# Need Fencing Advice Please!



## littrella (Aug 28, 2010)

I use cattle pannels, I'm assuming that's what you mean by cattle fencing. I've personally never had a problem with it. I would think it would keep goats in, but I've never had goats so I can't say for sure. I know for a fact chickens can go through it easily but wouldn't the chickens be able to fly over any fence? Sorry, I'm not much help


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

I'm kinda going through this too. As you know I fenced my place for other animals and now that I have Dig and the donks, am having some problems.
I have a 5' no-climb type, but the thinner stuff. Great for the other critters and chickens, not good for large animals that can put a hoof on/through it. Dig is a fence leaner-on-er too... so in order to let him out in some of the established pastures I need to put a line of electric inside to keep him off of it completely.

Where is now, has cattle panels inside for durability and with it already being 5 foot, hard for him to hang over too much.
The new stuff I'm putting up is the thicker durable sheep and goat fence, which should keep the chickens in just fine, but only 4' high.
Since dog attacks are by biggest threat (none yet because of the 5' fencing...knock on wood) I will be putting two hot strands up.
One on top to bring up the fence height and another inside to keep him off of it.
If I ever want to put some cattle out there, the hot fence will keep them off too.

I wish I could do New Zealand or High Tension electrified, but with the coyotes and fox out there and the chickens in here... I just knew I would still have to have some sort of mesh along with it... so decided that wouldn't be wortht he expense.

ETA: So... I said all of that and forgot to say... have you thought of two strands of hot? One on top the other inside to keep them off of it completely?


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## toto (Mar 3, 2013)

Are you holdin in goats?


The electric tape works well to keep them back.. space it to where nothin can get under and make sure its spaced so they cant stick their head in between the tape.


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

LW, I'll probably have too. We _are_ thinking about getting miniature cattle still, in the fall, another reason I don't want to break the bank cause they will... So I have to have sturdy stuff, the 9 gage will work well. Thankfully (ish) my pasture is surrounded by woods with no grass, so I don't have to worry much with them trying to graze out. We also have bears and I want to keep the deer out, they love my pasture now and IT'S MY GRASS darn it!!!

I'm not too worried about them pushing it over as much as I am with them getting their hooves caught. Dash just about ripped her foot off last fall, it was horrible!
Maybe I'm just paranoid now... 99% of the time they will be pastured together, but I may separate them for some reason or another and that's when I could have problems.

Toto, we are for sure wanting woven wire fencing, then electric on top to keep the horses from reaching over... No goats at the moment but I want to be sure for in the future. Not that I've EVER been able to keep them out of or in any enclosure, LOL!


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

I totally get the paranoia..... A family member nearly lost their mare when she put her front leg through field fence. They didn’t have hot wire to keep the horses off of it and the mare was reaching over for some grass. She shredded her leg pulling out of it and just about bled to death.
The vet said it was like trying to sew up ground beef... none of the sutures held.
Of course, guess who they begged to take care of said mare through the long messy recovery. :-|
 
I wish I’d had horses in mind when I first started building my farm, but I didn’t. I can’t redo what I already have, but am trying to keep the entire zoo in mind for safety going forward.
On the plus side... none of my goats have ever gotten out. If it weren't for the equines I wouldn't do electric at all. I don't like it and have to use a solar charger to boot.


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Oh great... Shredded beef you say? :shock: Are you TRYING to give me nightmares? :lol:
Of COURSE _you_ were the caretaker! Sister, we need to swap stories...

Gahhh. I just don't know what to do!
At the last place there was brand spankin new barbed wire fencing, not like I could rip it out. Hotwire on top, never turned on, and the horses were fine.
Lucky? YES. 

So guys, whats the _least_ dangerous?
The 9in. 9 gage looks like this... Death trap?





Of course if I could I would only do electric, but that ain't stoppin a bear, or deterrin rabid skunks, goats, chickuns... We ate BBQ tonight so DH was allll about gettin a hog. My WORD!!!


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## Delfina (Feb 12, 2010)

As far as the goat..... unless it's name is dinner, DON'T! I don't think the Berlin Wall could contain a goat. Did I mention that I went out in 3 feet of snow today to rescue an idiotic goat that jumped into a 6ft snowdrift and was stuck up to his neck?

Get the hog... if it has an unlimited supply of food/water it will happily stay in it's pen! Well, it needs a buddy too...

I can't help you on fencing... I HATE the woven wire fencing. My horse reared over field fencing and about sliced his heel off when he came down on top of it. Moved him to a barn with no climb and he managed to hook the end of his shoe in it and ripped off his shoe along with a good 1/3 of his foot! 

I too am at a quandary as to what to use since I not only have to keep my guy in, the boarding facility down the road has an escapee stallion! He's only escaped *once* but that once complete with a shredded gelding and 2 impregnated mares makes me very sure that I want fencing that will keep him OUT!!


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Oh my gosh. Goats are evil, I agree!

I had a herd of pygmies, yeaaahhh. They decided they didn't like 20 acres of pasture and weeds, a comfy safe barn, and decided they preferred _my front door step_.
The billy even decided that no matter what I put in front of him, he needed to be by my side. So he busted through brand spankin new welded wire. I miss him!

DH hauled them off and we made quite the killing, which made me angry because I sold off "valuable" livestock! Can't win.

My horses are all barefoot so no worries on that. But _you_ have to fence out that stud? :shock: Me thinks it's time to build a wall and then send _them_ the bill!


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## swimminchikin (Feb 27, 2013)

We have a plethora of animals to fence in as well and it's always a challenge figuring out what works. 

We use the 4" by 4" woven fence for the sheep on one side and line the other side with two strands of white electric tape for the horses. One line near the top since my gelding is a notorious fence wrecker and one at the low middle/bottom just in case they try to cheat the system. 

That has worked very well at containing the sheep and keeping the horses safe. The electric also works well for keeping invading utility workers at bay long enough to lock up the animals before they open the gates and let themselves into the fields. 

We do have to watch when the sheep have horns/tags. If they can get their head through the fence they cannot always get it back out. 

Eventually I would love to redo the fence with the woven 2" by 4" wire. I don't think they horses could get their feet through that, but price-wise it's not really an option yet. 

Good luck with your fencing!


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

This:
Non-Climb Horse Fence, 60 in. x 200 ft. - Tractor Supply Online Store


Plus this: 

Zareba® 50 Mile AC Low Impedance Fence Charger - Tractor Supply Online Store

Plus these: 

Zareba® Yellow Snap-On 5 in. Extender Insulator - Tractor Supply Online Store


Plus This: 

Zareba® 200 Meter 6 Strand Polyrope - Tractor Supply Online Store

Will keep a horny stallion in check. The key is the STRONG fence charger (I think mine is 15 joules) and the 5 inch extenders that will keep them AWAY from the wire fencing.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

A horse can get a hoof and leg throught the 4 ". I had one horse that did this and it looked like someone skinned his leg, He was kicking. I cleaned it , pulled the skin down , put some salve on it and betadine, wrapped the heck out of it. He healed. Only had to cut one small peice of dead skin off. Another horse got her shoes caught, and the goats would push out the bottom and crawl under it. Pygmy goats tend to jump more in my experience with them, and my Nubian does would go under. The sheep stay in the 4" . I have hot wire around the top of the fence, I did have 3 strands of hot wire up, but it was always shorting .


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## soffechino123 (Jun 11, 2013)

I would not recommend the wire fencing! I'm sorry I have just had too manny bad experiences with wire fencing. My cousin and I were out riding and some fool left wire fencing on the ground. We were cantering and the horses shoe caught on the wire and ripped it right off! (Sorry don't mean to be graphic) So at first the wire stuck with the shoe and scared the daylights out of her and she decided to bolt and buck at the same time and thats when her shoe flung off. There was also one day when our goat got caught in the wire because he was rubbing on it and tore about half his skin off! O.O I can't say too much about fencing but I just don't want anybody else to go through the same problems.


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