how to prevent horses chewing my wooden fencing

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coralwings20

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i have approx 8 acres of fields with the outer being wooden fencing. there are several liveried horses that are chewing it to bits. there is no point in me putting up a top bit of electric fencing as horse just chews the next rail down. would applying creasote to every bit of wood help? i have no problem speding days applying as horses are making my fencing look horrendus & tbf some liveries have actually put up extra fencing to prevent - its more about the ones who say they cant afford to get fencing/apply cribox ect.

thanks in advance as needs sorting asap as my poor fencing is having a breakdown.... :-(
 
Give them an alternative source of wood to chew - branches etc dotted around the fields for example. They like willow - the bark contains aspirin so if they are feeling a bit stiff that's what they will go for.
Also I have in the past dotted Cribox along the fence - only a dab every few feet, but once they have tasted it they don't want to ever again and they don't know where it is. Works up to a point, but the branches will really help.
 
Yes, apply creasote, but also think about running an electric fence inside the fencing - so that they can't actually reach it ( I would not charge your liveries for this - this is all part and parcel of managing your land).

How many horses do you have on the 8 acres??
 
Have they got hay the field? The only time I've known horses to be insistent wood chewers is when they're hungry. Rebel managed to almost destroy my wooden fencing on the night they ran out of hay :eek: He was newly arrived and obviously quite stressed so needed plenty of fiber to settle his stomach acid.
 
thanks guys - this is my winter only grazing as is sandy & horses have been living out til the snow came so no grass left :-( i have 9 horses on this 8 acres. when weather changes we can go use summer grazing which is plentiful.
just been told creasote is illegal so what else can i use?

thanks so much guys.......
 
I had a cob x termite who ate (not just chewed wood) to the point that he had no front teeth to speak of. The only thing that slowed him down was a relentless programme of creosoting - I used gallons of the stuff.
 
The only real way of keeping them off is electric. You can get insulators that stick out so the electric is inside the perimeter rather than along the top so this should keep them off both rails.
 
coralwings20 said:
thanks guys - this is my winter only grazing as is sandy & horses have been living out til the snow came so no grass left :-( i have 9 horses on this 8 acres. when weather changes we can go use summer grazing which is plentiful.
just been told creasote is illegal so what else can i use?
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No wonder you have a problem.

Are you putting hay out for them?
 
If they have no grass and no hay, of course they'll be chewing the fence! Put bale or two of hay in with them (in a feeder so they don't just destroy it!). The wood chewing will stop stop straight away, unless it's already become a habit :(
 
amymay, they are diy so not sure how much hay is going out. i pride myself on not dictating what owners do with there horses. thus offer all year 24/7 turnout but obviously only have 24 acres in total for horses. grass not growing atm & horses been out 24/7 for a few months so grass will be sparse. i wish i had more land but have to cope with what ive got.

& cob x termite - sounds like a little pony we have :-)

am off to a tack shop/hardware store to have a snout....

is creosote illegal then?
 
I have 5 gelding out during the day on about 18 acres, they are eating their way through the fencing also. One of them stood and ate a branch in front of me the other day, which the dog had left on top of a heston bale of hay!

I wonder if it is also a seasonal thing. Mine don't have a lot of grass but enough to prevent complete starvation.
 
thing is hay or no hay in the field, ive seen one ripping the fence to shreds - maybe its a boredom thing as all horses get at least 10 hours turnout in the snow if not living out 24/7?!
 
Some will chew the fence anyway as its now become a habit. But if they are doing it en mass then you have a problem. Also put a salt block out in case they're lacking minerals.
 
Love the cob x termite! I call my horse Holly the beaver as she chewed a round fence post into a point like a pencil and it snapped. She does this when she's hungry, we have put more haylage out and chewing has stopped.
 
coralwings20 said:
amymay, they are diy so not sure how much hay is going out. i pride myself on not dictating what owners do with there horses. thus offer all year 24/7 turnout but obviously only have 24 acres in total for horses. grass not growing atm & horses been out 24/7 for a few months so grass will be sparse. i wish i had more land but have to cope with what ive got.

& cob x termite - sounds like a little pony we have :-)

am off to a tack shop/hardware store to have a snout....

is creosote illegal then?
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Creosote is restricted rather than illegal - it is no longer on sale to joe public but farms and fencing contractors can buy it. If you have a holding number you would def be able to get it, and even without you may be able to. There isn't really a substitute that is as good.

If a specific horse constantly causes damage then that isn't wear and tear and IMO they would either need to be in a smaller electric fence paddock at owners cost or owner pays for replacing the fence parts periodically.
 
Definately creosote is the way forward. I have had had couple of fence eaters and they do it even when there is a plentiful supply of hay. The last creosote I bought was from ebay but I think most farm outlets have it. Its brilliant for keeping redmite away from hen houses too !
 
coralwings20 said:
thing is hay or no hay in the field, ive seen one ripping the fence to shreds - maybe its a boredom thing as all horses get at least 10 hours turnout in the snow if not living out 24/7?!
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It's more likely to be the number of horses on a small area.

As for the DIY aspect, mmm I can see the issue here with regards hay in the field.

However, if you are unable to provide adequate grazing, and are basically letting people do what they want there may be a time where you do have to dictate what goes on - in the interests of the welfare of the horses.

In your shoes, I'd put a round bale of hay in the field and charge the liveries a tenner each for it.
 
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There was a thread on here earlier showing what one inventive owner had done to create offsets for a single strand of electric out of sections of alkathene water pipe. Electricity will cure the problem permanently while creosote will be just another job that needs doing every year.
 
I put the Rockies Reds out and have found that providing the horses have enough hay during the day this stopped mine from chewing the fences. There were obviously missing a trace element of something as they stopped immediately.
 
We have 4 horses on 20 acres. Plenty of grass, ad lib hay, rock salt licks dotted about the place and 2 of them still attack the trees. Have painted cribox on and 1 of them will still do it. Have had to electric fence the trees off.
 
Horses chewing trees is exhibiting natural behaviour though copperpot. Why would you seek to prevent them.

Wood chewing generally is natural behaviour - however in this instance the reasons are almost certainly down to no grass.
 
I had the same problem with one habitual chewer (developed the habit before she came to me) - I went to the local farm suppliers and bought "Creocote", which smells exactly the same as creosote and did the job with just one coat. Hey presto, one cured horsey;) And fencing looks like one of those posh estates LOL

Good luck, it will be very therapeutic painting 8 acres worth:D
 
Ours chew the fences despite having 12 acres for 5 of them, hay morning and evening, and plenty of browse and trees to nibble on - they're just a PITA :rolleyes:

Best and cheapest I've found is to make a 'paint' out of horse poo and a bit of water and liberally apply to fencing (after all, not like there's a shortage of poo!) You have to reapply every so often as it gets washed off, but the horses really don't like it - ha ha ha - in your face horses :D :D
 
You can purchase something called Creocoat I think now from most DIY shops and fencing suppliers. It smells horrible just like the real thing. :rolleyes: I was told creosote was now banned also. I would go with the inner electric fencing though and put a strand on the top and a strand inside the other rail. It doesn't have to be tape, use just the thin rope and if you buy the insulators in bulk online it will be a fraction of the cost of replacing the post and rail! I also agree with other posters - if you supply some good wood for them to chew as an alternative this will also help the problem. I had a serial chewer when he was teething and I got some really hefty branches for him. It did help :D Good Luck!
 
I found that painting creosote onto the fence just made it worse as fast as I painted it on the horses followed along chewing it off. I tried bitter apple but they liked that even better. so I fenced the wooden fencing off from the horses with an electric fence three foot inside the wooden one
 
Can't quote but I did wonder about the horse poo idea Stencilface. Only as I've left some poo on a ledge in the stable of one of mine who has the odd nibble and it's worked a treat.
 
I put big branches in for mine, they loved to pick at them. I would attack from both angles, paint the fence with yucky stuff but also provide an alternative nibbling source.
 
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