To fence or not to fence around a school?

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lostmymarbles

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Have been asked by yard owner for opinions about fencing around a school, hopefully about 35 x 65 size wise.

They are thinking about building an additional school and can't decide if it should be fenced or not. The original school does have a fence and this can be used for lunging and free schooling.

Would be interested to hear views on 'the fence issue' Thanks
 
I think schools look much nicer without fencing, however i feel fencing is much much more secure, for if you come off and the horse does a runner! And horses (Especially babies) that are known/ or could possibly bolt atleast having a fence up can put them off going any further!
 
Why not do the French solution. Ours is fenced with wide white electric tape on wooden posts. It is not electrified but horses respect it. Cheaper and easy to take down put up.

I even loose school our stallions in there.
 
I prefer an unfenced school for ridden work, because IMHO it is safer. Falling off onto the fence is painful!

However, a fence is very useful for containing a horse, and is pretty much essential if the arena is set in among paddocks containing other horses and livestock. A good compromise would be to have a fence which is set well back from the perimeter of the arena, in which case you get the best of both worlds.

I see your yard already has a fenced school for lunging etc, that is good and I would always opt for a fence in that scenario.

My arena at home is fenced, because the general layout at home makes that much more practical. It is, however, a 'leaning fence' design, with extra kick boards which are angled away from the arena surface. I prefer this to a conventional vertical arena fence, as my leg is much less likely to crash into it when I ride right into the corners! My farrier was admiring it only yesterday, saying how much safer it was. He has seen a number of nasty injuries in which a horse has got its leg caught in between conventional low, upright kick boards and the fence.
 
It depends if majority of people on yard do dressage or eventing then having an arena without sides can be of great advantage as you can practice more realistically compared to always being fenced in
 
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