We’re considering a two rail pipe fence, with no-climb wire attached, for our pasture fence. I’m curious what people’s thoughts are regarding the position of the second rail. Would you recommend it be as close to ground level as possible, halfway between the top rail and the ground, 3/4 of the way, etc.? Thanks!
Many I have seen was on v-mesh, not no climb and had only a top pipe or a top and middle.
If it had a bottom, it was a third pipe.
We only had a top pipe in ours, except where cattle had access to the fence, then it had a middle pipe to keep cattle from rubbing so bad it stretched the mesh.
the rule of thumb is where ever you put the intermediate rail it will be ever too high or too low… we ended up using aircraft cable rather than a middle rail … we installed the cable once we determined the height at which the horses thought was the best height to rub their butts on the fence… the cable we used is rated to nearly 10,000 pounds so even the big lazy butts can not break it
ran the cable then took hog rings to attach fence to cable
Here are some other threads on fencing:
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…4-pipe-fencing
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…-about-fencing
Eyelid frozen to pipe thread:
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…n-frozen-metal
Fence thread including Post #13 with info about horse getting a jaw stuck on the lower pipe. That factor would make me want to locate the bottom rail on the lower side, with a good distance between the two rails so that this is not possible (although wire should prevent it in any case):
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…g-for-paddocks
I’d use the second pipe near the ground to protect and support the bottom, because that’s where the horses paw at it and try to curl it up to get at weeds etc.
my daughter’s horse hooked a front show on the bottom 9 ga strand of regular field fencing… I saw him standing at the fence looking over at the horses two pastures away so really didn’t think much of it until about three or four hours later I saw him still standing there… he could not move since the wire was between his shoe and hoof … had to take bolt cutters to cut the wire to get him loose, then had to pull the shoe to get the wire out
Aesthetically, I’d want the middle pipe to be centered between top rail and ground.
The pipe fence at the front of my property is only a top rail with cattle panels below, and I really like how it looks. Pawing or pushing isn’t an issue with sturdy cattle panels, but I’ve also never seen signs of my horses pushing or pawing at the pastures with only no-climb fencing - there is plenty of grass and hay so I guess they have no reason to do so. Also, I love that my pipe fence is painted black, because all the neighbors are constantly repainting their white fences because the rust shows up so quickly.
