As times change, so does everything else! We are in the midst of doing some updates & fencing is one of them. I’ve just started doing research on the updated types, have been using basic wire, but we know that there is new types so please share your thoughts!! Thanks!
You probably need to give more information as to your wishes for this fence and your budget, how secure and beautiful it needs to be, etc. for us to have useful feedback. Maybe propose the kind of fence you’re thinking of?
There are lots of threads on fencing here, not to discourage you from asking again, but to give you a lot of reading to help you figure out what you don’t know you don’t know while you’re waiting for feedback. That may help you come up with some more specific questions.
I have coated hot wire, and I love it. It’s safer than plain wire and has added visibility. If you are already using plain wire, you may be able to use the same posts, and just re-string. That would save you a considerable amount of money! Good luck on your project!
the only thing I would concrete in place would be corner and hinge posts (after spending many backbreaking days replacing some posts)
We have V-Mesh some has been in place over fifty years and is still OK
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14yrs ago I went for coated tensile - 3 lines with the top able to carry a charge. Topping these is a Centaur-clone 4" rail with 2 wires embedded.
I have hardly ever had to retension any pf the wire & only the top rail is showing some wear: cracked in places (I’m looking at YOU, rail-chewing TWH!).
If I could afford it, I’d replace that top rail with electrobraid.
I have never attached a charger to my fence & the only downside is having to replace the occasional staple when horses graze thru for that “greener grass”. :rolleyes:
Last year I added a line of Redbrand No-Climb to the bottom when my mini limboed (or got chased) under.
Guys mistakenly installed it upside-down, but WTH, smaller openings near the bottom still work to mini-proof & lessen the chance of a teeny hoof getting stuck.
My personal preference is 3 strands of electric tape with a wood top board on 8’ round posts pounded in. Still has the aesthetics of wood fence but half the cost. The horses respect the electric and don’t rub on the fence or otherwise damage it. Very low maintenance, looks great, very safe, super effective. They’ll eat under the bottom strand so less weed whacking the fence line.
I hate mesh, only have it for my small livestock. One horse paddock shares a fenceline with the no climb mesh, and they’ve rubbed on it and cracked a top board. They do not touch the fence that has electric.
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If you have a problem with mesh because they rub on it and have electric in other places, why not add electric to the mesh so they don’t mess with it?
Mesh is best, keeps others out as much as yours in.
Electric tape won’t if something scares them enough.
The good mesh fence will, they will bounce off it.
If you are going to use electric, why bother with 4 board or mesh? Mesh does not keep anything out that can’t climb over or dig under. And I’ve seen horses hit 48" mesh hard enough they went over it. I’ve seen them go through 5 board fence. If they want out, they’ll get out, unless you are putting up 60" fence (I’m not). In my neck of the woods, there is nothing that will “scare” my horses so bad they leave the paddock.
Horse mesh fence here is understood to be best the 5’ tall one.
The safest for horses, the gold standard for decades, has been v-mesh.
That is what many of the best breeding farms use for their fences and have the least injuries than most.
Since the OP asked, that is why that advice, but of course there are plenty of alternatives out there.
For the smaller areas, say under 2 acres, we use horse panels on steel pipe posts.
We can take them down and haul them somewhere else.
We can change the configuration easily using those if our needs change.
We have done that several times over the years.
Those are best for portable, something any wire mesh is not, is much harder to move it.
Of course everyone has different needs and preferences, as it should be.
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On 2 sides of our property that border the woods, we have barbed wire. That was there when we moved in and I don’t know if we’ll change it.
The arena, around the barns, separating two pens, and around the balance of the perimeter, we have 4-board fencing.
We just installed Ramm fencing on both sides of our creek bed. It can be electrified, we just haven’t done it. The only one who doesn’t respect it is our large Connemara pony. She’ll put both legs through to graze. That’s just her personality though and it doesn’t damage the fencing at all.
We have another acre that’s totally wooded and I’m paying a loader to remove the beetle-infested pines and damaged sweet gum trees. There’s straight wire (or twisted wire) between the two pens. We took the wire down so the loader can work and we’ll replace it with the Ramm. We left the staples in, so we just need to put the wire through them.
Looking at the narrative, it looks like a hodge-podge, but it works! Love the Ramm fencing.
Have you been to Lexington KY??? They use 4 board or mesh, paint it every year, and hate it. Once outside the public touring area they have electric wire strung along the fencelines of many paddocks and fields to keep the horses off that expensive fence. Any farm manager will tell you what a pain and waste of money the board and mesh is and how they wish they could use something else. But lord forbid they give the impression of doing anything but “sparing no expense.” And they will all tell you horror stories of horses getting hurt on 4 board and the “gold standard” mesh.
So which breeding farms are you getting your numbers from where they are tracking what types of fencing horses get injured on?
Our new place has pipe top rail with no climb mesh. It works great, no issues with it in the pastures; however, not suitable for paddocks.
Old place had 3 rail wood, loved the look but it was a lot of maintenance.
I agree that wood plank fences are some of the worst because horses don’t respect them at all and when they hit them the splinters are terrible.
I have seen a terrible abscess from a splinter from a mare that only scratched her behind on a board fence and got a splinter.
One of the worst fence injuries I have seen was a degloving from above the knee to half way up the chest and shoulder from hitting a board fence.
It took months, but it healed nicely.
For what vets have told me, board fence injuries are even worse than barbed wire, that horses at least respect.
The one good point of board fences, they are extremely visible, so a horse can hesitate before hitting them, something they may not always with any other less visible fence.
We had v-mesh with pipe post and pipe top, even in our runs off the stalls in our stallion pens, with stallions across from each other and in decades never had not one injury.
So did most good breeding farm around here, but maybe it is different where you are.
I don’t think there are credible studies about fencing because each situation has way too many variables to really consider cause and effect reliably.
We have to let experiences rule there and those by necessity will be different for every one of us.
Also consider that the best fence is not just one that has the least maintenance to it, but one that if hit is less apt to injure and also will contain the horse, something mere electric wires won’t.
Still, in practically every place I have been, properly installed and kept, v-mesh fencing has been considered, while not being perfect, none is around horses, the safest.
to me the gold standard of mesh would be V-Mesh that is twisted stranded… as I have noted we have some that was put in the 1950s and still OK… and I haven’t seen a horse injured … lucky? as I have had horses show up with mysterious life threatening injuries from just standing in an open pasture
The only horse I have seen to get tangle in a fence was a woven wire pasture fence. The brood mare had been turned out with a halter that included a quick snap throat strap… the mare hook the snap on the woven wire then struggled to the point of breaking her neck
I
I lived in KY…had 4 board and mesh fencing. Yes, most of the high end breeding farms have a combo of 4 to 5 board and v-mesh with a top board. Yes, I had electric tape on the inside of the top board…more to keep unwanted people out than the horses off the fence. It also kept the horses away when people were determined to feed them.
Three Chimneys, WinStar, the equine Vets (Rood & Riddle, Park, Hagyard…all use board and/or V-Mesh.)
From a purely upkeep point of view, I would have much preferred the flexible vinyl like Ramm fence. One of my neighbors had it and, other for some tensioning needed every couple of years and post painting, it was maintenance free.
ETA: If I had a choice with wood fencing, I would stain it, not paint it.
How gruesome! The issue is that with board and mesh, the horses touch it and rub on it and can therefore get hung up on it in only the way horses can. A popped out nail head, loose wire, etc can injure them. They can get a halter, blanket, shoe, cribbing strap, muzzle, fly mask, etc hung up. With electric fence they DO NOT TOUCH IT. I’ve seen horses clamber over mesh and board because they want out, and damage the fence and injure themselves in the process. But with electric, they don’t touch it. Fewer touches = fewer injuries. If you have one hell bent on leaping the fence, he’s going to leap the fence no matter what it’s made of. But electric tape with one top board (or vinyl rail or whatever) is going to be way less damaging than 4 boards or mesh with a board. Installed correctly, I can see mesh causing a rotational fall.
You may have the best of both by wiring a v-mesh fence.
Decades ago, hot wiring fences meant a steel hot wire, not exactly ideal to have horses behind that single wire only.
Now there are all other kinds of ways to have hot fences.
Also, a mere mesh fence is not what we are talking about as best, but v-mesh fence, that horses bounce off.
The square hole mesh fence is not near as good.
It stretches and crumps much easier.
Sure, a horse can hang a shoe or even foot kicking at a v-mesh fence, or hit it hard enough to do damage, but the horse will still be confined, unlike most any other fence, that you will then have an injured AND loose horse.
I know a weanling that was kept in a stall with a run and he evidently one night ran down his run, tried to jump the metal gate at the end, bent the top rail, flipped and hit the ground breaking his neck.
Horses will find ways to get injured and killed any place, in the wild also, is the nature of life to get injured.
When we confine them, we do the best we can to keep them safe and what that may be will depend on the circumstances, where and which kind of horses and, life will happen anyway.
Everyone can decide for themselves what may work best for them and their horses.
The OP asked, that is why the responses, according to what each one of us knows.
My coated wire is my least maintenance. I have 3 board stained (chewing and staining maintenance), no-climb with two hot strands to keep horses off (lots of weed eating or spraying), horseguard tape and coated wire in various areas.
I’m going to do the flex board along the drive for aesthetics. All the remaining fencing I haven’t done yet will be coated wire (top and second from bottom hot).
I’m a big fan of a hot fence.
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I love the Priefert stuff that is the metal pipe through wood posts. Some day it’ll be in my budget…
I like mesh for its ability to keep dogs from cutting through my fields. I would do woven mesh with a top strand of electrified coated high tensile.
