Thinking on fence for the future remodel/new facility. I’m really liking the idea of flex fencing. Has anyone experienced injuries with Ramm fence or similar? Yes I’m aware they can get hurt on anything. But what are the details on this particular kind of fence?
No experience with injuries, however there are several farms near my home that have it, and when looking for property I looked at a home that had it. Perhaps it wasn’t installed properly at the properties I’ve seen it at? It looked terrible. It was wavy and faded and droopy. Like I said, maybe the installation was not done properly.
I like it a lot. You need to brace the corners for it to go in correctly, but I’ve had mine for 15 years with no regrets.
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I love it myself. I have seen exactly two injuries and numerous saves from Centaur fence that was professionally installed. One, the worse and the BO’s fault IMO, some of the coating had come off of the wire, a mare got into a scuffle at the fence line and stepped back through the fence, then snapped forward and the wire did what wire does - sliced open her leg, severed the (ermm) extensor tendon (?? the one that lifts the toe?), lots of nasty other stuff but that was the biggie. I was the only one on the farm at the time, so I saw it happen. She came back with extensive care and was sound and not too much of a blemish. The other, a small stallion tried to jump out of his paddock (the rail type fencing), didn’t have enough steam, got hung by the stifles and hung there, front feet on the ground and butt in the area for who knows how long, was found by the morning person. He had some friction burns on his belly and oh boy did his testicles swell :lol: but he was able to cover mares that year, didn’t cut anything or castrate himself, thankfully he was a calm dude and just stood there. In the first, properly maintaining the fence would have prevented it. Horses pawing at and standing on the fence is what was causing the coating to come off, since it is so flexible they could literally stand on the bottom wire and bring it to the ground, and it would snap back up but the coating was damaged. I asked for years for her to get some of the electric stuff (white lightning is the name now, no idea what it was called 15 years ago).
I saw multiple saves with it though. I count the one with the stallion as a save. I watched a herd of lesson and boarder horses running hell bent in a pasture, they all went to do the slide-to-a-stop-at-the-last-minute thing, an old Appy went down in the mud and slid right out, and stood up super confused on the other side, coated in mud on one side and not a hair out of place.
I love it, in case you can’t tell. My current farm has three paddocks with no climb topped with “black” lightning because of my mini donkeys and one horse is a dog stomper, so it was necessary, but two of the paddocks are divided with four strands of the black lightning and my bottom paddocks will be four strands black lightning only when I get to them. It’s hot as crap and the fence guy did something where the no climb is somehow grounded with the hot, so if a dog jumps up to try to jump over (yanno, jump, hook front legs, kick off the no climb with back legs to make it over, my concern because then without touching the ground it won’t shock) so it will still zap the hell out of the dog, but you can still touch the no climb itself. I’ll add pictures in another couple posts to explain more…
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I thought this was the type of fence the OP was speaking of?
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Yes I was referring specifically to the “board” fence rather than the coated wire. But good info on the wire too as I have thought about alternating some hot wire with the boards. Thanks for the replies!
I believe you can get that type with some ability to electrify.
But Ramm/Centaur both have coated high tensile wire as well. Those can be used alone or in conjunction with the board look fence.
Both the coated high tensile and the rail type need to be tightened/maintained.
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HATE the centaur fencing we bought our property with. Biggest PITA ever! Replacing it all with horseguard fencing. And since I have an escape donkey needs to be electrified anyway. Horseguard is so much easier to put up/repair and just as safe! Its what I made my round pen out of (non electrified) and my horse once fell sideways over onto the fence and bounced right back up. Not a scratch on him and the fence bounced right back as well.
We have it, and have had horses hit the rails hard enough to break a post and just sort of bounce off and walk away. We have had a couple hit and slide through/ under too (young TBs). It is not maintenance free but it’s easier than wood and so much more forgiving of stupid horses.
#5
May. 14, 2019, 11:55 AM
This fencing is at the first large facility I was talking about, and in these pictures the Centaur is about 11 or so years old with, like I said, little maintenance. The strands had been tightened here and there, but that’s it. I feel the bottom strand is entirely too low, which is why horses pawed at it and stood on it. Oh and I forgot, no injuries but did have several shod horses paw at the fence and hook the wire between their hoof and shoe. Sometimes you could work it back, a couple times we had to cut the fence and then it was just reconnected, but again with a bare spot. Another reason it shouldn’t be this low. Most of the property was this, the upper (front, public view) paddocks were four strands of the four or five inch plank and the rest was the coated wire with a top one inch piece for visibility.
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What good is the fence if the horses can stick their heads through and push on it? Looks like a stand of electric ( or 2) would be a good investment.
#5
May. 14, 2019, 11:55 AM
This fencing is at the first large facility I was talking about, and in these pictures the Centaur is about 11 or so years old with, like I said, little maintenance. The strands had been tightened here and there, but that’s it. I feel the bottom strand is entirely too low, which is why horses pawed at it and stood on it. Oh and I forgot, no injuries but did have several shod horses paw at the fence and hook the wire between their hoof and shoe. Sometimes you could work it back, a couple times we had to cut the fence and then it was just reconnected, but again with a bare spot. Another reason it shouldn’t be this low. Most of the property was this, the upper (front, public view) paddocks were four strands of the four or five inch plank and the rest was the coated wire with a top one inch piece for visibility.
What good is that fencing if the horses can stick their heads through and push on it? Looks like it needs electric in addition. That is not safe.
Sorry, didn’t see anything that said specifically the panels shrug It’s all flex fencing. I didn’t have any pics of the panels… I love it too, just prefer the coated wires.
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My barn has it and the “hard plastic” fencing – prefers the ribbon panels by far in terms of maintenance. My horse grabs the ribbon panel and plays with it and it can become loose – they take a special tool to tighten it. A horse did get cast under it, and despite the ribbon flexing, the horse managed to scrape all the hair off the front of his hind legs before he got up. They string an electric wire at the top.
We’ve had a horse bolt through the hard plastic and the cracked plastic has sharp edges like a knife. No one has has had an accident with the ribbon fencing.
Have used Centaur products for 24 years and been a dealer for 16 years. Usually a poor lucking fence has not been installed properly. Those that have still look great. Know of several installations well into their twenties that look great. There are also several brands and installation hardware varies in ability to maintain proper tension. One brand has brackets that screwed on through the rail itself so there is no way to tighten the fence. Scallops fence in a few years. That brand also was very rubbery and came off the wires very easily.
No fence is 100 percent injury free but this about as good as it gets if installed according to directions. The top installer in the country of their products is run by a woman. She reads the directions. ðŸ˜
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Cribbers will break it.
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I have a Centaur-clone board - 2-wire, 4" - top rail with 3 lines of coated tensile beneath.
Professionally installed 15yrs ago & I have yet to retension any of it.
Some of the coated wire could use a tension tweak, but still eminently safe for my horses.
BTW: you can retension with pliers.
The worst damage to my top rail is from my 17h+ WB (RIP) who nibbled at it in a couple places, breaking off small pieces.
So aside from cosmetically, it is as solid as the day it went in.
Biggest horse - 16h - rubs his butt on posts & stretches the rail, so far it has held firm, no sagging.
Worst problem I have is grazing beneath the coated wire. None of it is electrified, although top line could carry a charge.
Manes get thinned irregularly by this habit, so I end up roaching the biggest offender. :rolleyes:
Thanks for the info. Is there any issue with the board style fence in extreme cold? Is it common for them to be able to get their head through between properly tensioned 4 board fence that is not electrified? No fence is perfect but it sounds like this style fence is pretty close. I do remember electrobraid touting to be the safest horse fence available, in the 90’s. Yeah my weanling that degloved a hind leg would beg to differ.
Hair scrapes and such are the least of my worries. I would like to say that rubbed manes don’t bother me, but it truly does. Even on my broodmares, where it shouldn’t really matter. I still hate it. Can’t afford for the show horses to rub out their names. I’m not opposed to electric but it’s very hard to keep going out here. The ground gets too dry for grounding rods to work, and the bottom wire(s) will get buried in snow most of the year. So I would rather avoid added electric if I can help it.
I have 3 strands of Centaur HTP and two strands of white lightning on my property. I am actually installing more now, can hear the post driver going! It is by far the best fence around.
You do need electric to keep horses off the fence. They easily learn they can push through it without. I have a top and middle wire, but nothing near the bottom – I want them to graze the fence lines and keep them clean.
I have had horses gallop straight through the fence on occasion and walk away with nothing more than some lost hide. I had one flip through it and come out the other side. Had one try to jump it and pulled TWO POSTS OUT OF THE GROUND. No injury to the horses. it is truly an amazing product. My family farm has it too and it is easily 25 years old and in good condition. If installed well it does not sag. You do need to follow the bracing instructions, though. The HTP puts a lot of pressure on the brace posts.
I did have one who reared up over the fence and somehow got the Centaur stuck in his armpit. He fought it hard and got a significant wound that needed stitches but really, it could have been MUCH worse with another type of fence.
