No place for barb wire around horses

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1985

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My conclusion! I just cannot see the point/need for it at all. Barb wire fencing around a field, surely the only way a horse will "learn" to stay away, is to hurt itself/encounter the barb wire, and then think twice about it again? One of the liveries horses has come in with a nasty scrape/gouge on its nose, and little gashes on its chest, totally avoidable (or as near as, horses will be horses after all!). Just dont understand it. Anyone agree/disagree, maybe I am just being soft?!
 
Totally agree, they have it at the last yard I was at, total waste of time, doesn't keep horses in or people (twwats) out, just costs in cuts and scrapes and particularly ruins your soddin rugs flysheets ect all the time :mad:
 
Ditto to all the above.
When we purchased our field 5 years ago it had barbed wire nailed to all the post and rail, so before i even thought about horse searching we romoved it. Would never put a horse in a field with it!
Kate x
 
Completely agree. My YO says he puts it at the top of rails to stop them chewing it, but
1. I tend not to see horses chewing the wood.
2. Electric fences do the same job and arn't a safety risk.

I have the only field with electric fence (so it's not like he isn't set up to use electric fence) and no barbed wire.

Also feel the same way about sheep wire. Seen a horse rip its foot to shreds by putting foot through it and dragging it back out.
 
I agree, there is absolutely NO reason to use barbed wire near horses. Even fully tensioned it can cause serious injuries.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
If mine had to be a field fenced with barbed wire, I should put electric fencing inside it.
Click to expand...

We've got a path that doesn't belong to the yard alongside one side of the field and that has barbed wire.

So there's electric about 18" inside to keep the horses off it.

Agree about sheep wire too, can get caught inside the shoe if a horse puts a foot through.
 
That happens to one naughty horse at our yard all the time, he puts his foot through, pulls it back under his shoe, he's been stuck before by both front legs through the sheep wire :/
 
Unfortunately one of my fields has barbed wire fencing so I run electric fence along the inside of it to keep them off. I hate the stuff but I am not allowed to take it down (I rent my fields) so I am stuck!

On the other hand though, someone I have spoken to recently swears by the stuff and will never use anything else. They used to use post and rail but after one of their horses was pts after impailing himself on a broken rail, he wont use it again so only uses barbed wire fencing now!
 
I don't like it but I do have it down one side of my field, not my choice, I don't have a say in it, maybe if I come up with a few thousand pounds to replace it all I might be allowed.
 
90% of our fields back home are barbed wire, with blackthorn hedges grown up around it, with the odd bare bit of wire if the hedge peeters out. The wire is kept taut and in 40 odd years of keeping horses there we haven't had any issues.
 
Use of barb wire is regulated in some countries for animal welfare reasons. When looking for livery yards for my horse I was surprised to see how many yards use it, several places also had some wire on the ground or hanging slack. I prefer other types of fencing but it was a lot harder to avoid than I thought.

I have also seen a deer run into sheep netting at night and bounce back, had it been barb wire it would have been nasty. I wonder how the barb wire impacts on wildlife.
 
i really dont like it but i rent a field so really not my place to take it down if i had the option i would , but i have to say with what fencing you have any fencing can cause a serious injury , more then others , i have seen injurys caused by other fencing ,
post and rail, sheep wire, electric fencing , metal gates can cause serious injury so if you think you may have safe fencing please do remember any type of fencing can cause serious injurys not just barb wire .
 
I have barbed wire over netting in some fields, admittedly horses don't get turned out in them... but I have found that it's the only way we can keep bulling heifers in - they will push through pretty much anything else in order to get to a bull several fields away...
 
I don't like it, however we have it around some of our fields. I have to say, we haven't had many injuries, one was my fault (Slippery grass, lunging and horse slipped under the fence :eek:). I have known a foal to knock itself clean out on post and rail, and have heard of horses being pts after impaling themselves :(

Same with electric fencing, we have that too, but if the wire gets wrapped around a leg it can easily become too taught to get off :confused:

There are risks from all types of fencing imo, of course some are better than others.
 
Completely agree with Ischa. Any and every type of fencing has the potential to cause injury.
 
We still have some around our field boundaries that we have yet to replace. In 20 years of keeping horses there (yes, you'd think we'd have replcaed it all by now woulnd't you, but not yet!) we have only ever had one horse damage himself on it - and he was a typical accident prone TB anyway, so don't think he counts ;)

most of our field boundaries with sheep netting and barbed wire - to keep the neighboring farmers sheep/cows out runs along old stone walls/hedges anyway.

Yes, I'd love some smart post and rail fencing - but you can't have everything :)
 
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