# Fencing Questions



## Sophie19 (Apr 13, 2009)

I am soon going to be moving my horse to a friends vacation property. She has a large fenced pasture where my horse will be living. Unfortunately the fence is barbed wire. I have always heard that barbed wire is not a safe option for horses, although the boarding facility he is at right now has some barbed wire and he has never had a problem with it. 

Some sections are all barbed wire,










Some have two rows of barbed wire with a wire net underneath it. 









The good thing is that the posts of the fence are all really sturdy, so if I need to put in another kind of fencing I could use the posts from the old fence.

I was thinking about just putting up some hot wire around the inside of the fence to keep him off the fence line, using the yellow things pictured below. But I am not sure. 










I have never built a horse fence before. What would you guys do in this situation?


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

It appears that the pasturage was originally set up for cattle, because that's field fencing with barbed wire on top.

The easiest and cheapest fix for you would be to run a hot wire along the inside of the fence. It looks as though there are already some insulators in place.


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## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

While I'm not a big fan of barbed wire, it's the only thing that will keep our cows in our pasture. I know the damage barbed wire can do, but I've also seen what a wood fence can do to a horse. Not a pretty sight. I do have a cross fence that is barbed wire that will get replaced soon with a more horse friendly fence.


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

I agree with running the strand of hot-wire along the inside of the fence. Better safe than sorry, eh?
And I'm glad barbed wire keeps everyone else's cattle in, the guy up the road always has cattle running about the road. :| It's one of the females or another *sigh* We're too nice and always herd them back down to his little barn for him, but it's worth it, his sons drive us back to the barn if we didn't ride and they're not too bad lookin ;p haha
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## wetrain17 (May 25, 2011)

Are you willing to risk your horse (s) coming in with deep gashes that will need a lot of attention and vet bills? I wouldn't think twice about taking it down. We all know strange things happen with horses that we can't always explain. I wouldn't doubt that if you left the barbed wire up and put eletric fencing up your horse would still come in with some type of injury.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

While barbwire is of course in no way ideal for horses, there are a lot of things to think about.

If the paddocks are big, and the fences are maintained as shown in the pics I would not have any hesitation in putting my horses out there.

I agree that a stand off hot wire on the insulators would be a great idea, teaches good respect of the fence.

I have been around horses for 40 + years now, and I think that every single place that I have been involved with had barbwire fences. At present I only have either straight barb, or barb over the wire square stuff, there is no way I could afford to rip out several miles of fence and change it.

I would choose lots of things over barb, but at the same time I would choose a well erected, properly maintained barb fence over a lot of other things.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I agree with adding a strand (or two if you horse is a fence tester) of hot wire around the inside. Perhaps even a strand of hot rope would be better due to visibility. You can get insulators that hold the electric wire out a bit farther from the standard fencing, too, just for an added bit of a safety buffer space.


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