New fencing - what would you have for preference?

catembi

catembi

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We are (everything crossed!) hoping to buy a bigger property with more land soon. The fencing of this particular property will need replacing. If you could start from scratch & have anything you wanted - what would you have? To contain one TB and one Shetland, and at some stage once I've finished my doctorate, A.N. Other. Land is flat.

At home at the moment, I've got post & rail throughout. This is fine for my two; when I had Adrian it wasn't so fine as he used to try & graze on the other side & leaned on the fence until he broke it. I planted a hedge 4 years ago, so there is now electric fence all the way round to stop it being eaten until it's established, which also keeps everyone away from the post & rail.

At a previous location, there was some post & rail & some plain wire. The late Catembi got his foot over the wire, panicked, nicked an artery & severed a nerve & was lucky to survive.

Another previous location had sheep netting, which used to catch rug fastenings & pull off shoes - although we are now b/f.

Barbed wire shreds rugs.

Electric fence is a PITA & I don't like how it looks - I have the rope.

So what would be best if starting from scratch? Preferably cost-effective & not too much of a pain to maintain. Rough costs appreciated!
 
Hmmm what would I have? Tricky question because post and rail when kept well does look smart but we have now added electric rope and long stemmed ring insulators around each paddock and just move the energiser when we change paddocks. It looks smart and going forward will save us a fortune in constantly replacing broken and damaged rails. We have shared post and rail and neighbours adjoining paddocks which are all post and rail so are just sticking to post and rail with electric.
 
Post and rail with electrified tape neatly attached to the inside of the top rail with long stem insulators, and a very effective energizer. That would be my ideal, as I have an itchy one and a fence leaner!
 
How many strands of tape/rope do you have, & what rails do you have them on?

I do hate faffing about with electric fence, but I have a mains energiser, etc, and the field will be near enough to mains for it to be perfectly feasible.

Do you paint your post & rail? I have previously done mine, but it took gallons & gallons of paint and took **forever**.
 
DO you need to keep dogs in too??

If so, then horse friendly netting, with a top rail, and offset electric rope.

If not, then post & rail with offset electric rope.

FIona
 
I have three rail post and rail and the electric rope runs around the top sticking into the field. I think it looks smart with the long stemmed insulators and they are permanent so each paddock is identical and i just have to move the energiser to whichever paddock they are in.

Creocote to stain and protect once a year, bi yearly if you feel lazy ;) And f you put post and rail in atleast creosote/creocote the bottom of each post before putting it in the ground to help protect it from rotting.
 
Ifi could choose and have the money and time to maintain I would have post and rail with electric fence on the inside and a tall hedge to provide some shelter
 
I woudl do post and and rail and plant a hedge to grow around this as I think this gives optimal security with a nice look ewhen hedge has grown and the post and rail can fade into/provide support for hedge.
Or plastic post and rail - less maintenance!
 
A yard near me has Horserail (I think that is what it is called) with hedges behind it around the perimeter of the property. The Horserail is plastic about the depth of a wooden rail to it looks like p&r until you get up very close. It has a certain amount of give in it if the horse decides to try to bounce of it. You can electrify it as well. If every I can afford to replace my fencing this is what I would go for. Low maintenance and very effective.
 
I would also buy plastic post and rails in white if money were no object

In the ral world I would use a horse safe netting with a top rail. This would also be useful if you may later decide to get sheep for land management as those babies can morph through walls!
 
Try looking up the high tensile polymer fencing. Seen it recently and it gives the appearance of rails but doesn't require the maintenance, I think you can even get some that has electric through it as well. Haven't a clue on price though.
 
Would white STAY white though, or would it go all grubby...?

Aarrggghhh, too much choice! Horse safe netting with a top rail is starting to look like the way to go, with an electric top strand. But would a top strand be too high to bother the Shetland?

When the dogs went on holiday recently while the yard was being resurfaced, the boarding place had this, & it looked very tidy, & dog-proof as well as horse-proof. (I have 3 Rotties.)
 
The shetland is your main issue I think ;) I suspect the rubber strip rails are potentially an option but not for a shetland!

So usually the stop strand of electric is just to protect the top rail (we have this and it works fine, though occasionally they have gone for a bottom rail chew (we just stick some wire up and wire it in) If the shetland can't reach the top strand then it's fine regardless ;). If you want to keep shetland away from the netting you'd need another rail and a stand off insulator.
 
eggs said:
A yard near me has Horserail (I think that is what it is called) with hedges behind it around the perimeter of the property. The Horserail is plastic about the depth of a wooden rail to it looks like p&r until you get up very close. It has a certain amount of give in it if the horse decides to try to bounce of it. You can electrify it as well. If every I can afford to replace my fencing this is what I would go for. Low maintenance and very effective.
Click to expand...

I have seen that stuff at shows, it looks great. Don't know anyone who has it though, to know whether it is as great as it sounds. In my lottery-winning fantasy life, that's the fencing I have in my horses at home rural paradise!
 
eggs said:
A yard near me has Horserail (I think that is what it is called) with hedges behind it around the perimeter of the property. The Horserail is plastic about the depth of a wooden rail to it looks like p&r until you get up very close. It has a certain amount of give in it if the horse decides to try to bounce of it. You can electrify it as well. If every I can afford to replace my fencing this is what I would go for. Low maintenance and very effective.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine has this around winter turnout paddocks, her young horse somehow managed to go through it, ended up with it trapped between her front legs and caused a very nasty injury to her sternum.

For that reason I'd stick with the post and rail with offset insulators and leci fencing
 
We fenced my old place from scratch - boundary for 12 acres - cost a fortune, I looked at horse netting then but went traditional post and rail with electric around the top in the end mostly because it looks nicer. The overall cost was about the same.

I regretted it - maintenance on horse netting is much less (horses leaning on and snapping rails, eating the rails below the top rail, electric needs replacing every few years as the wind breaks the wires etc. etc.) and we ended up putting sheep netting behind the post and rail to allow sheep to graze and keep the dog in (sheep are my best friend when it comes to field maintenance)

If I was in the same situation I'd certainly do netting - the guy I met had photos of cars crashed into it that had bounce off and the holes at the bottom were far too small for a shoe to get through.
 
We have 4 rail, post and rail with electric fencing on the top rail on long insulators. its connected to the mains, which I think makes a big difference. Its stopped the youngsters even attempting to jump it, and has stopped them scratching on it too. We paint it every year, with a fabulous woodstain, with a nice sheen to it, so it always looks great. When we first moved in it was horrible sheep netting, and one of the horses was constantly getting its back leg ( the shoe) caught in it.
 
It took me absolutely **forever** to paint mine - I was out there hours & hours & hours & still didn't get it all finished both sides! Plus, even though it wasn't cheap, the rails seem to twist & warp so it doesn't look as smart as I'd like.
 
catembi said:
It took me absolutely **forever** to paint mine - I was out there hours & hours & hours & still didn't get it all finished both sides! Plus, even though it wasn't cheap, the rails seem to twist & warp so it doesn't look as smart as I'd like.
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The beauty of having a teenage son. he 'happily' did it for a few pounds this year. Mines been up for 4 years, and no warping/twisting.
 
I have really really good quality post and rail. Creosoted in the factory before installation, the biggest posts and fattest rails we could buy....it cost a fortune but was totally worth the investment.

In the four years it's been in I have had to replace only one rail and I've had a very itchy maxi cob, several youngsters, a 'grass is always greener or the other side' fence leaner, silly TBs and one that'll crib occasionally - he has never cribbed on this.

3 rails around the perimeter of our land, and 2 rails for the internal divisions:

22384095_693863404145163_2501123738951439742_o.jpg


Was worried when I got the shetland this year that she would be able to crawl under the 2 rail fencing but it is just about low enough (she is a standard shetland)
20645125_668234226708081_881992174450405309_o.jpg
 
We have got the tornado wire with electric rope along the top. Works a treat and no more replacing post and rails all the time
 
I have 5ft tornado round 3 of my 4 boundaries, works really well. I have a line of wide tape set above it, so top of fencing is 6ft.
To stop the minis itching on it in the spring, I have tape on temp posts on the inside right close up to it.
Internal dividing fences are sawn post and rail (gets creosoted every 2 to 3 yrs) and permanent electric tape attached on both sides to it, again to prevent tinies from itching rails off.
6 bar metal gates with rolled bars complete the job.
 
I have the tornado netting with electric at the top.
My posts have just started to rot in places, so it is easy to replace just them as the netting is still taut and will not need redoing, so new posts can just be put in.
By choice, I am having 7’ posts, and conskdering the option of these post saver sleeves as they should make the posts last much longer:http://www.postsaver.com/Postsaver-Fence-Sleeves.html
 
Wow, nice fencing, DMY!

And thank you for the tip re post sleeves. I have just had the pleasure of replacing some not very old posts which have rotted at ground level.
 
I'd back anything up with a new hedge! No fencing lasts forever, but if you plant a hedge now, you will hopefully have a good, stock proof hedge when your fence needs replacing!
 
We've just (start of the year) had post-and-3-rail around the outer perimeter of our paddocks, with sheep netting from ground to the second rail. I subsequently added electric rope around the inside of the top rail after a few - more than a few -broken rails. P&R wasn't cheap but it looks good and suits the surrounding country.
 
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