Fencing

[sport horse]

I have to replace a fence between myself and my neighbour. I have fairly valuable young horses and he has large cattle. At present it is post and rail with barbed wire run on the same posts, but on the cattle side of the fence. It is about 10 years old and the posts have all rotted and come loose in the ground. It is beyond repair!

I could replace with the same again and expect to get another 10 years with luck - that should see me out! My fencing contractor is suggesting the proper, tensioned horse fence with which he can use 5" posts and he thought it would be a comparable price with post and rail but far better. I feel I would still need a top rail so that horses see it, so actually it will probably be more expensive.

The fence is one side of a 17 acre field, on a hillside and out of sight of my house and yard. The fence run is about 350 yards. It is going to be an expensive job but what it going to be the best result?

What do I do? All experiences welcome before I break the news to my bank!

 

[chaps89]

I recently looked at fencing options - if we'd have gone ahead we were going to have round posts with equine netting and a strand of the thick green electric tape across the top. Guess you could also run barbed wire along the cattle side if needed too.

 

[sport horse]

I recently looked at fencing options - if we'd have gone ahead we were going to have round posts with equine netting and a strand of the thick green electric tape across the top. Guess you could also run barbed wire along the cattle side if needed too.

Owner of cattle and fencing contractor ( who does loads of farm fences as we are a farming area and I am the mad horse person in the middle!!) do not think the cattle will touch the stock fence. Farmer uses a cattle equivalent for his fences.

 

[Polos Mum]

When I fenced my last place I went for post and rail and regretted it - the horse netting (not normal sheep wire that has holes nicely foot sized!) was about the same price, far less prone to being smashed, eaten or rotted. The posts are still wooden but the wire is much more robust. Especially if it's out of sight of your house I'd do wire. The stuff I looked at they had a video of someone driving a car into it and bouncing off ! Strong stuff.

A bit of electric tape along the top for visibility wouldn't do any harm - equally I wouldn't add to the cost by taking the old fence down so that will be a visible barrier on the other side for some time to come.

 

[splashgirl45]

just a thought, would the cattle equivalent be ok for horses? horse stuff is so expensive, and you may find the cattle stuff is cheaper.....i would def find out first and make sure that the holes are small enough to stop a hoof going through...i was at a yard who used stock fencing and my mare got her foot through it and pulled her tendon as well as a bad cut across the back of her pastern so i am a bit fussy about the size of the holes

 

[Abby-Lou]

We run cattle with my ponies, we have tornado horse fencing with a strand of slape wire on top. I went for the higher one think its 120m size stops the cattle getting the neck over it and rubbing necks along. It set up a lot more firmer than normal stock fencing, yes its expensive but holds up really well. Make sure you get someone that has had experience putting it up so they get the tension right. I personally have found slape wire better than top rales. Look out on ebay I got 6 rolls at a very cheap price couldn't believe my luck

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I have tornado 5ft fencing all along 1 boundary. Topped with half round rail in 1 paddock and with wide tape on the top for the other 2.
Cattle tried to rub once when on other side, farmer strung a thin elec string on his side and not a problem since..... till one of my minis decided to do her 'Baloo' impression as the wire was apparently lovely to scrub winter coat out on! I now have a line of tape at mini bum height on my side too 🙄

 

[Bob notacob]

Pressure treated softwood posts now have a life of about 5 years tops .The reason is that the treatment was changed and now simply does not work. It is pointless putting up post and rail or post and studrail with these posts. The best posts on the market are Octoposts ,a creosote impregnated Scandinavian redwood post with a 25 year factory guarantee. They are a machined octagonal shape(for easy stacking.They come in a range of sizes .I use the 6 ft by 4inch posts for studrail .

 

[sport horse]

Thank you all - big decisions and big money to spend out so have to get it right.

Electric is not an option as the mains is nearly 3/4 mile away and that also makes it too far to take batteries large enough to power such a long run. I am going to cost out the 5' Tornado as the higher the fence the less the horses will lean over it and hopefully the neighbours cattle will not lean on it so much either. Must not complain about the cows as they come for a sleepover now and then to clean the grazing!

The old fence is coming down - it is too dangerous to our own livestock and also wildlife to leave loads of old fencing around. I think the idea of entwining electric tape appeals - much cheaper than putting a rail which also means more posts.

I have used the Octoposts on a short run of post and rail on one of my turnout paddocks. We found they actually snapped when being banged in and we lost quite a few. I will see if they make a bigger post and how much that is. As you say, modern posts are rubbish.

Abby - Lou I have googled 'slape wire' and got no results! What is it?

 

[Bob notacob]

What type of soil are you trying to bash the posts into?Also what size were they

 

[Abby-Lou]

Hi Slape wire is basically plain wire that can be held at tension if you click on the link below you will see it at the top of the picture. totally recommend compared to rails. You can have it on a tension pully so over the years yo can tighten it up if it gets slack.

https://www.tornadowire.co.uk/horse-fencing/

 

[sport horse]

What type of soil are you trying to bash the posts into?Also what size were they

They were 2.1 x 100. I gather they can occasionally do this but it is covered by the 25 year guarantee. We have a clay soil with beautiful flints!! At least the flints are beautiful to look at but they are hideous for fencing and for puncturing horses hooves!

 

[sport horse]

Thank you again everyone. I have spent the whole morning trying to decide what to do and to cost the various options. I now have a major headache - why are some thing in Imperial measurements and some metric? OMG I did not think one fence could be so complicated or indeed so expensive!!

 

[Bob notacob]

Feel free to pm me . I am in the Octopost business .Was the ground very hard when the posts were bashed in as I would have expected them to go through clay like a knife through butter.I am glad our 25 year guarantee held good. I would suspect the problem was the amount of whip in a 2.1 metre length added to the fact that these posts have a much larger cross section than most fence posts ,Equal to a 5"x3" post and rail fence post. I would be inclined to use a post borer with a 4 inch auger. and maybe bash the last few inches . I am about to start a fencing job in Surrey ,on chalk and that is what I will be doing . My greatest concern with the tornado wire net is that of getting a strand caught under a shoe.Its odd how horses seem to manage to get into trouble. If you go for the polymer rail eg Studrail then make sure that any barbed wire runs behind the rail rather than between them . If you go for high tensile barbed wire remember that you will be effectively doubling the load on the end strainer post system .