# Vinyl Fencing



## thealabamaredhead (Aug 16, 2010)

Who has experience with this stuff? I have had a lot of bad experiences with fencing. My OTTB broke his neck on a metal post in the pasture at a boarding stable, and my current paint tried to jump a stock panel and was hung on it until we found him. We have made an offer on our dream farm and need to build horse facilities on it, and I want it done right. Our horses are really hard on fencing, Rocky scratches his butt on anything and everything. The babies slam into fencing and break it and Rio jumps it. I plan on installing butt scratching stations to help with that  and maybe an electric strip on top to help keep them off. My question is will normal vinyl horse fence hold them in? There is such a range of different vinyl fencing that I don't know where to start. Price is important but it needs to last. Thanks


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## calicokatt (Mar 5, 2012)

We have vinyl fencing where I'm at and I'm constantly having to fix it because when my mare rubs her rump on it, the rails will pop out of the posts. We've only had one rail break in the 5 years the fence has been up, but she has popped rails out over and over and over.... On the plus side, the fencing has never hurt my horses....
Kathy


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## GhostwindAppaloosa (Jun 3, 2011)

same problem.. popped rails and in winter they are MUCH more brittle and can bust if horses are sticking heads through. My thoughs are if you are going to do it line it with hot wire.


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

Vinyl is not strong enough to hold horses in by itself, you could pop rails off yourself if you wanted to. Best to combine it with hotwire top and bottom to keep your horses from pushing on it.

Personally I'm not sold on vinyl but other are. My main concerns are strength and price. Now if you just want it for show, it will stay looking good a long time.


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

My neighbors spent 20k on vinyl 3 rail fence, they have hot wire on the inside. It is really pretty along the roads and down driveways. Looks really nice.........
And it seams to be a drunk magnet. they tend to like crashing into it. If the drunks miss it, the 18 wheelers dont. Then one 18 wheelers carrying a load of lumber the lumber came off the flat bed right as they were driving by and crashed into it. And surprisingly we live on an arrow straight stretch of road.


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## mildot (Oct 18, 2011)

Instead of vinyl, have you considered using solid plastic "wood" such as ChoiceDeck?


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## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

Have you looked into RAMM fencing? That's what I made my arena with and it looks great and very durable.


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## Valentina (Jul 27, 2009)

No matter what type of fence if your horses don't respect it you'll need hot wire on top/inside to prevent them from destroying it. Vinyl is certainly safer than wood (or the fake decking material already mentioned which breaks just like wood). 

We use no climb horse wire (available at Lowes) with a hot wire on top. Not only keeps my horses/dog in by neighbor dogs/animals out. If you want it to look a bit nicer add a top wooden rail. 

http://www.lowes.com/webapp/wcs/sto...00' Non-Climb Horse Fence&CAWELAID=1023920690


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## pepperduck (Feb 14, 2008)

We have vinyl fencing, and like others said, when horses push against it it can pop off in places and need to be repaired. We installed hot wire on the inside and it solved the small problem we have. I love the fencing. The fence itself has never needed repairs, and it requires basically no upkeep. We have had ours for about 10 years now, and since we put the hot wire on top, we have no other issues.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Nothing beats an electric fence. All our mares grew up with electric fencing, respect it, and all we have is a single strand of poly rope.
For horses not used to electric, I would run a strand along the top of any kind of fencing that you decide on....it doesn't take them long to learn.


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## Koolio (Apr 7, 2010)

PaintHorseMares said:


> Nothing beats an electric fence. All our mares grew up with electric fencing, respect it, and all we have is a single strand of poly rope.
> For horses not used to electric, I would run a strand along the top of any kind of fencing that you decide on....it doesn't take them long to learn.


This!! I use 4 strands of electric rope with 2/4 strands electrified mounted on treated wood posts. It was inexpensive, easy to install, easy to maintain and the horses respect it. After 2 years of hot summers and very cold snowy winters, it still looks great. I adjust the tension on the rope about two or three times a year when the seasonal temperatures change dramatically, but that's about it. 

My neighbour has vinyl fencing that still looks pretty good, but it does stretch out of shape when the horses rub on it.


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

Two favorites are electric fencing and no climb mesh fence. Period.

About vinyl.. Know a stable that had it- looked terrible. WHY? Because if you want it to look nice you have to power wash it every year. At least here, otherwise the vinyl fence gets algae on it and it looks gross. Also, I would NEVER EVER trust horses in it, it pops out and yes, it does break. If you sat on a rail it would pop out. They did have a proffessional person come out and install it. They had a horse kick a rail down and step on it, it broke and gave him a pretty good cut.


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## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

There's vinyl fencing at the barn I'm at, and honestly, I think it's a hazard for several of the horses. Some of them learned that they can lean/push through the fence, because like others have said, it can just pop right out with enough force. A few will lean on the fence to reach the grass just on the other side, which of course causes it to pop off the rails.

A HUGE concern is that during these times when it's just dangling a bit and popped off the rails, a few of the horses try to be stupid or brave and jump it - except they don't always clear it and get tangled in it. A couple of times a horse has tried to walk through (top rail was popped off, middle rail was loose, lowest rail was normal) and it spooked him, causing him to tangle in it a little and you guessed it...pop it off many of the rails.


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