Permanent Fencing recommendations

[Wheels]

I have a 4-5ish acre field which has good fencing and hedges all of the way round but I am looking at ways of being able to partition the field off into sections & possibly a walkway between fields to the stables.

I would like these to be permanent fences (or at least good strong semi-permanent) so I am looking at electric fencing and wooden posts. The area I live in can be pretty windy so I'm trying to stay away from electric tape.

Is electric wire a definite no-no when it comes to horses or is it OK if you have lots of rows or if you combine it with another type of fencing? I don't want to cut corners but I don't want to end up paying a fortune either.

I don't want post and rail but are there any other decent alternatives that look nice without costing the earth?

 

[diet2ride]

Where I am now has posts with thick brown tape... It can be quite windy here and I,ve never seen a problem with it. It also looks pretty smart. And doesn't weather as bad as standard post and rail (my friend has spent thousands in the past couple of years on fencing and she's constantly replacing posts where the horses have eaten it or kicked through).

 

[Paddy Irish]

I do wooden posts and electric fence tape , ( it's only electrified around the shetlands though for obvious reasons!!) I have found some brilliant screw-in insulators for the lecy tape which sort of clamps it so it's nice and tight , fab even on the most windy of days , they are made but a company called Rutland , would highly recommend them .

Also these insulators will take electric rope as well ( if you really wanted to stay away from tape ..

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

electric tape or electric rope is fine, and if used with wooden posts you shouldnt have sagginess. But dont use plain wire electrified, thats designed for cattle who generally get themselves into a lot fewer tangles with fencing than horses do.

 

[Wheels]

& what sort of distance apart are your wooden posts?

I also need to be able to keep a shetland from manouvering himself around the entire field so is 3 rows the ticket or do they really need 4?

 

[ironhorse]

We've got 2in wide tape and wooden posts at our yard at about 2m gaps. We only use two rows, and it kept a shetland in place over the winter - his replacement who is 12hh also seems to respect it.
It's also pretty windy where we are and we've never had any problems. As long as the electric current is good, even my thug like 3yo stays inside it. The only issue we ever had was with the massive deer in the area - they are rubbish jumpers and two days running a stag managed to pull a section of fence out by the posts as he failed to clear it!

 

[Stinkbomb]

I have minis and my fields are half hedge and half electric fencing. Around the perimeter i have 5 strands of fencing as there are large horses grazed adjacent to my fields. However i only have the bottom and the two top ones electrified to prevent limboing and crawling through On this i use a wooden post every three plastic ones. We are very windy where we are and as long as the tape is tight we dont have a problem.......

I also seperate the insides of my field in summer and only use three stands as there are no other horses on the other side. I dont use woodens posts ( except at either end ) very rarley electrify this one

I get my fencing from Paddock perfection on ebay, excellent quality cheaper than a shop

 

[Paddy Irish]

I think ( although i'd have to check ) my posts are roughly 6 or 7 feet apart , i do have three lines where the shetlands are but only 2 for the biggies . when i only had 2 lines round the shets i would find that Tilly would try and eat under the mid line tape and where her head went her body would soon follow! so we now have a bottom strand. I use an electric fence post as a template to make sure all the insulators are the same height ( i like it to look really neat - sad i know)

 

[YasandCrystal]

We have 5 acres. We fenced the perimeter with sheep wire ( I know equestrian wire would have been better, but 3 times price) and plain wire with wide tape at the top. Like you state regarding the wind - the tape has taken a bashing and has almost severed through in places. We have an 8 to 10 metre ride between the outer and inner fencing.
We have just this spring fenced 5 internal paddocks and used 2 lines of electric rope and a rail top for the outer fencing and 3 lines of rope for the inner divisions. The posts are 3" rounds all 12' apart. We are very pleased with the result.

 

[miss-kip]

We use wooden post and electric rope. It is very windy at ours and the electric tape even with the insulators that clamp it in place were absolutely useless and a waste of money.

The rope has been great though.

 

[irish_only]

We use wooden post and electric rope. It is very windy at ours and the electric tape even with the insulators that clamp it in place were absolutely useless and a waste of money.

The rope has been great though.

I'm in the middle of changing all mine to rope because of wind damage to tape, although that has lasted about five years. The plus side of rope is it is much easier to tension, and you can use short lengths of hosepipe stapled onto the wooden posts as insulators saving lots of money.