Need cost effective fencing ideas for baby horse

[EventingLady]

My mare is about to foal out soon and I need to put up proper fencing in the pasture where she and the baby will be living. The pasture has wood fencing and is a circle about 40’ in diameter so about 250 feet in circumference that I will need to put up better fencing. The wooden rail fencing right now is too big in between each rail for the baby.

SO… I was going to just put up plywood on the wood panels that are there now but 250 feet in plywood is expensive and I’ll have to rent a truck etc. Its a lot of work!!! Any other ideas? I’m not sure if chicken wire is strong enough or not. Plus its not cheap either. Any other ideas???

[SouthernYankee]

Get step in fiberglass or plastic posts and run a couple strands of hot wire or electric tape on the inside. Make sure it’s electric… You should be able to do it for less than $100 and no truck.

The bonus is baby learns to respect fence from a young age.

[JB]

By “pasture” do you mean round pen? 40’ diameter is a small round pen.

Chicken wire is :no: :no:

I would be very leary of putting hotwire inside a space that small, unless it was mounted nearly against the boards.

How long will mom and foal be relegated to this pen?

[clint]

We have four rail wood fencing, and we ran plastic fencing, kind of like deer fencing used for gardens, around the inside all of the fencing that will contain a foal, down to the ground. It isn’t expensive, was easy to do, and has worked very well.

[gumtree]

I wouldn’t use any kind of hot wire to retain a mare and foal. Foals are naturally inquisitive they are bound to check it out more than once. Aren’t really spatially orientated for a while and may flop down for a nap right next to it and get up under or on it.

What’s the spacing on the existing fence? We put foals behind 3 board fencing. They don’t try to slip through.

[VirginiaBred]

Do not use a hot wire!!

The safest fencing for foals is woven wire (get the size they can’t put a hoof through) with a top board.

[Sugarbrook]

No climb is great with a board on top. Hot wire is a disaster for babies. Why such a small area for mom and baby?

[Tory]

I have Nobel panels as fencing for my horses paddocks that are attached to their stalls. When my mare foaled in 2015 we attached partical board to the lower 2’ of the panels so the foal couldn’t accidentally roll under.

I drilled holes in the boards and zip tied them to the panels. At the time the mares paddock was made up with 20 12’ panels. This was cheap, easy, solid and best of all it worked.

My baby is now 20 months old and it is hard to believe that she was once small enough to roll under those panels!

[MysticOakRanch]

Hot tape is very effective after baby is a few weeks old. But the first week of life, babies surge FORWARD when scared, which is not a good reaction for hotwire/tape. We use no-climb woven wire for babies until they are old enough to understand how to move away from something. Agree with the other comments, 40 feet is fine for a few weeks, but hopefully you have larger pasture after that?

[NoDQhere]

If your area is really only 40’ diameter, that is too small for electric. I would use plywood or cheap OSB to close up the bottom so baby doesn’t get under the fence. We have cut 4’X8’ sheets in half lengthwise to make 2’x8’ panels and fastened them to panels to keep newborns from “sliding” under the fence. But as others have said, a 40’ round pen is too small for a mare and foal.

[Brigitte]

Welded wire with a 2"x4"square (4’ tall) would be easy to handle to attach directly to the inside existing fence. Not as sturdy as a woven wire, but it will have the existing fence behind it for extra stability. It is much easier to handle than the woven wire and might do the job relatively inexpensively. We have done that in a pinch and it worked very well.

It will give you a smooth inside fence for baby. It sounds like you need to do something quickly and that would work. Usually comes in 50 and 100 foot rolls so not to hard to handle.

[csaper58]

Why such a small ‘pasture’? Are these full size, or mini horses?

That is smaller than a 20 meter circle. The average round pen is 60’ in diameter.

I would be very reluctant to raise a full size horse foal in a ‘pasture’ so small.

If these are mini horses you really need tiny mesh or a solid barrier.

[mmeqcenter]

40’ diameter is only 125’ circumference.

2*(pi)*(radius) = circumference

125’ of no-climb wire would be quite affordable and easy to put up.

[csaper58]

Yup, circumference is 125.712 feet. Good catch mmeqcenter.

Op you may need more material if you go around the outside of the pen.

Measure twice cut once.

This is the type of fencing I would use

www.fieldfence.org/fieldfence/v-meshfence.html

A role of 165 ft of it is $379.99 here,

https://redbrandstore.com./collections/horse-fence

I have seen foals get a hoof thru 2 x 4 wire, and in the small pen you are using the foal will surely lay down next to the fence.

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

Can you just add 2x4s between the current rails?

[EventingLady]

Hi all, sorry for the late response. I appreciate the ideas. The radius is about 40’ (sorry!! not the diameter). Its a pretty large paddock for the area I live in and definitely a lot bigger than a large bullpen. This is just the paddock they are “living” in. Not that I need to justify it to any of you doubters who have no idea what my barn situation is, but the mom and baby will also get daily turnout that is separate from the paddock in question that they will be living in.

Fairview-I thought about that but worry about the baby chewing on the wood, so I was hoping to cover it with some sort of metal fencing. I was thinking about doing plywood along the bottom (splitting each piece in half) to keep the baby from rolling out, and then doing the wire along the rest of it.

[JB]

When the only information given is "The pasture has wood fencing and is a circle about 40’ in diameter ", it’s reasonable that people would freak out. No mention of other turnout, nothing. So…

So the diameter is still only 80’. That’s not a pasture, that’s a large round pen, as 60’ is considered “standard”, and that’s the size of a full sized Dressage circle. I’m assuming this means you live in SoCal, AZ, or other similar areas were there is no real turnout, just individual paddocks. It is what it is, but understand where ever one was coming from with “40’ diameter”. I know you didn’t ask, but in the foal’s best interest, can you find another place that has much more turnout for a young foal?

A 2’ high section of plywood on the bottom should be sufficient. Even at 80’ in diameter that’s small for having hot wire, but if you put it close to the wood you should be fine.

Horses chew wood, period. The foal will start to chew it, mom will chew it, it’s what horses do. So set the hot wire such that it’s in the way of the top chewing surface of any boards.