# Horse Fence



## xx chico (Mar 12, 2009)

Your best bet is probably to go with electric?
I could be wrong.


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## hrsjmpr32 (Nov 4, 2008)

I personally use electric bc it's cheap, easy to put up, take down and mend if needed.


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

I've heard and seen where barbed wire will hurt horses, I personally wouldn't want to stick a very young or half nutty fence tester in a field with only barbed wire.

That being said, All of my pastures have barbed wire somewhere and I've never (knock on wood) had any issues with it.

You can buy plain wire (no barbs) and build a 3-4 strand fence, that would be safer than the barbed wire if you're concerned. However some horses will rub on the fencing for a good scratch if it has no "ouch factor". 

I prefer electric or a combo of electric and wire fencing, it's cheap and more practical for my uses.

The electric fencing that I prefer for horses is not the electric tape or wire. IMO the tape takes too much abuse from the wind and the sun. I like the electrical "string" You don't need special tools to put it up, scissors will cut it and any mending is just like splicing in a new piece of string, a couple knots and you're done. Not to mention should you need to move the electric fencing you can simply wind it back up and move the fence where needed. You can't do that without major headaches using metal electrical wire. The metal is also harder to work with.

That's my 2¢ hope it helps.


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## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

Well, best way to go is wooden fence. Plastic is even better (I wish I could afford it!).  But they are costly, of course. So I'm just kidding here...

I've seen horses injured on wire. One cut off back legs really bad getting stuck there. The best alternative is indeed electric. You can get t-posts and rope in TSC or in cheap internet stores like horse.com, as well as solar battery (if you want to use one). Just put 4 ropes and you can make hot just 2 of them. I found even youngsters being very respectful of the hot wire. The only suggestion I'd give is to use solid wooden posts on corners (at least) of your fence. 

The only thing I personally don't like about electric is the fact you yourself have to be very careful around it, so horses wouldn't push you into the fence. From what I heard it's pretty unpleasant experience. Lol!


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Electric rope fence is nice, safe, and easy to use, but if you want least expensive, I don't think you can beat high tensile electric wire. If you're just building a pen/paddock, the no climb type wrapped wire fencing is safe and very durable, but much more expensive.


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## luvs2ride1979 (Nov 9, 2007)

Barbed wire is fine if you have a LARGE pasture and horses that aren't accident prone, but it can cause injuries pretty easily if a horse decides to reach through to the other side, or scratch their neck on a post. You can put electric up on existing barbed wire to keep the horses off of it.

If you're putting up a new fence, the cheapest way to go is barbless wire. It's just like barbed wire, but without any barbs on it, hence the name. It's smooth twisted wire. You can use a single strand of electric to keep the horses off of it.

For electric, I have had VERY good luck with Electro-Braid. It's pricey, but SO EASY to install! And it just won't break! I have seen two horses jump right in the middle of it (spooked), tangled all up in it, and pop right back out without a scratch! And the fence snapped back like nothing happened... It was great! That convinced me to use it on our place. We have a very nice existing wood fence and I wanted to keep the horses off of it. It's about an acre pasture. I was able to install the whole thing by myself! I did have my DH put the ground rods in, as our ground is very rocky and a PITA the get through. 

The advantage to electro-braid is you only need fence posts every 50 feet, FIFTY FEET!, plus brace posts every 400 feet and at the corners. You'll use 1/3rd the posts you would with wire, wood, or traditional electric (wire or poly tape/rope). The rope is soft, feels like cotton, with copper wires braided in. It's light weight and easy on the hands (if you forget your gloves like I did, lol ;-).).
Electrobraid - Electric Horse Fence, Safe Livestock Fencing


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

That's what I prefer also. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. All I could come up with was electric string :roll:


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## luvs2ride1979 (Nov 9, 2007)

Dumas'_Grrrl said:


> That's what I prefer also. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. All I could come up with was electric string :roll:


LOL, close enough! :lol:

Hey, I got the breast collar today. It's very nice! I can't wait to try it. Hopefully this rain will quit and I'll be able to get riding again.


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