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Foal-safe fence conversion

My 2 horses (and a couple more who belong to friends) live in a very casual mostly 24/7 pasture situation. The horses are all older (youngest is 14), wise, and calm.

But if all goes well, we’ll have a foal (from the 14-year-old mare) next spring. I’m looking ahead to the changes I will need to make to our fencing specifically to keep things as safe as possible.

When we moved in, I took out all of the barb wire except along the road (which is double fenced); the landlord wanted the wire fence to stay along the road. I enclosed the horse area (about 6-7 scrubby acres) with e-rope, set mostly on t-posts with caps. I set the e-rope off the small barbwire section with long insulators.

We also have a small arena (fenced with wood boards) that can be used for turnout and a foaling-sized shed/stall attached to a corral with tall 5-pipe panels. I’m anticipating that mare/foal will do their first several weeks+ on their own moving between the foaling corral and the arena, and then transition to being all together with the other older horses IF everybody is behaving.

My question is, what changes would you make? I am planning to ask the landlord to let me rip out that last section of barbwire finally (perhaps offering to replace it with mesh). Our horses 100% respect the e-rope, but is it good enough for a foal? Should I add another strand, or switch to Horseguard? Is Horseguard notably safer than thick, sturdy e-rope? Do I actually need to do mesh all the way around instead, or something else? Clearly the whole thing is on a budget but that’s why I’m wanting to start working on it/paying for it now.

might want to ask them just what they would approve

I have not been in your position, the youngest horse we have had been eight month old horse and was pretty large. (we have three miniatures but really have no worry of them getting away since we are double fenced on the perimeter with V mesh for the horse side with a gap then chain link on the public side)

I “think” I would/might use something like snow fencing to enclose the corral fencing. (The miniatures are kept in a paddock that is three rail board with V mesh that is attached to the wood fencing )

I would add some extra lower level electric fencing to maybe help keep the foal in the pasture.

But whatever I used would be something that was not attached to the property

This is a good point. Fence laws vary from state to state, but often fencing is considered a fixture that becomes part of the property (as opposed to your personal property that you can take with you to the next farm you rent/buy). Essentially you’d be donating all those $$$ fencing materials to the landlord unless you work out in advance who pays for what, and what materials you get to keep if/when you leave.

Do you have a really solid multi-year rental / lease contract? I’d personally be leery of starting a breeding program if there was a chance my lease could end while I had a young foal to take care of.
It’s hard enough to find boarding situations for multiple horses, never mind a baby.

I’ve always heard/read that electric is not ideal for foals because they move forward into the shock instead of moving off of it. It might be a good idea to consider using something more solid, at least in part.

Investing in a property that’s not your own is always a risk, though. Any chance you can board the mare elsewhere for foaling and when the foal is at foot? You could choose a place with foal safe fencing.

Not owning the property is of course part of why I don’t want to spend a lot on fencing. Someday when we move on I will take all the electric fencing with me to our next place. I’m okay with making some improvements if they give the horses even better quality of life and also give me experience on learning how to install/maintain things.

But the landlord relationship and contract is excellent, very mutually beneficial, and respectful. They are looking forward to the foal in particular, and are usually receptive to ideas about improvements. (This is the only foal I have any plans to produce.) I have several Plan Bs in mind if something catastrophic happens, and also I do plan to send the foal somewhere else for weaning before bringing back to the group.