Slightly boring questions about renewing fences

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GoodLineNotSquare

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But as we have ~700m to renew, I think any suggestions will be useful.

We've recently moved into a house with 5-6 acres, split across 3 paddocks. The paddocks were set up 12 years ago on former arable land, with a mix of post-and-rail fencing and hedges backed/fronted with horse netting (the latter mainly on a boundary facing a neighbour's paddock).

I've spent quite a lot of time out with screwdriver and replacement wood patching up the p&r fencing, and wedging wobbly posts, and we're read that 10 years is generally considered the usable lifetime of wooden fencing. Also, Mrs GLNS's cob has a knack of sticking his head between the rails to reach the grass in the adjacent field and wrenching the top rail off on the way out. If that bit of p&r goes, it's going to be an awkward discussion with the currently friendly neighbouring farm as to why exactly our horses are wandering around in their OSR field.

We're waiting on one quote and have a second potential contractor booked in.

What would you do? I've seen suggestions for PVC fencing, using horse netting with a top rail, using post & 3 rails vs post & 4 rails... What keeps your horses from straying?
 
We had a paddock re fenced over the summer, the side facing the road has netting with a top rail designed to make sure our dog can't stray, and the rest is post and three rails.

I'm more than happy with the look of both but maybe netting with rail if your horses aregood at escaping...

Fiona
 
A little tip when nailing rails on,use as long a nail as possible with a large head, put the nails in on an angle then the rails can't be pulled of easily. Or use long screws.
 
Have you considered adding a strand of electric along the top? Whatever fence you choose, or if you have to make do with the current fence for a while longer, having a strand of electric a couple inches to the inside of the fence will deter most horses from rubbing/leaning/grazing through the fence, and keep it upright longer. I would pair it with a mains energizer. Unless they jump, what keeps them inside is if they don't even want to get close to the fence for fear of a zap.
Can't say much on the various options to replace current fence - our yard has the worst patchwork of fencing with no change in sight.
 
We had our fields re-fenced.

We have three types, but all have a top wire of mains electric, works well.

I love the look of our post and rail, but tbh stock fencing is probably the longest lasting and doesn't need so much maintenance.
 
I've replaced some of my old p&r with the horse-specific stock fencing with a strand of electric tape across the top. This is higher than sheep fencing and the holes at the bottom are much smaller so they can't get a hoof through.
 
Thank you all. We're going with p&r, as I like the look, with stock fencing around the outer perimeter to dissuade the grass monster from sticking his head through. I may also go with electric rope along the top, as we have huge numbers of insulators from the previous owners.

Also blanched slightly at the estimates, but I'm comforting myself that this is a once-a-decade expense...
 
The contractors have now arrived and a large red post driver machine is crawling around the first of our paddocks. Very exciting :)

We did consider piecemeal replacement, beginning with the major fence. However, we've since found two rotted-through posts (one when the gate it was attached to blew over, fortunately not an important gate), so for our own peace of mind we're getting the whole external perimeter renewed. Fortunately we built a renovation budget into the mortgage when buying, but even so, ouch!
 
Ouch....

We've definitely done ours in little sections.. Got another bit planned for over the summer, stock proof mesh as its to keep the dog in. Blinking 8ft high hedge, and post and rail, and dog wiggled through the hedge :( :(

Good luck

Fiona
 
We seem to be endlessly building fencing every summer! Bless my dad, he cracks on with most of it!

Glad you've got them on site, great once it starts. We are reduced fencing our middle fence this summer, post, net and wire that's been up 25 years, replacing it bit by bit! Think we're going with round posts, with either tape that can be electrified, or high tensile wire in 3 rows, which has been successful on our boundary. We have a hedge growing on this fence line which beefs it up a lot!
 
I hope they are using good materials to justify the expense. You can get timber guaranteed 15 yrs wouldnt use anything else some softwood especially the cheaper stuff wont last 5yrs as you already know. You need to specify MOT motorway spec.
 
Just to add having been involved in the business unless specified contractors will always use the product that lasts the shortest time. So maybe you should cover that one now.
 
I think all the choices you suggest are good ones .
I think if I did mine again I would do the boundary with horse netting .with a rail top We have post and rails with four rails in most place some of the internal PST and rails have three ( three does make it cheaper )
We also have some permanent electric fences and some semi permanent using round wooden posts and tall electric fence stakes .
All my post and rails is protected with permanent electric rope on a mains system before we did this we had the horses damaging the fences and them selves .
When you fences off hedges remember to think about how the contractor will get them cut and site the fences accordingly.
The other thing that good is if you decide to create new paddock do it first with electric to check it works sometimes you think a small paddock will work only to fond in practise it's in the wrong place .
I have my place set up so we can use the paddocks in lots of different combinations .
 
Contractors are 80% done, and desperate to finish before the weekend. I'll bear in the mind the motorway-spec and the sleeves ideas for next time! I'm very happy with the look of the work done so far, although it occurred to me that I didn't request a dog gate in the stock netting at the stile where a footpath clips one of the fields. DIY project, I think.

Step 1 of the job was to fence a paddock we hadn't previously used thanks to not trusting a post-and-wire fence in of a slightly gappy hedge. Judging by the happy cantering when we moved the herd in there, and their reluctance to come out again, I think they're appreciating being in a field with lots of grass and much less mud. :)
 
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