Barbed wire

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FionaM12

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How many people keep their horses somewhere where there's barbed wire? And how do they feel about this?

I think all the farms round here have barbed wire, including where I keep my mare. She's already cut her nose on it once and I've only had her two months. But there's not much choice really. There aren't very many places to keep a horse in this area, especially in my very limited budget.

Barbed wire must surely be one of the biggest causes of injury and death to horses, yet is still in very common use, certainly here in the north.

What are everyone's opinions on this?
 
I hate, hate, hate barbed wire and horses.

I've posted photos before of my filly after she ran through a barbed wire fence, it wasn't pretty. :( Now I have contol over the fencing (moved neddies from livery to my parents' field), all the barbed wire was taken out and replaced with post & rail. I know that horses can hurt themselves on *nothing* but as I've said before, I'm not going to make it easy for them.
 
I have had a mare of mine chased through barbed wire, at the yard we were at for about 4 months a few years back now, they were introduced one by one adding in another and another until they were fine, someone saw all the mares were chasing her and left her in the field sweating buckets, 10 minutes later apparently my mare had been chased through both her chest and front legs needed to be stitched up, wont go anywhere with barbed wire again unless there is bushes surrounding the barbed wire :/
 
FionaM12 said:
Barbed wire must surely be one of the biggest causes of injury and death to horses, yet is still in very common use, certainly here in the north.
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biggest causes of death and injury? don't think so. I've seen terrible injuries caused by plain wire, seen horses killed by wooden fencing stakes in post and railed paddocks and injuries caused by barbed wire.horses are just rubbish that way.
you could always hot tape so they can't get too close to it-just make sure the charge is strong enough and break points put in, electric fencing tape can also cause horrible injuries. horses are rubbish that way.

alot of livery yards are diversified farms hence the barbed wire-my current place is the only place where there isnt any, never had a problem.
 
I totally sympathise with the OP. I used to keep my neds somewhere where there was only crappy electric which didn't work and barbed wire - only because there was scant choice around where we are.

In the end I moved - much further away from where we live - it was lots of factors that mnade up move though, the barbed wire did make me ***** myself though - esp as my other horse has a terrible scar from getting tangled up as a baby - 6 hours in surgery etc....
 
peteralfred said:
biggest causes of death and injury? don't think so.
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What I actually said was it "surely must be one of the biggest causes" which isn't quite the same thing. And I say that because I personally have recently heard of several seriously injured horses, two of which ended in death. Many horses I know carry nasty scaring. I don't personally know of anything else which so commonly injures horses.

Just my personal experience, of course.
 
I have put barbed wire up all around my fields, which are all surrounded by hedges and have post and rail. The wire is on the top rail, to stop the horses rubbing on them and trashing them and it is working. My OH would not constantly rebuild my post and rail for me so barbed wire is easier, and safer as it keeps the horses in the fields.
 
Sadly, I can't afford to go round putting electric fences in the farmer's fields. They're big fields, and I don't think the farmer would let me anyway.

It's always hard keeping any animal on a limited income.
 
I've seen more fatal injuries with plain wire than barbed.
True it is horrible stuff, but some people have little choice. I think its better if it is tight, non rusty stapled to the wooden posts strongly and the wooden posts are not rotten. Far from perfect though.
I have barbed wire, and live with it as I also use electric tape to stop the horses getting too close to the wire. So, far, its worked for years. Who knows what the future holds though.
 
We have barbed wire along the top of our field as this is stock fencing due to the neighbouring fields being full of cattle etc. We gave not had any major issues with it in 20+ years to be honest. Only one horse somehow managed to find a loose strand that must have been left from the previous barbed wire fence. He cut his leg which was a bit nasty but he wasn't badly injured.

One of our old horses fell over a bottom fence that was barbed wire on top. He didn't injure himself either (well other than rubbing a sore in his neck as he weaved on the fence when he realised he was stuck away from his friends!

I actually think well-maintained barbed wire is no worse than any other fencing. We also had/have some sheep netting still left - now that i do dislike as we have some stupid horses who like to get their feet through it and wedge it between their foot and shoe!

I ahve heard of horses staking themselves on post and rail or breaking their legs on post and rail, horses who have got tangled and badly injured in electric tape, horses who have gone through hawthorn hedges and injured themselves. The list goes on. You can't stop all injuries, it's just impossible. I think on the plus side barbed wire stops horses leaning over fencing and doesn't get trashed or chewed like post and rail.
 
ladyt25 said:
We have barbed wire along the top of our field as this is stock fencing due to the neighbouring fields being full of cattle etc. We gave not had any major issues with it in 20+ years to be honest. Only one horse somehow managed to find a loose strand that must have been left from the previous barbed wire fence. He cut his leg which was a bit nasty but he wasn't badly injured.

One of our old horses fell over a bottom fence that was barbed wire on top. He didn't injure himself either (well other than rubbing a sore in his neck as he weaved on the fence when he realised he was stuck away from his friends!

I actually think well-maintained barbed wire is no worse than any other fencing. We also had/have some sheep netting still left - now that i do dislike as we have some stupid horses who like to get their feet through it and wedge it between their foot and shoe!

I ahve heard of horses staking themselves on post and rail or breaking their legs on post and rail, horses who have got tangled and badly injured in electric tape, horses who have gone through hawthorn hedges and injured themselves. The list goes on. You can't stop all injuries, it's just impossible. I think on the plus side barbed wire stops horses leaning over fencing and doesn't get trashed or chewed like post and rail.
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I agree. I think there are far more dangerous hazards in the average field/yard than barbed wire fencing. So far this year we've had kicks requiring veterinary attention. At the end of the day, we can't Vet Wrap them and keep them in a padded stable for eternity :)
 
Thanks for your responses, folks. The consensus seems to be: "yes barbed wire's pretty bad, but possibly not the worst if used wisely. And, whatever we do, some horses will always find a way to injure themselves...."

Not sure that's entirely reassuring...:D
 
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We have barbed wire on our farm, I'm slowly in the process of re-educating my oh as its stock fencing. No idea why it needs a top line of wire mind, I've never seen a 3ft sheep :D

Anyway the compromise we've come to is sheep fencing on the bottom, rail on top and elec fenced away from the fencing itself.
 
In 16 years at one yard, where there were never less that 40 horses in the fields, there was one horse that got entangled in the barbed wire.

Whether we were lucky there or not? I prefer not to have my horses in fields with barbed wire, simply because I don't like the thought of it.
 
BoolavogueDC said:
We have barbed wire on our farm, I'm slowly in the process of re-educating my oh as its stock fencing. No idea why it needs a top line of wire mind, I've never seen a 3ft sheep :D
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The little woolly barstewards jump the stock fencing, especially if there's something tantalising like a railway line the other side of the fence:mad:

I have a hot line on top which mostly keeps them in.And another hot line a foot in front of the fence at nose height.
 
Really? Well! That tells me, our sheep all look far too sedate to jump anything but I believe you as they are the oddest animals!

When you say a hot line to keep them in - do you mean sheep? My little leccy fencing manual says you need one helluva whack to keep them pesky buggers in - how does that work with lambs?
 
Hate the stuff, my young stallion went through barbed wire and got away with luckily just scratches.. All that surrounds our fields now I have fenced off with my own electric tape so they can't flirt with the other horses over the barbed wire.
 
Our yard has barbed wire and (touch wood) it's never caused a problem. If we didn't have it I'm sure we would have all the fences knocked down by now as they all like a good rub.

My pet hate is electric fencing with no electric running through it - gives me vsions of cheese wire. As someone else has said, the only fencing injuries I've experienced are from plain wire - however on both occasions it was when there were horses on both sides of a single fence - a big no no in my opinion. My mare's also got a rather horrific scar on the back of her pastern where she got tangled up in stock fencing before I bought her:(
 
My main problem with barbed wire if high and tight is it wrecks the rugs!
The farmer here insists on using it in the top strand of the fences as they tend to last longer however after wrecking countless rugs in the end I invested in a decent energiser and protected the strand of barbed wire with White cord electric fence.
Initially cost me however over the years has paid for itself as the rugs now last!
 
I've seen several barbed and plain wire injuries, and I'd rather take my chances with barbed wire any day!
 
Some of our fencing is barbed wire, some plain. All is correctly tensioned and well maintained. I have to say our NF repects the barbed wire, whereas he will lean right over and push down if he can plain wire , where there's more grass the other side..
 
Where I am it's post and rail, but I used to be at a stables which used both. Hated it! Never seen it firsthand, but have heard horror stories of horses crashing into it and getting tangled in it. Really don't like wire fences of any sort to hold horses (except electric fences, but that's not what I'd class as wire). Could just be me, but I definitely prefer post and rail to anything :) xx
 
I don't like it but I have no other option than to have it on the fences. It's not my farm so sometimes you just have to accept the way things are and pray for the best.
 
Never had a problem with barbed wire. Providing the fences are properly tensioned, and well maintained there should be no problem.

It's also easy enough to put a length of electric fencing a meter in from the fence to deter fence leaners.
 
my parents have had their fields fenced with barbed wire for about 20 years (it's Ireland and the only thing cows will respect). As far as I'm aware, they've not had a single cut from it - whether mares, foals, stallions.

A friend in the UK had beautiful post and rail fencing. One of their horses ripped its side open on the post and rail. Vet said it would have been a much easier wound to deal with if it had been barbed wire.

Go figure?! Marmite.
 
It's expensive removing barbed wire. A compromise is to put a single electrified wire on offsets along the side of the barbed wire fence. That will at least teach horses to respect it and keep off. Slack wire is almost as bad -- keep it taut!
 
peteralfred said:
biggest causes of death and injury? don't think so. I've seen terrible injuries caused by plain wire, seen horses killed by wooden fencing stakes in post and railed paddocks and injuries caused by barbed wire.horses are just rubbish that way.
you could always hot tape so they can't get too close to it-just make sure the charge is strong enough and break points put in, electric fencing tape can also cause horrible injuries. horses are rubbish that way.

alot of livery yards are diversified farms hence the barbed wire-my current place is the only place where there isnt any, never had a problem.
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Horses will injure themselves quite severely on many types of fencing, I agree.

I knew a horse who had over 100 stitches on plain wire and another who had to be PTS after being caught in electric tape.
 
My boy has a 12" scar on his chest from when he was chased into barbed wire before I had him. He had to be cut free and had a serious amount of stitches to close the wound. The yard I am on now has barbed wire and also sheep wire and I have to say that the barbed wire hasn't really caused any problems (apart from a few torn rugs) but my horse has managed to get his foot through the sheep wire on a couple of occasions and got the wire stuck between his hoof and shoe and needed to be cut out!

I dont particularly like either type of fencing but would take the barbed wire over the sheep wire anyday.
 
amymay said:
Never had a problem with barbed wire. Providing the fences are properly tensioned, and well maintained there should be no problem.
QUOTE]

This ^
Our fields have barbed wire, in with hedge rows mostly and as long as the horses have enough grazing, they tend to leave the fencing well alone.

In the 20 years I've had horses I've only ever seen four incidents of barbed wire injury, only one of which was serious.
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