Living out - advice for new field needed please x

[CeeBee]

My field is rapidly running out of grass and needs time to rest.
I have been offered a field next door, which is unfenced and also has ragwort.
I am having some wooden posts put in and I intend to use electric rope to fence it off.
Within my current field, I use plastic posts and electric tape, so if it does come down, they are not going anywhere other than the field. So I am hoping that rope is more secure.
I am just about to buy the rope and insulators etc. What else do I need? I have been looking on Ebay and there are things like ‘rope tensioners’ and ‘rope connectors’ etc. If you were going to do the same, what would you buy?

Then there is the ragwort…
I can see a few bits growing and will use my fork to pull out what I can see. There is plenty of grass, so am I correct in saying that the horses are unlikely to eat the ragwort unless it is a last resort?

Any advice on the above gratefully received, thank you!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

is there anything secure to make the corners taut with? the corner bits you can get with electric fencing are OK but not great, and if its the single line of defence it needs to be strong. I would still use tape (the thick 40mm not the 20mm, too tangly), rope is too strong IMO if the horse gets tangled, I d rather they were loose than strangled by that stuff.

In fields where you cant put permanent wooden corner posts in properly, you can use angle iron (strip of thick steel, has a 90 degree angle bend down its length, available from proper builders merchants, blacksmiths etc. This is hammered in (and then can be covered with foam insulation etc to cover any exposed metal). Ideally get someone with a tractor bucket or post knocker to knock it in but it can be done by hand. It will be a lot more solid and enable you to get the fence tauter hence safer.

Obviously not ideal with some ragwort evidence. Dont rely on the horses not eating it as it takes so little to kill, pull up every plant (use gloves or a ragfork not a normal fork as it will leave the roots behind) and do it every day if poss cos it pops up so quickly.

As well as tape/rope/posts/insulators you will prob want a gate kit with a stretchy spring loaded hook and obviously also an energiser, battery and earthing stake, as well a battery charger (you might already have a lot of this).

Really recommend Rappa for all the electric fencing stuff, esp their energisers which have a chargemeter on them so you can see exactly how much juice battery has left, and they deliver free and quick too. good prices as well. If you dont get an energiser with a meter built in, you will need a charge meter that you can use on the fence.

 

[Booboos]

Horses are unlikely to eat ragwort if they have other food BUT you still need to pull it out. Any ragwort you leave this year will only produce three times as much ragwort next year! It's unlikely that you will be able to pull it all in one go, you will need to keep an eye on it every week. Remember to use gloves and dispose of it properly (ideally burn it).

As for the rope, personally I have to say I much prefer tape. Tape can be as secure as rope in terms of being blown away by the wind, while rope can cause bad injuries if the horses try to go through it or over it.

 

[picolenicole]

I fenced my old field with wooden post's in the corners and "gateways" then used plastic posts and electric rope. Also used the insulators on the wooden posts and that was it worked really well.

The ragwort thing I would say your horses will only eat it if they were about to starve to death.

 

[ester]

another who would prefer tape to rope, though when I looked up the breaking strengths they werent as different as I thought but having heard the stories from rope

tape does have more of a tendency to stretch so will need checking and retightening more frequently and it depends how long your run as to whether to include a tensioner or not. We are post and rail apart from one bit to fence off a ditch which is posts with 40mm tape in a straight line, I only have to tighten it once a year.

 

[miac]

Horses will not generally eat the ragwort;BUT you should never give then the chance to!

Re the fencing, I would personally prefer 40mm tape than rope, if the worse should happen and the horse/ pony gets cought up in the rope , it doesn't give as much as tape, and rope can leave a nasty mess on horses legs as it will leave rope burns .
Make sure the tape is supported onto a wooden fence post on each corner so it stays tort and it shoudn't come down. I would run two lines of tape, one on the top of the plastic fence post and the other half way down.
Hpoe that make sence and I didn't ramble too much! B-)

 

[CeeBee]

Excellent advice, thank you. I was about to purchase a load of rope, but will go for the 40mm tape instead now .
I have an excellent energiser that gives a really good zap and use a leisure battery so it lasts for ages. This tends to keep the horses well away from the fence - it bl**dy hurts as I regularly find out when I forget to turn it off!
Will be going round the field with a fine toothcomb looking for ragwort before they go in, but hopefully they will be happy with everything else they can eat.