Fencing for sheep also suitable for horses

abbijay

abbijay

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My parents have a 3 acre field that eventually I will retire my horse to but they're currently renting it out to a farmer for his sheep. This farmer wants to re-fence the field which is great (and it sounds like he's planning on paying for it himself). My dad rang me out of the blue and told me he's planning on using sheep netting and barbed wire, his question was did I have any issues with the barbed wire.
I can cope with well installed and maintained barbed wire, horse has been in fields with it before and, a few minor scratches aside, he was fine but I have huge concerns with sheep netting!
What fencing do others have that have land grazed by sheep and horses?
 
abbijay said:
My parents have a 3 acre field that eventually I will retire my horse to but they're currently renting it out to a farmer for his sheep. This farmer wants to re-fence the field which is great (and it sounds like he's planning on paying for it himself). My dad rang me out of the blue and told me he's planning on using sheep netting and barbed wire, his question was did I have any issues with the barbed wire.
I can cope with well installed and maintained barbed wire, horse has been in fields with it before and, a few minor scratches aside, he was fine but I have huge concerns with sheep netting!
What fencing do others have that have land grazed by sheep and horses?
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You could use the horse friendly tornado netting but the farmer wont want pay for that as its pricey and you need at least a foot longer stakes.
The other way is to use electric fence just stood off from the fence so the horses cant get right up to it you can get standoff insulators that just screw into the fence post.
 
popsdosh said:
You could use the horse friendly tornado netting but the farmer wont want pay for that as its pricey and you need at least a foot longer stakes.
The other way is to use electric fence just stood off from the fence so the horses cant get right up to it you can get standoff insulators that just screw into the fence post.
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I was okay at previous yard with sheeps netting, topped with wide tape mains electric. Horses never got close enough to interfere with the netting. You could see the few feet of space they gave fence.

Consider how sensible your horse is, and whether will be pressure points on fence e.g. other horse neighbours.

Ideally I would offer to pay for the roll of netting, if farmer does posts and installation, and get him to install the smaller horse friendly netting.
 
wingedhorse idea is a good one, about sharing the cost.
Popdosh also, if you could just electric fence with insulators when you do put the horse in there.
Saying that my horses (inclusing a foal) have always been in barbed wire topped stock netting and have been fine, horses can hurt themselves on post and rail if so inclined.
 
wingedhorse said:
I was okay at previous yard with sheeps netting, topped with wide tape mains electric. Horses never got close enough to interfere with the netting. You could see the few feet of space they gave fence.

Consider how sensible your horse is, and whether will be pressure points on fence e.g. other horse neighbours.

Ideally I would offer to pay for the roll of netting, if farmer does posts and installation, and get him to install the smaller horse friendly netting.
Click to expand...

Tornado horse net for 3 acres will be circa £2000
 
Mine have been in sheep fields for quite a long time and I tend to think that so long as it is well maintained, sheep netting with barbed wire along the top is fine. But if you are happy to contribute some money to the fencing you could get the smaller, more horse friendly netting. Not sure about the difference in price.
 
Put it this way if a horse is going to do something silly it's going to do something silly. My friends horse nearly killed itself on horse fencing by kicking out through it and taking half her leg with it.
 
Thanks guys, I definitely don't have £3k to contribute to fencing I'm not using for I don't know how many years but lots of ideas! BP is a generally very sensible chappy with dinner plate size hooves (8" dia) but he loves to scratch so that would be my concern but he will need a companion - ideally a scruffy little lead rein pony of indiscriminate breeding but given that I don't know what that will be yet I need to plan for a "typical" pony.
 
I have sheep and horses :)

I have three types of fencing, all of them work well.

Post and rail, stock fencing, plain wire. All of these have standoff mains electric plain wire to keep the horses away from them and they all keep the sheep in.
 
My horse is kept in a field fenced for sheep with sheep netting and barbed wire (in places). It's not ideal and we have had lost shoes and horses getting their hooves stuck in the netting - usually around this time of year when they are bored and start messing about as the grass isn't as tasty. We also had a horse try and jump out and end up crashing through the fence - it was a miracle he wasn't injured as he came through the netting and a bit with barbed wire on it. So just be careful and if you can, a line of electric fencing inside the fence line to keep them away from the netting would be a good idea x
 
My entire holding is sheep netting with electric top wire on a mains energiser (not stand offs). The horses never go near the fences to have a problem with the net.
 
In 30 years I've never had a problem with sheep fencing, dry stone walls or hedges. However I did have one run up a 2k vet bill by running through electric inside post and rail. You just never know!
 
Even with a sensible horse buy wire cutters and shoe pulling kit just incase. Even taught and well maintained we've had a lot of times where a horse has put his leg through and back and got stuck as well as the wire going under the shoe at the heel and been stuck between hoof and shoe. Fortunately the horse has on every occasion stood there instead of pulling back so no injuries.
Mum has just had some plastic netting stuff that's partially windproof put along her post and rail ready for sheep. It's a hidious bright green but much more horse friendly, I don't know what it's called but much better than stock fencing. Do you have a local fencer you can call to see what they suggest and get quotes? I'm sure they'll be up to date with new products and prices.
 
I have sheep and ponies, I have stock fencing and barbed wire with electric wires on stand-off insulators (about 10 inches long) on the fence too

If I were doing the fence again I would not have the barbed wire but have a rail along the top instead (still with the electric wires)
 
I'm another who has horses and stock fencing-some with plain wire top some with barbed. For much of mine its just not feasible to have mains on it though some has. As long as they have something to eat, I don't think its a problem (all of mine are unshod too)-there is no good fencing for a horse to try and kill itself with-have seen hideous injuroes and PTS for post and rail, plain wire, barbed wire and electric tape.
 
yeah my rented field is sheep fencing and barbed wire. touch wood, never have any issues.

the only time i've seen issues with that fencing is when people have horses in a small area where they run out of grass and try and stretch across into neighbouring fields to nibble.
 
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