As a native eastern NC’er, I have zero experience with pipe rail fencing and I didn’t even know it existed until a few years ago! It’s always been wood posts and electric fencing around here. However, I’m thinking of using either roundpen/livestock panels or pipe rail fencing for the runs off of my stalls. What do I need to know about this type of fencing? Any particular brands that you’ve used and like? Are there certain things to look for or stay away from? It all looks the same when I Google but I know looks can be deceiving!
It very much depends on your horse…
My TB enjoys trying to hurt himself, so we specifically did NOT want pipe he could stick legs through, as he enjoys naps along fences and sometimes rolls to put legs through fences if that’s an option. Doof. When I was growing up we had pipe and QH-types, and no problems ever.
Thicker pipe is more durable, and quality of welds matters. A well done weld results in a joint which is actually STRONGER than the material, but many (most I have seen) pipe corrals come apart at the joints due to poor welding jobs.
Distance apart depends on animals in your area - do you need to keep out dogs or other livestock, or keep in goats or something smaller than horses?
One thing to pay special attention to is the joints between panels. If there is a rounded gap, legs can get caught between the panels. There are pieces you can buy to fill that gap to prevent it, and if you’re going to have horses out in pens with it, I highly recommend it.
The best part of using panels is ease of reconfiguration when you need to change anything, make a smaller pen for a rehab, split horses up, whatever.
Rule #1 with pipe fence…leg vs pipe…pipe wins…leg breaks!! We moved to Oklahoma from NC (board fence, diamond mesh) we have “some” pipe fence here, but have removed the lower pipes and replaced with coated cable or electric. I can tell you of several nice horses that broke legs when they struck out, rolled or kicked through a pipe fence. It DOES NOT give!!! Mesh or electric would be much safer, especially in a run situation.
[QUOTE=rodawn;6601375]
These kind of fences are safer and rather strong.
http://www.priefertfence.com/benefits.php[/QUOTE]
Thanks! I was actually looking at those when I decided that I should post here to find out more info! :yes:
I currently have two QH-types… one is 23 and the other is 9. Since it’s just the two of them, it gives me a little more flexibility to make the runs larger on the side of the barn (less crowding). I do like the idea of being able to use the panels though and rearrange the runs if I find out they’re not configured very well. I do have some concern about the solid piping though and leg injuries, in case someone should become a kicker, so thanks for bringing that up.
I have boarded at places with pipe run ins just about all of my life (California), including huge facilities, that house big name trainers and their pricy ponies - knock on wood I haven’t seen a single serious injury due to pipe fencing (panel type)
We did have one run into a fence in turn out - resulted in a HORRIBLE injury - it was a WOOD board fence - that broke and made a sharp point, opening the horse from chest to elbow.
If using panels, you need to make sure that they come flush together at the top. There are some that have rounded tops, which make a little V which the horse can get a pastern stuck in if they get a hoof over the fence. Never seen it first hand, but have read horror stories.
While pipe won’t break – it is smooth and solid – I have seen worse injuries with wood that DOES break, and makes sharp points to injure the horse on (and is put together with nails or screws which can become a hazard as well).
Coated wire can do a real number on a horse’s leg. I have seen one degloved on a coated wire fence (I would never use wire for a small paddock).
Horses WILL find a way to injure themselves on just about anything. I feel that pipe is a safe choice, and is used extensively in CA.
My corrals are pipe posts with pipe on top and a thick plastic covered wire for the lower parts. That’s what came with the property and for the most part seems to be safe, though I worry about someone trying to jump it and get stuck though it’s 5 feet high.
I hate, hate, hate panels. My heart horse got injured on one when I didn’t own her and had a leg swollen with lymphangitis for the 10 years following the accident. Another horse that I love, and want to be mine, just the other week somehow came down on the pin connecting the two panels and scraped one of his hind legs to the bone. We think he was kicking out at the horse he shares a pen with and got it above the pin (he’s quite tall) there was hair and skin on one of the pins.
if the posts are set in concrete add a grounding rod with a bonded ground every 500 feet or at turns on the fence line or before comiong in contact with a structure.
I have seen lightneing hit a pipe fence about 800 feet from where a mare was in a paddock who was about four feet from the fence, knocked her to the ground
No matter what you use, some horse sometime managed to get hurt on that.
The worst degloving injury I know of happened on a four board fence.
Our neighbor’s weaning colt tried to jump a pipe gate, flipped and broke his neck on impact.
I think that, from all out there, I take pipe way before I use wood.
I would never use bars for the top of stalls, because if a horse hits those grills hard enough, they can put a foot thru it, has happened before.
Most horse pipe pens are made of pipe that bends if hit hard enough, it has some give.
Better the panel bend than the horse, although too light a pipe will bend too easily and then become a hazard.
Each one of us has to decide what we can live with and what is too much of a risk and it is ok if it is not the same for each one.
From my perspective, I would rather have a horse bang up their bodies, rather than actually successfully bust through a fence and get loose. A loose horse, or worse, a herd of loose horses, creates CHAOS on roads. If they make it to the highway and someone hits your horse, the passengers and driver would be killed or very seriously maimed, and there would be little hope of recovery for your horse, if it wasn’t killed straight off.
As hard as it would be to bear the loss of a beloved horse due to a broken leg from a kick catching through the steel rails, it doesn’t even come close to the mayhem and trauma suffered between horses and cars on a road system. Car versus horse = car always wins. Let alone semi-trucks. You as the horse owner just do NOT want to have to deal with this kind of trauma. And it wouldn’t stop there - because you become financially liable for any and all damages and injuries suffered by your horses getting loose. The costs could financially cripple you, especially if your insurance company refuses to pay which some might if they determine it was your fault due to inappropriate fencing or fencing not maintained well enough. If insurance does pay, they will claw their losses back from you by huge increases in your premiums.
Seriously - put up the strongest perimeter fencing you can afford that will not allow your horses to break through.
It very nearly happened to my neighbor just not more than 3 days ago. 10 of his horses got loose. What saved their lives - those horses chose to come over to my place and visit with my mares. Had they gone in the other direction, they would been loose on the freeway - where everyone drives a minimum of 110 km/h. Had they turned to the southeast, they would have headed straight for a busy train tracks. Thus, because they got into my grain field which is perimeter fenced except for the open gateway, they were pretty much contained and were thus easily rounded up and dispatched back home.
We have perimeter fencing. Then, on the inside, we also have 5 foot high wood post/rail, coupled up with 2 strands of high-voltage electric rope fencing. If one of my horses chooses to challenge the fence, they will get zapped for their efforts and they’d have to be seriously panicked to overcome the 10,000 volt spanking. My horses tend to turn themselves inside out in order to avoid our fencing. But, if they do manage to get out, then at least there is still the perimeter fence. We are looking to change our perimeter fence and have been seriously looking at steel fencing like the Priefort fencing. We’d still use electric line just as extra insurance.
If you have kickers, installing strong and powerful electric line using extender insulators might provide just enough aversion for even the more aggressive kickers - they’ll want to stand away from the electric so while their hoof might connect with the fence, they’re not going to be standing so close that their whole leg gets through the rails.
Pipe fencing (posts set in concrete, pipes welded together) is not the same as using corral panels.
I lived in Arizona for 12 years, and nearly everything out there is pipe, even the stalls. (“Mare motels” they call them.) The only injury I can recall is from a horse getting a foot caught in the triangle formed by a diagonal cross-brace on a gate.
I saw the BO’s foal kick out with both back feet and get them over the top stall bar. He hung there for a bit and then slithered off the bar and back where he belonged. No damage done.
This is large diameter, smooth steel pipe. (There are some fences out there made from sucker rod from oil drilling. That’s narrow diameter and rough surfaced. If they get a leg over that it’s going to take off skin.)
Corral panels are not something I’d use long term. Unless you set posts and attach the panels to them, a horse can lift a panel, potentially detaching it from the other panels and getting loose. Unless you get the super heavy duty ones, they may also bend if a horse hits them hard. And you need to reinforce every connection or they can bump and wiggle the connectors just right to get them loose and then push the panels apart.
I actually thought of the panels after seeing a photo on Pinterest :winkgrin: It looked like they had wooden posts in the ground with the panels secured to the posts. Three panels on each side and then a single panel as a gate at the end of each run. This definitely would be the most ideal way of using the panels without worrying about a horse getting a hoof stuck somewhere it shouldn’t be. However, that kind of defeats the purpose of using the panels so that they’re easily moved and reconfigured! I’d probably be better off just using the rail fencing if I was just going to sink posts in the paddock area anyway. (Unless the panels are cheaper than the rails?)
Where I board now there is pipe fencing in the paddocks off the stalls. The panels say medium weight and many of the panls are bent at the top with some of the top rails bent so much there are sharp edges! As some of the horses fight over the top of the panel, a strand of hot wire is added.
My horse is not a fighter and his panels are all fine - I made sure before I moved him into his stall. We did have to add the hot wire when the horse next door started biting him constantly
The other thing I have had to do is fill the little holes where the panels join the metal posts as yellow jackets were nesting inside the hollow pipe.
They also have panels in the mare motel and I have not seen any bent panels there - different manufacturer. At a previous barn they use metal for the turn outs but had the turn outs made on site and welded rather than using panels - no paddocks were joined together so never an issue with fighting over a fence.
So check the strength of the panels you purchase to make sure they do not bend easily as think that is a big hazard with sharp edges.
I’m resurrecting this because our colt is now the second horse over 10 years at our barn that put his head thru the pipe rail, caught his jaw on the lower rung, broke his jaw and either broke his neck or damaged his spinal cord resulting in death. I’m just wondering if anyone else has had this happen. I live in Socal and most people here use pipe rail. These are the only two I’ve ever heard of it happening to. One horse was an adult and our colt was 10 months old. The colt was quiet and I had never previously even seen him reach his head through the fence. Just trying to make some sense out of something that makes no sense and that has sickened me to the core.
[QUOTE=sorrelfilly721;8020845]
I’m resurrecting this because our colt is now the second horse over 10 years at our barn that put his head thru the pipe rail, caught his jaw on the lower rung, broke his jaw and either broke his neck or damaged his spinal cord resulting in death. I’m just wondering if anyone else has had this happen. I live in Socal and most people here use pipe rail. These are the only two I’ve ever heard of it happening to. One horse was an adult and our colt was 10 months old. The colt was quiet and I had never previously even seen him reach his head through the fence. Just trying to make some sense out of something that makes no sense and that has sickened me to the core.[/QUOTE]
So sorry about your colt.
Horses find ways to get hurt, no matter how careful we are.
There have been horses in stalls where they can stick their heads out into the aisle also grab something outside, get their bottom jaw hung and break it and/or do even more injury to themselves trying to get loose.
Those windows that drop down to open them for them to hang their head out are known for that.
Some here are using pipe panels with treated wood planks inserts between runs, so horses won’t bite at each other or bend the pipes.
Some are using wire mesh for that, some even V-mesh.
No matter what you use, you can have horses get hurt it it.
I think if you get bubble wrap, they will find a way to choke on it.
We have to also separate fences to keep horses in, without other horses across the fence to fuss with and fences that need to keep horses separate but that they can safely be interacting without getting hurt on it.
We have a 6’ chain link fence around the yard that has lasted a good 40 years, no horse ever was hurt on it or rubbed or bent it, but may have if there had been another horse across from that fence.
Here are some pictures of wire mesh pens and diamond mesh, taken from the internet.
I don’t know where the V-mesh picture came from, the other one is Noble panels:
my farm came with metal fencing on the small paddocks - its 3 rails of 1" square tubing and railroad ties for posts. Some of them are drilled with the rails fed through, some of the paddocks the rails are held in place with a bracket and screws. It actual has a bit of flex if you hit it hard, spacing is wide enough that whatever is stuck threw generally comes back out ok.
unfortunately the previous owner’s paint job is coming to the end of its life and I need to redo it.
[QUOTE=Bluey;8020948]
Here are some pictures of wire mesh pens and diamond mesh, taken from the internet.
I don’t know where the V-mesh picture came from, the other one is Noble panels:[/QUOTE]
Thanks Bluey. We are so sad. We had him for TWO WEEKS and this happened. There were about 30 people around (there was a clinic at the ranch) and several people said they saw him just standing in the pen watching everything and then a couple minutes later he was hanging from it as if he was praying. They rushed over to get him loose, but he was already dead. I like the idea of those panels you have pictured. How strong are they - do you know?
A friend has some of the same type, hers was welded in place, not panels, but with the same square mesh welded on wire and she really likes them, has never had a horse hurt on those.
Hers don’t have that bar above, sit some 10" off the ground and go to almost 6’ tall.
I don’t remember if they have a pipe in the middle, but I think they do have three horizontal pipes the wire is welded to.
She likes those pens much better than the others she has that are five pipes and the horses can stick their heads to chew on each other and kick at each other.
Those are horses she has in turnout together part of each day and they are fine with each other, but when she puts them in, they decide to fuss with each other, kind of barrier aggression type posturing.
Guess it depends on what kind of disposition your horses have, what would work best for you.
Here is the link for the Noble wire mesh panels:
http://www.noblepanels.com/mesh-fencing.htm
We have right now the standard Powder River horse pipe panels and horses do fine with those.
In California, I’ve grown up with horses kept in pipe rail panels. I have never seen an injury due to this kind of fence.
However, here are some caveats, because all fence isn’t the same:
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The nationally shipped brands are made of lighter weight pipe, because shipping is expensive. I recommend finding a local manufacturer who makes them out of heavy duty pipe, 16 gauge or heavier. Lighter weight panels can bend or break if a horse hits them, so you’ll just be replacing them anyway.
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Galvanized. The powder coated panels are often already rusty on the showroom floor.
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No loops where a leg can get caught - straight run to the ground.
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No radiused corners on the top where a leg could get caught between panels. Square corners.
This is an example of the panels I like:
http://martinranchsupply.com/content/5-5-rail-galvanized-panel
Spacing of the rails could be a factor in the accident that claimed sorrelfilly’s colt - what a tragedy, and I’m so sorry.
Panels with welded 2x4 mesh prevent heads going in between and are nice when you have the money and a high density of horses, but they’re not commonly used because of the cost.
As an east coast native, I have not been a fan of all the pipe fencing out west. But, by and large, it has been better than some of the wire setups I’ve seen here. If you are using panels for a small run, be sure the pipes are rounded. Square edge pipe panels are also made, and it can be much nastier if a horse sticks a leg through those.
Having had to extract a horse cast against a steel cable run through a cable and pipe combination of fencing, I would say that anything that gives them enough space to stick a leg through, unless the material is easily broken, is not good. Mesh on pipe fencing is tricky to install and maintain so that the bottom doesn’t curl up, etc. And if they kick it, you can get some stretched out areas and sharp bits that are also no good. The stretched out area means the foot could go all the way through the next time.
I don’t think I would do any of that in the humid SE. It is hard enough out west.
You can make wooden board runs just as well as pipe runs. This project is an example of what slip board runs look like:
http://www.dcbuilding.com/projects/china-maine-riding-arena-barn/
FWIW, even many round pens in the southeast are made with solid wood sides versus panels.
