What are your thoughts on sheep wire.

A

apkelly01

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What's your thoughts?

Would you or do you use it?

What injuries have you seen with it (pictures can be PM'd if you have any so I can show them to back up my claims)

Do you think it is a safe type of fencing?

Thanks
A
 
In a word no, if its up against a hedge its not too bad, but for dividing fields not a good idea, i,ve had 2 horses not at the same time and not in same field, who have nealy sliced there foot off, nasty injurys, i dont take any chances now i always ring fence with electric tape.
 
I wouldnt use it with horses. I would go for something that could not get a whole hoof through as it can cause heel injuries ifhorse gets caught and panics. Plus pulls shoes off.

I have a horse who had proud flesh on a heel injury pulled off by sheep wire. So no i wouldnt use it with horses.
 
NO (especially if the horses are shod). I haven't any pics, but have seen horses with their foot stuck through it, and others which have pulled shoes off on it and/or damaged their feet.
 
Thank you both for your input
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I personal hate it but I'm locked in battle over it with someone who can't see the danger. Normally I wouldn't give 2 hoots what someone put in their field but this time Bandit (My mare's yearling) is being put into a field with sheep wire and I'm not happy. My sister has him and she's not happy either with the sheep wire but her OH is like talking to the wall. He says it's safe for horses and doesn't know why I'm making all the fuss! He says he's never heard of a horse getting injured from it - so that's why I posted tonight to get other people's expierences so that I can show him that it is very dangerous
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Then today he said that Bandit can go in and if he is injured by the wire then he will hold his hands up and say I was right and he was wrong!!!!
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Poor Bandit! It's bad enough the poor thing is in a 10 x 10 stable with no turn out and his new turn out is dangerous!
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I wish I could take him back
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I was very worried when my sister took him and now I can't sleep sick with worry
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Anychance they could run a line of electric fencing inside the stock fencing? It would keep him safe and the sheep would be able to walk under it so wouldn't affect their grazing at all.
 
Due to local authority rules, we have no choice but to use sheep wire for two of the fences on our land. We have had feet stuck and shoes pulled off, but this is usually a reaction to what is going on in another field, i.e horse pawing at the ground right next to the fence and is actually very rare. As a precaution though we do keep a good pair of wire cutters at the field.

Another local horse owner has had the same regulations applied to his land and all his fences are made of post and sheep wire. He has had electric tape fixed through insulated screw in fittings to each post, so that the tape will touch the horse before it gets to the wire. It looks very neat and I think it would make the horses stay away from the fence.
 
I have it in 3 out of my 4 paddocks. It was there when we moved in and due to having to install a new kitchen, get the floors done etc the post and rail has been put on the back burner.

I worried that Henry would somehow get caught (he could injure himself in a padded stable bless him) I used electric tape and poly posts along the inside, set a couple of feet in, at a relatively low cost, to keep him off the actual fence. I've seen some nasty accidents resulting from sheep wire, the worst being a youngster actig typically coltish rearing and somehow managing to come down with one front leg the wrong side, but then coming, due to panicking presume, the right side, but underneath.... does that make sense to you? He ended up sawing his heel and also the inside of the top of his leg (armpit) and it was a right mess.

He's scarred to pieces now and has some very prominent proud flesh on his heel that the vedt could do nothing with.
 
It is after saying this that I go out and find them all tangled up in it!

Anyway, I have some with a hedge sandwitched in the middle. My horses are Clydesdale and Shires so they have huge feet.... which are too large to go through the holes. They are also unshod. Haven't had a problem with it.

However. I have known horses cut themselvs to the bone on the stuff. Others claw their shoes off with it.

It is the lesser of 2 evils. Pig wire has bigger holes and is disasterous for horses. Sheep wire has smaller holes and only ponies would be able to get their feet through it.

It is worse if it is saggy. If the wire is taught then it is less likely to cause injury.... but then even a post and rail fence is dangerous if it is not maintained.

You can improve things by double netting the fence... you thereby halve the size of the holes so nothing can get its foot through.
 
Star was moved to a field with sheep wire, by the livery yard, whlie I was on holiday a couple of years ago. I came back to find her lame, with a large slice going around her fetlock where she had put her foot through the wire. She also had a tendon injury from pulling free. Don't risk it.

We moved yards ASAP!
 
Of course it is not ideal for horses as it was designed for sheep keeping sheep in and out of trouble.

I have had to have sheep netting as a fence for most of my horsey years.

I run electric along the top.

I divide the field in to paddocks using electric rope but when I have put sheep out there they destroy it. LOL.

I would try to avoid losing sleep over it. Many many horses live with it because they have to. I can understand why you are worried though.
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you can actually buy similar fencing for horses which has far far far smaller holes at the bottom - for about 2 ft - and then the holes get bigger. it would fulfill the council requirements of sheep netting but is totally horse safe.

i personally hate the stuff having had a horse nearly loose his foot in sheep wire. We was trying to get to even more lush grass on the other side and put a foot through. It caught between the pastern and the hoof and severed through the tendon sheath and through to the bone in one place. he was off work for 18 months and was never truly sound again.
 
There is something called stud fencing, this is just like the sheep or stock fencing as it is known but the squares are very small so won't get hooves stuck in it. It is, however, very expensive compared to stock fencing and so livery yards wouldn't usually spend that sort of cash. My husband has been called out to a horse that had the whole of its hoof torn off from the coronet band from stock fencing, as you can imagine, the horse had to be destroyed.
 
Pony rolled too close to fence and stuck feet through sheep wire, wire stuck under shoes, fortunately he was spotted and didnt panic until we had him partly cut free, he was lucky no real damage done but could have been stuck all night which would have been a different story.
 
Personally I hate it!

My gelding lived on a farm for the first 6 months of me owning him. He decided to roll against the fence line (in his huge paddock!) Luckily I was there almost immediately and found him with both hind legs through the holes - incredibly close to the barbed wire (makes me sudder again just thinking of it).

On seeing me he panicked, thrashed around and managed to free himself and charge over to me. Underneath the blood he only had superficial cuts but his legs blew up and I spent weeks treating/cleaning all the cuts.

I appreciate that its sometimes unavoidable but for me - never again. Investing in electric tape may save heartache in the future.
 
Ask any vet about field injuries to horses and they will tell you that they are down to either fencing or kicks.

An injury caused by fencing can cause permanent damage to your horse so should not be risked at all.

Why not ue Equi-fencing instead? It is a tighter mesh so that horses including
youngsters can not put their hooves through it. I use it on post and rail fencing. We install the posts first then the top rail and then the Equi-fencing down to ground level and then put on the middle and bottom rails. This creates a very safe fence as horses can not kick through it.
 
We have a lot of sheep wire fencing round the fields at the yard where I keep my horses on livery. The total acreage is massive, so as much as we'd all like post and rail I don't think it's going to happen.

Over the years I have seen some horses get their feet stuck, chiefly my old cob, who developed an obsessive compulsive disorder about putting her foot through the hole, so someone could come and cut her out. She would just stand there until someone came running. Taking off her shoes thwarted her efforts to some extent.

I haven't witnessed any serious injury caused by sheep wire though.

I don't like sheep wire but not as much as I hate barbed wire. We have a lot of that as well
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Would never use it, especially as 5 out of 6 of mine have smallish feet. I know of a fab hunter who had to be pts after getting her hoof caught in it and severely damaging her hoof.
 
My fields all have it on the perimeter as we are next to a footpath and would have dogs in and out all day, also helps keep our puppy in! never had any incidents at all. Would not have it between paddocks tho...
 
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