Full cost of setting up a track system?

[Polos Mum]

Following on from the fat thread I am seriously considering a big change in lifestyle for my fatties.

My fields are split into 2 areas. One is 3.5 acres and rectangular (55m wide by 255m long) up hill and well fenced around the perimeter.
This is currently split into five different square ish paddocks (used to be livery yard) that I rotate them around over the winter. I think it is a natural shape for a track and all the internal fencing is duff and could do with replacing anyway.

Has anyone set up a track from scratch (no buildings/ hard standing in the field) and roughly the cost. It would need to be permanent as my fatties have learned that a short sharp shock from running through electric is worth the grass on the other side and even with 4 strands of new tape with a mains energiser on pig setting - they get through.

Thoughts and suggestions much appreciated.

 

[Tarragon]

I have never done it as I keep my ponies at livery on a sheep farm, but if I had my own set-up, like you have, I would love to do it! At it's simplest, it is just more fencing though, isn't it? So cost wise, it would just be your choice of fencing over the distance. If it is permanent, you would need perhaps a couple of gateways to give you access to the central section.
Other costs on top could be feeding station areas at spread out points along the track, so that it doesn't get muddy where you do hang the haynets, and covered areas for shelter if you need them.
if you keep you horses barefoot, some people include areas of gravel to encourage healthy hooves.
How exciting!

 

[tda]

I think unless you live in amazingly well draining land then most of it would have to be hard track to make it useable all year round.
I have an electric fence track round the edge of a 2 acre paddock but it's gettng too wet already, as there is not much grass coverage..
In my dreams I would scape back the topsoil on the track and lay hard-core to most of it ?? (my OH thinks I'm mental) then I could have 2 separate feeding stations . Water is back at the stables/shelters where there is a mud Control matted area for loafing about. Daren't do the sums tbh

 

[chaps89]

I have run a track around an acre and a half this year.
The tape cost me double what it should have as I bought the cheap stuff first time round, then when they kept busting through it I replaced with higher quality, thicker tape.
I have 3 strands, and used 2 reels on each row, so that's 6 reels of tape.
Then there's gate handles and the little metal connectors.
And about 100 fence posts, I have to have tall ones and can't space them very far apart so I needed more than other people get away with.
I reckon all in, if I have change from £500 I'd be doing well (that does include having had to buy an energiser as well though)
And that's a fairly small area done with plastic posts, just the cost for literally putting a track up.
I reckoned it would be at least double that for wooden posts by the time you have more expensive posts and all the plastic connectors to attach the tape to the fence, based on putting them in myself.

My plan is to now strip graze my middle area going into winter, but I'm having to psych myself up for buying yet more posts and tape to do so...

 

[Dexter]

I did 1.5 acres. Took about 30 posts and a reel of tape. I use it till it starts to get boggy then they go into the middle bit which is split into 3. I have 3 on it, 1 big heavy and 2 young natives. It works really well

 

[ester]

How many do you have PM? Will you need hard standing? (we don't use our grass one over winter) if so I'm wondering if you could get away with tracking less of it with hard standing (for winter say) and then having some as optional grass track when it's dry?
My trimmer took most of her grazing (on low lying prone to v. wet ground) and made a figure of 8 with hard standing which works well and I've seen another similar.

Obviously if you can have a mostly grass track coping with winter that would be much cheaper.

Fwiw we did dig out a strip, put down landscape fabric and fill with pea gravel, that disappeared years ago!

 

[Polos Mum]

Thanks all, I have 4 but also another 2.5 acres on the other side of the yard (in three fields with stone walls so not suitable for tracks).

I'm in Yorkshire - it is wet - this morning there's a good sized river running down the hill.

When you say hard standing - concrete (v expensive and slippy in cold), pea gravel would disappear, limestone big stones then rolled to make some sort of surface?
Quality fencing is 12.50 + VAT a meter so that's eye watering in itself.

I've a feeling we're talking well into five figures ? or am I over thinking. Or is track really only a summer / dry weather option - realistically.

How wide and long a track might be sensible for 4 horses ?

 

[MissTyc]

I have 1 acre - mine is a weird shape, but my biggest cost was the fence energisers for the inner bits that can't be connected to the main fence. Totally worth the investment; I love it! I have a few permanent posts as corner posts; otherwise electric. As my energisers deliver a heck of a zap, I only have one strand of electric for the track and they don't break through.

 

[windand rain]

Fencing with permanent fencing will be eyewatering I have a track we have two fences about a meter apart run on a large mains energiser, the outer one is four strands of rope and is 4ft high the inner one is three strands of rope about 3ft high. We recently changed to wooden posts with a single fence with two ropes one side two ropes alternately the other side and a top rope to stop them leaning over to the grass. costs were about £350 per post 7 meters apart. Rope 200 meter rolls from the uk country store in Arbroath was £26 including 50 pigtails. we have 3 fat ponies on a u shaped track around about an acre but do strip graze into the center all summer. Our soil is sandy and well drained but overlies clay so can get water logged in eccesive rain. The track at the top of the field never gets waterlogged so we use that in winter

 

[ester]

For hardstanding I just meant hardcore down, prob would need planning though? Not sure on that!


We fenced the perimeter of ours into 2 paddocks 16 years ago, it really needs redoing but thankfully the horses are respectful. They are both ageing so we're a bit reluctant to spend that sort of outlay again and just replace the rotten posts when we need to. The track is done with electric.
Width wise, enough that they can get past and we do make sure there is a bit more space in the corners. Horse for scale

 

[Polos Mum]

Many thanks - it's a huge space in the middle then that presumably never gets used. I don't think our land would stand up to winter track without hardcore and that would need planning and totally ruin the fields forever for someone who didn't want a track.

Hmm - back to the drawing board I think as they are piling on the pounds even now - so a dry weather only track just isn't going to help them shed weight.

 

[ester]

our huge space in the middle = hay crop (sometimes with a bit of fence moving in/out to strip graze in between), then allowed to grow up as much as it can (usually not quite foggage) and they get it in two halves in winter.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Any sort of permanent surfaced track is going to be spendy. I’ve seen concrete sleepers laid down in a pro situation, but not sure how slippy they would get when it’s icy.

I have set up a mostly grass equicentral track at home for peak grass growing season, it works very well, but it would get too cut up and boggy to be a year round solution. I’ve just started strip grazing into the foggage.

 

[Polos Mum]

I will curse my old eventer who taught them all to just push through electric !!

A flexible fencing layout that can move and adjust with the mud using a few strategic corner posts sounds like the best approach.

 

[ester]

Even wooden stakes with electric would be a lot cheaper than full P+R if they would respect that a bit more? (we have that down one side). Trimmers surface isn't actually hardcore, I went nosing for pics!
I've always considered that we are lucky that ours are so good about electric, the pally does limbo by doing a front leg spread but no more than that. Careful about always having it on though.

 

[Polos Mum]

Thanks ester, I may well give it a go. I've not tried electric for years (other than for the pigs) because it wasn't worth the constant faff of collecting them from where they weren't supposed to be. Maybe without the big man's "leadership" they might have forgotten how easy it is to wander through with a few pings being worth the 2 hours of grass until they are spotted.

 

[NLPM]

If you want the beautiful sort of track that Graveney and Gawsworth have, then easily five figures unfortunately.

The Horse Track System group on FB is worth joining if you aren't in it already? Plenty of people with private tracks on there who just don't have the budget of the track livery yards.


I have a dry weather only track in my summer field - I set up a grass one 'just to see' & it's now permanent (still grass). My farrier said they looked the best he'd ever seen them after they'd been on it a few months. This year the vet condition-scored all of them between 2.5 and 3 at the end of August (OK, one Shettie is a little barrel and was borderline 3-3.5) so overall I was pleased with that. Really pleased with the EMS horse who was previously 4.

Ours is 40mm electric tape with wooden posts - bought online and banged them in a few at a time as and when last winter, ready for spring. 8m wide at most points, down to 5m in a couple of places around the trees. Wider than many I think, but works for us.

The middle bit is going to hopefully keep them occupied on bonfire night! Then they'll go onto our winter fields.

I know that doesn't necessarily help you now as winter is on its way, but just wanted to say maybe don't write it off completely for next year if you have winter and summer grazing, which it sounds like you do? Or if the middle bit is big enough to sustain them over winter.

 

[NLPM]

Sorry that's so long! I wrote it over about half an hour whilst also doing other things and didn't notice it was becoming quite so long and rambling....

 

[chaps89]

It's probably the wrong sort of time of year for doing one now unless going for the full works with hard-core etc, but doesn't mean it couldn't be done successfully next year.
I don't intend to have mine up over winter.
My hope is it will be up, weather/ground conditions dependant, march-october/November.
It's been enough to slim mine down this year.
I have one pony who will go through fencing, another who will go over so I had to do my fencing properly.
When I first did it, it wasn't sufficient.
I re-did it and it has, so far, done the job.
My posts aren't spread very far apart so the tape doesn't push very well, I've also rotated/alternated which way they face which has helped them not pop the tape out .
I also put 2 strands of tape fairly close together towards the lower part of the posts to discourage pushing through then a row of rope along the top/highest attachment to discourage the jumper.
I went for the high performance tape which has better quality conductors and have a car battery attached.
I don't know how well this compared to your previous set up where they pushed through it all though, but it might be some adjustments could be made to make it more of a deterrent to yours?
I've also seen people zig-zag their tape so there is no room for the horse to climb through. That worked for me when I had an escape artist yearling earlier this summer.
So far it's worked for me - but I always get serious envy when I see people posting pictures of their horses out in fields with the tiny 4ft posts and one row of loopy tape containing their horse!

 

[Polos Mum]

Definitely something I can plot over the winter. It's just a shame where we are the dry ground is now where near as long a period of time as the flush grass growth season. Right now it's having another flush and looks luminous in my garden but the ground is soaking.
I have borrowed sheep in some fields to get rid of some but I'd like to balance what I have with what then need- somehow!

The boy that thought electric fence didn't apply to him is sadly no longer with us. He was 17.2 and I saw him limbo under, jump a massive spread over where I'd double fenced (or bounce over if too far apart) or just walk calmly straight through if wearing a rug ! The others would then follow him once he'd shown them how. I once even taped posts to each other to make them double tall - before I gave up on electric with him!

I will give it a go with the others in the spring, hopefully they have forgotten his tricks.

 

[windand rain]

this was prior to doing the new wooden post and rope.
this is the wooden post with alternate sides with rope

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

There are a couple of FB groups for "Track" systems; I'm on one and its really helpful! Gives you all sorts of ideas.

We put ours onto a Track in the Spring; strip-grazing wasn't sufficient to keep weight of the fatty-cobs and both were diagnosed by my vet as morbidly obese and in serious danger of developing laminitis unless their regime changed. So change it did!

There are people that will (at cost!! - and it ain't cheap!) come and give you a "consultation" about how to start-up your track; however, best is if you can to go and have a look at a few and see how they did it and take some ideas away. Or as I say, join a few FB "Track" groups.

Costings? Mmmm difficult one this, as you may well need some more electric fencing poles & tape/rope, certainly to start with. I have my own land and the electricity comes from a mains energiser - we had to really think and get our heads around how we could utilise this to do all of the track - as unlike a mobile energiser the mains unit (obviously!) isn't movable. However, we did manage it.

For the winter, we're going to be planning a slightly different track to try and avoid the boggy bits of the field; it will be fun planning it!

I'd deffo go for track again! Horses are loving it and they're at a good correct weight now.