I would not say electrobraid is 100% safe. There have been COTHers who have had horses de-gloved (on tight fencing). It’s in the searches. There was a COTHER who had a pretty bad injury on coated wire too (it wasn’t hot though).
Per the above, I obviously spend way too much time reading fencing threads. Can’t wait to be done with the whole place!
I think we can find injuries with any fence.
When all we had here was woven wire or single barbed wire and smooth wire, here called pony wire, our then vet told us, smooth wire caused the worst injuries, barbed wire not as bad.
His idea is that barbed wire is respected by horses and if they hit it, they notice it more.
Smooth wire, horses don’t respect it, lean on it or push on it, barely believing it is a fence.
When they run thru it, it slices before they know it is doing it and so doesn’t stop them, while barbed wire stings and they pull up.
I know that a neighbor made a whole large trap of pony wire, thinking his broodmares and foals would be safer than with barbed wire, but had injuries in it.
We have had barbed wire here for over 100 years, with all kinds of horses and have very, very rarely had a horse injured on it and then not very badly.
I have seen some really bad injuries at the vet from barbed wire, so have I from board fences too.
I think that horses and injuries are part of having horses, they are injury prone.
Some common sense in fencing, the right horses under the right management for the fences you have and a big dollop of luck is what keeps horses as safe as we can manage.
The farm I board at has no-climb with a top board. They put the board on the posts first, then pulled the fence over the boards. The wire is about 3/4 of an inch higher than the board. The horses can’t get to the board to chew on it. In this farm they only have access to one side of the fence except on one fenceline as there are not shared fencelines. Even then the wire being higher than the wood keeps them from grabbing onto the top of the board. Her fences are about 4.5 feet tall.
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;8292490]
The farm I board at has no-climb with a top board. They put the board on the posts first, then pulled the fence over the boards. The wire is about 3/4 of an inch higher than the board. The horses can’t get to the board to chew on it. In this farm they only have access to one side of the fence except on one fenceline as there are not shared fencelines. Even then the wire being higher than the wood keeps them from grabbing onto the top of the board. Her fences are about 4.5 feet tall.[/QUOTE]
This is almost exactly what I have now in my turnouts, and where we are now there is a lot more trees/vegetation than where we are relocating to, and with this fence set up the horses do not try to get to it at all and after 5 years, repairs have been very minimal. Some portions of the fence are over 5’ tall, too, so almost feels more like a zoo enclosure! But works great when making things hot isn’t an option and I really like it, hence in thinking about dong the same thing at the new place.
But with horses playing over the fences (something I do want them to be able to do) I’m having to rethink the set up a bit, and in bringing in client horses who likely won’t be as easy/smart/polite as my current herd I’m losing some sleep over what to go with.
I was a vet tech, and it is so true that horses get hurt on every fencing type imaginable, even the pipe and metal fencing. I’m hoping if the wire is hot, and with the centaur flex rail on the perimeter for more visual border, I can at least keep the injuries to a minimum if the top and bottom strings are live and horses respect them.
Please keep input coming if anyone has anything to add. Sometimes I think we have too many fencing options, so it’s great to get input from people who have experience with a lot of them.
My fence post spacing is 12’, it works well and if they hit it (I’ve had foals and calves) it has enough spring to make them bounce off. The closer the post are the stouter the fence will be.
I’d recommend more strands rather than less. The bigger the spacing the more apt horses are to kick through the fence, the closer the more ‘solid’ they think the fence is. My wires are approx 12" spacing. The perimeter and cross fence on the back of the farm (not for close quarters) has T-post with caps. We put it on post around the house and road frontage so it looked ‘pretty’.
Thanks SY! That’s good information to have.
How wide should the round posts be? Can I do 6" on the corners and 4" on the inner posts?
[QUOTE=eastendjumper;8296387]
How wide should the round posts be? Can I do 6" on the corners and 4" on the inner posts?[/QUOTE]
That’s what I did. If you go with Centaur make sure the corners are braced very well and don’t skimp on the concrete. There is a lot more tension on the corners than you’d think.
Also put insulators up with screws, don’t nail them. When the inevitable happens and one gets broken it’s a pain to remove the nails. Screws make patching into an easy job.
Southern Yankee,
Your fence looks great! Can we put that pic on our web site? Twelve foot is the
max distance recommended by Centaur.
Doing the corners and end/gate posts per their directions is the key to a successful installation.
Southern Yankee,
Your fence looks great! Can we put that pic on our web site? Twelve foot is the
max distance recommended by Centaur.
Doing the corners and end/gate posts per their directions is the key to a successful installation.
[QUOTE=BasqueMom;8297201]
Southern Yankee,
Your fence looks great! Can we put that pic on our web site? Twelve foot is the
max distance recommended by Centaur.
Doing the corners and end/gate posts per their directions is the key to a successful installation.[/QUOTE]
You sure can! I did buy it from you after all! I’ve got some more pictures I could email you if you want.
We went with 12’ spacing so it wasn’t quite as rigid if something hit it (horse, foal, cow, calf, deer, etc). We wanted that ‘bounce’ or ‘slingshot’ effect if something hit it, but it’s all personal preference and we are on relatively flat ground.
PS- we had a huge Bradford Pear fall on the 5" over the weekend and as soon as I can get the pictures uploaded to Photobucket I’m going to post a ‘I LOVE CENTAUR’ thread.
I used to be a big fan of V mesh with a board along the top. I have been testing several fence options. At my previous farm I had 4 board wood fence, but its a lot of maintenance and horses don’t really respect it. I don’t like horses getting on the fence at all. I also have stallions to contain. I tried the Electro-Braid rope (4 strands high) and I loved it. All the horses respect it, and it is safe! They learn very quickly to stay away from it. So I will be replacing my fencing with this one field at a time. I also don’t do any shared fence lines.
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;8292490]
The farm I board at has no-climb with a top board. They put the board on the posts first, then pulled the fence over the boards. The wire is about 3/4 of an inch higher than the board. The horses can’t get to the board to chew on it. In this farm they only have access to one side of the fence except on one fenceline as there are not shared fencelines. Even then the wire being higher than the wood keeps them from grabbing onto the top of the board. Her fences are about 4.5 feet tall.[/QUOTE]
I think my run has similar fencing and the horses have not chewed it at all. Photo here (cute mini donkey alert!). It is 5’ tall. I added the board in the middle because Dominick the Donkey was scratching all his itches on the no-climb and causing it to stretch and bulge out, lol. I like this fencing for a small area because it seems very safe to me. If I were separating horses with it, I would add electrobraid or something similar on top.
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