[QUOTE=IPEsq;8023957]
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.[/QUOTE]
I beg to differ there, wood being the worst of all kinds of possibly fencing horses, especially in a small space.
Horses will chew wood, horses will get splinters just rubbing on wood, that make abscesses, if treated wood, huge abscesses, have seen it.
Have seen accidents of horses hitting wood fences that had worse consequences than barbed wire ones, with impaled and degloved horses.
Cable is not at all adequate for horses either, worse than barbed wire because horses don’t respect it at all, will push on it and it will rub them raw.
Pipe is a good solution for least damage, the right kind of pipe and fabrication, of course and proper horses on both sides of it.
The right kind of horse mesh fences are made where it doesn’t stretch enough to put a foot thru, V-mesh one of those and without ends to poke a horse.
I have seen big, grown horses bounce off V-mesh without a mark on them, foals also.
If wood is what you have, protecting it with hot wire could help, but that adds one more to get hurt with, the electric wire.
In some places, where wood is the cheapest material, well, some have to use that and manage fine.
One of the worst injuries I have seen was a colt someone had that jumped it’s wood fence, hit the top rail with it’s chest, shoulder and front legs, degloved all that area on the wood down to his knees, below on one leg and flipped onto a snow bank on the other side.
He was lucky, probably would have broken his neck if he had fallen all the way on the ground.
The snow kept the wounds fairly clean, other than the wood splinters that embedded there.
It took over a year and several skin transplants to heal, but eventually he was ok, just left some scars.
Have seen also plenty of barbed wire injuries, some fatal, because barbed wire is what millions of horses in the West and SW have always been and still are.
Then, people generally know not to use barbed wire in smaller spaces, it is intended for larger traps and pastures, where horses learn where it is, learn to respect it, it has bite to it and try not to hit it.
Saying all that, a horse can get hurt any place, we know that, no matter how safe it seems.
