Non-Electric Horse fence options?

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Hi folks, i am trying to get an idea of what a twisted wire fence might entail and wonder if anyone has used these for their horse pastures. my 2 top priorities are cost & safety( for the horse, for kids) I went through the archives and it seams the perfered methods are barbed and high tensile. i would like to stay away from these, plank and board isn't really an option, asnd these fancy vinal things online are a joke. how cost effective is a wire mesh? are there any other options? the area is gentle roll and flat, about 2 acres, in the rainy side of washington. thanks in advance for your thoughts. cheerz, becca

-- Becca in WA (lostcreek@olywa.net), September 23, 2001

Answers

I used three strands of barbless wire on my 18 acre horse pasture. It's been in for over two years and the only thing we've had to do to it is tighten portions in the spring.

I don't remember the exact cost but it wasn't horribly expensive, I did buy good locust posts tho.

Stacy in NY

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), September 23, 2001.


Down here in OK wire mesh costs about the same as putting up tape hot wire, and the tape hot wire is alot easier to put up. The main downside of mesh is you have to put up barbed wire or electric fencing across the top or the horses will just smush it down by reaching over to eat stuff on the other side.

-- Stacia n OK (OneClassyCowgirl@aol.com), September 23, 2001.

You really don't want to use barb wire for a horse pasture. Believe me after the vet bills I have incurred because of that stuff. I don't know of anyone that would really recommend barb wire for horses.

I don't know why you don't want high tensile as it is as cheap as barb wire to put up and doesn't damage the horse if it runs into it.

If you use wire mesh, you will have to put a board across the top or hot wire as someone else said.

To put up something reasonably cheap and quick is tape electric fencing - it is about 1" wide and white so the horses can see it. You can use a solar fencer or even a regular plug-in fencer. We have both, and I really like the solar ones because I can put them anywhere. The ones I have will handle up to 10 miles of fencing and cost about $160.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), September 23, 2001.


Hi Becca, I am wondering why You dont want electric? We bought locust posts and ran a 3 strand electric rope. It looks almost like clothesline but has elictric wires running through them. It is super easy to maintain and has succesfully held not only my three horses[one that was born here] and a cow and goat. You can go with a solar fencer or a regular electric one for about $100.00. I think my total cost to install this fence was less then $500.00. That was diong aprox 4 acres. If you want more info you can email me and I will try to find the catologue that I purchased from.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), September 23, 2001.

Hi, Having used just about every kind of fencing over the past 30 years, my best fence is made of boards. It is not that expensive if you find a "rough cut" lumber yard who will sell you the boards by the thousand feet and will last for years with a little paint applied to them. We use one strand of electric on the middle fence boards just to keep the fence from being leaned on. However, here we have lightning storms which will knock out the electric, so we don't want to fully rely on electric fencing. The jack is in the 16' cattle panel fence which I bought over time and put up, tearing out sections of field fencing as I bought the panels to replace it. It works wonderfully well but it too has one strand of electric at the top as he likes to stand and push on the fence some. Board fencing here costs $260 per thousand feet, for real 2" x 8" boards of oak or pine. We have used both and actually prefer the pine as it won't split like the oak when putting it up. We don't use nails anymore, but screw the boards into the posts and we use landscape timbers at $2.37 each for the posts. Cheap posts on the long sides and 4" x 6" at the corners. The horses have broken two boards in the past five years which were easily replaced and our fence still looks new. I plan to do the next five acres in board fencing as well, a little at a time until all the field fencing is gone. It adds value to the property and looks very nice and if done over time, it's very inexpensive. Electric works well, but have a backup solar unit in case your power goes out. We don't use total electric fencing anymore because the deer run through it or jump it and slighly miss- well the fence went down every other day, so that is why we settled on boards with the one strand of electic. Barbed wire is not what it's cracked up to be as your vet bills can be quite high if the horses ever get into it. However, I do have two acres in three strands of barbed wire which is used in the winter time, and have not had so much as a scratch on our mares. But that too, is going to be replaced with boards as I hate dealing with the barbed wire and if it gets loose, is very hard to tighten up. I used the barbed wire in the first place because it was cheap, but now regret having put the stuff up. Electic tape sometimes doesn't appear to carry the electricity as well as high tensile wire - my horses would push on it and didn't get a jolt like they did from the electric wire. So i think they learned to tolerate the mild buzz and therefore, tore the stuff down pushing against the tape to eat on the other side. Hope this helps, now it's back to the garden for me! Cindy

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), September 23, 2001.


We got cedar posts for $1 a piece and slabwood for free, all we want, at the local cedar shack. To get uniform pieces of slab, it was only $25 for 100 pieces. An electric strand keeps my cribber from cribbing and my leaner from leaning. Has a nice rustic look to it too. Ceder doesn't rot like other woods either, so it should last.

-- Epona (crystalepona2000@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001.

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