and mini donkeys, so I need a compromise on what will be best. We like the idea of 5’ flex on top with 2-3 strands of coated wire below. Would it be best to add a wire of electric at the top to prevent the horses from leaning over, and/or electric at the bottom for mini donkeys?
TIA
I have four strands on coated wire. Top and second from the bottom are hot. Works great for my mini donks and horse that go out together. Someone on COTH suggested hot top and bottom to be able to step through the two middle strands. I thought that was a great idea.
I asked about coated wire a few months ago and the resounding response was to add a hot strand both top and bottom.
We recently bought a property with 5 strands of coated wire. I am realizing that COTH gave me great advice because currently only the top strand is hot. The seller’s horses are quite proficient at sticking their heads and body parts through the bottom. I also have a small, standard donkey and I don’t want her to realize she could crawl through. Right now I am debating if I want to have the 2nd strand from the bottom removed and replaced with a hot coated strand, or if I just want to DIY adding plastic insulators to the posts and running an extra strand of regular uncoated wire. Either way, I will definitely need something. The fence is strong and safe, but horses seem to figure out the flexible nature quickly.
I would go with a hot wire at mini height (looks like you’re planning that) my mini horse has sliding through flex fence so down pat that he doesn’t break stride. Fortunately all perimeter fences are solid.
I also read the discussion about coated wire that Texarkana referred to, and I was convinced that this was what I wanted for my fence. To decide which wires to electrify, I watched how the animals interacted with the existing fence. My horses sometimes lean on the top wire, so that needed to be hot. Calves liked to crawl under the bottom wire, so that needed to be hot. And some of the mama cows liked to insert their heads between the second and third wires, so those also needed to be hot. It wasn’t that much more expensive to make all four wires hot, and I’ve found that when the cows aren’t here (they rotate to different pastures) I can turn off the electricity and so far the horses haven’t bothered the fence. I thought about putting flex fence for the top, but in my case the extra expense wasn’t worth it.
The fence I replaced was barb wire, and the cows and calves were ruining it. Last summer my husband had to repair stretched or broken wire almost every day, and I think he could have happily shot the cows. The first time the cows touched the hot coated wire the whole herd jumped back, and they never bothered it again. Needless to say, I’m very happy with the new fence.
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@OzarksRider I’m glad it’s working for you!
Before we were under contract on this current place, we had an offer in on a property with zero fencing. I called to get some quotes on fencing two 2 acre paddocks on that place. I was pleasantly surprised how affordable it was, even now when materials costs are sky high. The addition of the hot strands really didn’t change the price much on that quote, either.
