# build a round pen with seat belt material CHEAP



## polka dot ponies (Oct 29, 2013)

Hi. I was curious if anyone else has been looking around for an affordable alternative to wood or panels when building a round pen. I have come accross polypro webbing (seat belt material). You can buy it in 4 inch widths 25 yards for 20 bucks. It's uv protected and and has a high tensil strength. I thought I could use this instead of 2x4's. Attach them to round poles or 4x4's. Does anyone have any thought or input on this?


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Howdy and welcome to the forum .

I don't see why it wouldn't work. I wouldn't want to try anything too eventful in there like dealing with a problem horse or putting a horse under saddle for the first time; anything where they might hit the fence and get tangled (burns from nylon webbing can be downright nasty, almost like getting cut with a dull knife). But to use it as more of a blind for a more gentle or broke horse to give you a contained area to work, I don't see a problem with it.


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## polka dot ponies (Oct 29, 2013)

Thank you for the welcome and reply  
My horses are broke so Im mostly looking for a boundry so I can put some footing down to do roundpen work and ride. Thinking about the possibility of burns I wonder what kind of spacing would be best and how many? Just in case someone wants to kick out when they are feeling good I wonder what heights they should be at?


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Electric ribbon is much cheaper and visible. A spool should do about 3 rows. A friend used yellow poly rope, hardly bigger than clothes line wire, doing 3 rows and it worked. It's likely best not to leave a horse in there as they get curious and figure out how to lean on it and see if it will give way.


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## Fort fireman (Mar 5, 2011)

I used a webbing for my round pen. i got it from farm supply I think. It is 3 inch wide white webbing and i did 3 stands of it. each strand has a tensile strength or 1000 or 1200 pounds if I remember correctly. My round pen is 60 ft diameter. Some tips if you decide to use it. Make sure your posts are deeply set and even concreted in if possible. The webbing has to be tight to be effective. When tight it will pull your posts toward the center and make them lean. In turn the webbing will sag and need to be retightened and then your will repeat. So get them set right. I learned that the hard way. I used 8 ft long posts by 6 inch diameter and sunk them to 5 foot above ground but didn't concrete. Long story short I'm going to go back and dig out around them and throw some concrete to them one of these days.

here you can get an idea of what it looks like.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^Excellent example FF. 

Also, when your posts start leaning to the inside, that's when you catch a post to the knee while riding. That's no fun either LOL.


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## Fort fireman (Mar 5, 2011)

That is one thing I did think of before I started. That's why I ran my webbing on the inside of the posts. :lol:

They aren't leaning terrible. Almost can't even see it but it is enough to get the webbing sagging and enough to drive me crazy.


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