[Kiwayu]

What is your favorite type of fencing? I'm going to be fencing in my future horse/barn area in my yard and I don't know what to go with...split rail, boards, centaur? No matter what, I want to put electric fencing as well on it. I own a mini that is a smart little bugger and the centaur fencing comes with a 30 year warrantee.

What are your thoughts?

[Huntin'Fool]

Hey,

All I can say is that I've seen a ton of saggy centaur with mold on it. This may not happen to you or it may be easily fixable. I have "horse wire" that 2" x 1" ish wire with a hot wire on top-mostly turned off. It's been great. We had a big flood-the 100 year kind-and the pasture flooded and tons of debris jammed up against the fence. None of it tore down but it did tear some of the posts partially out of the ground and we had to go back and fix it. It tore the hot wire off the top in lots of places. The horse was of course evacuated. Still it wasn't that bad to fix and I like this sort of fence.

Regards,
Huntin'Fool

[2DogsFarm]

H'F - I beg to differ
My Centaur-clone is going on 8yo and I have had to do zip to maintain it.
I have yet to even retension anything.
Pros did the installation.

Only one piece of the top rail has suffered from a horse chewing off a corner (I know who you are, SAM!), otherwise it looks brand-new.
No mold here, or discoloring.

I went with white 4" 2-wire top rail with 3 lines of coated wire beneath. Top line of wire can carry a charge, but so far I haven't attached a charger.
All set on round 6" posts set @ 12' - corner posts are 8".

A couple years ago I did have to restring one lower line of wire in my smaller field (.5ac) - not sure if a horse grazing through popped it, but that is the sole repair to date.

If I had to do it over I might go with the polycoat braided wire.
Just cause I like the look.

[horsetales]

Ours is the coated wire with alternating hot and not. I asked several vets and that was the concensus favorite for safety and durability. We just had a car go "off roading" into one of our fences in the Oct. Noreaster and only 1 strand broke, so all of the horses remained safely confined. My DH also had an incidence on ice of sliding down a hill into the fence on the tractor and bounced off with not a scratch on the tractor and no damage to the fencing

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Couldn't any white fence grow and show mold??

I lean towards at least 5 strands of the poly-coated wire, on wood posts. I would do the top and second to bottom strand hot at a minimum, but would consider 4 board up by the house, or around the arena, for looks.

There. Aren't you glad I planned your farm for you?

[wsmoak]

Split rail looks nice and rustic -- it's what I want along the road to go with our log home. But I'd make sure the rails are in tight if horses are in direct contact. I've seen too many split rail fences with a rail half out here and there. You said you're going to add electric to whatever you get, so that will help.

I have one paddock (currently the only one...) done in 5' 2x4" no-climb with a top board. This is a horse fortress. I sleep well at night.

If you choose anything with tension on it, concrete and brace the corners, or the fence will move the posts and sag.

For electric I like the Horseguard tape, and I have a couple of boxes of it in the garage to put up one of these days after the perimeter fencing is done.

[Dalemma]

I love my Electrobraid for perimeter fencing for both pasture and paddocks and use the wide tape for internal fencing.

This is a picture of the paddocks.....Electrobraid around the outside and tape inside.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...2/Paddocks.jpg

Dalemma

[Rabtfarm]

We are using a two rail of rough cut pine 1 1/4* inch by 6 inches on 4x5 landscape timbers that are 8 feet apart. I added a single alum wire on the inside top rail to discourage nibbling. That is the front and side fencing. For the rear /along the woods fencing we used the same posts 16 feet apart but with 1 1/2 inch wide polytape. The horses have only escaped by the gate, altho they could easily jump the fenceline which is about 4 1/2 feet high. With your escapee mini I would add the bottom third rail.

The wood fencing only cost me about $1.00 per foot for the materials without paint or install labor cost. That is why I have that fencing. If I had unlimited funds I would change to 4x4 real PT posts and add a third bottom rail. It is now painted white, but you will probably need to use a drafthorse to drag me back to the fenceline for repainting...

The extra 1/4 inch beyond basic 1x6 rough cut is a real strengthener for the rails. It makes it harder for the horses to break the bottom rail reaching under for grass nibbles on the far side.

You can pay a fortune for 6x6 PT posts with slip rail holes, but I anticipated that I would end up nailing them all regardless to keep them from moving...so right back to square one. I used dipped 16d nails and the board breaks before the nails come out of the posts.

[ayrabz]

I'm not positive? but I thought I recalled you were looking at a smaller type property (info from another thread) if I have you mixed up with someone else, I apologise!....
Anyway...I interject that because: when I was finalizing a decision for the fencing type the size of the property, and the fact it would be fencing a small location that would double as 'front yard' AND the fact I did (!!!) want a mini to be able to be homed there at some point, AND that I wanted/needed NO maintenance as it will only be maintained by me... led me to my decision of:
Ramm or Centaur....BLACK (not white due to molding stains)...hot coat wire on top rail, and (!) one additional hot coat wire just above bottom rail (between bottom and mid rail)....so hopefully that will contain the little ones (yet to be purchased but someday!!)

here is a link that shows the fencing the best:
http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/t...view=slideshow

but that link is the earliest one that doesn't show the barn work updates since (here)

http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/t...arn%20updates/

I am so pleased with the black fencing with black coat hot rails both top and above bottom rail....I believe it honestly is 'better' looking than white even without the mold concerns, simply because the property is so small and it looks less chopped....


Best of luck!

[S1969]

Split rail looks nice and rustic -- it's what I want along the road to go with our log home. But I'd make sure the rails are in tight if horses are in direct contact. I've seen too many split rail fences with a rail half out here and there. You said you're going to add electric to whatever you get, so that will help.

Our log cabin came with split rail fencing in the pasture and we eventually replaced it with 2x4 non-climb mesh with oak top boards. I loved the look of the split rail, but it is definitely not "horse fencing" unless reinforced with electric (ours wasn't). The main problem is that the horses can get their heads between rails (we had 3-rail) and knock rails out that way. And depending on your fence, rails may get loose if the posts get leaned on or pushed....

One really nice thing about the non-climb mesh is that is mini-safe, relatively goat proof (assuming they wouldn't jump it...we don't have goats but are thinking maybe someday)...and pretty dog proof, which is a nice feature too. Obviously it's not perfect against dogs, (e.g. small/medium dogs can get through the gates) but we don't have to worry too much about neighborhood animals getting in with the horses.

[Riding is fundamental]

I love our polywire, we did alternating electric and non-electric wires with the top being hot. We had a young draft horse slide through it once when his brakes failed while playing. He broke the post and flipped the fence, but not a scratch on him (thank goodness) and the fence was fine except for the post that had to be replaced.

For safety, you should get the covers (or make them) for the connectors- we have one or two connector sets per line. The rest of it, as said above, a horse will generally bounce off of.

One nice thing about polywire is that you can spread your posts out. Ours are between 20 and 30 feet apart. This makes it much faster, easier and cheaper to install than many other fences. It also handles hills and corners well (for those of us with uneven or oddly shaped pastures).

We did 4 strands. We also have two mini donkeys with the horses. The 2ft high donkey can and has gotten through it, but only to get to the other field where a mare he wanted to get to was. (While I was riding the mare, fixed the problem by gelding the donkey, it was quite an entertaining ride). Our 3ft high donkey hasnt gotten through (not sure if he could). If you went with 5 strands that should solve the issue. (I should mention he got through a section that does not have electric)

If it were visible from the road, or near the house, a fancy fence like a split rail or post and board in front of it would be nice, but I would put it in front of the polywire so it is more decorative than functional. That would also make a nice second fence in case something went wrong with either, I like the double fenced fields especially in an area where a horse getting out would be an immediate problem.

Good luck!

[slantedhorse]

Looks like I'll be going with ramm set on 8'. Visually it will look like board. With labor to pound the posts it looks like 6.50 a ft on my most recent quite. Waiting on my centaur bid but last I checked it. Was a lot more.

The labor and post cost is 66% of the cost of the fencing. If I go with a 12 ft spacing it'll be a lot less

[Javasmom]

Centaur

These guys are the best price, service and fast with delivery. And they are great with answering questions.
http://www.centaurfencing.com/

We love our centaur fencing on our farm.

[ayrabz]

love Centaur and Ramm...started with Centaur and found Ramm guy who was almost? half. Ramm won. (and I'm in VA too if you want a comp from this guy....he was rec'md to ME from a riding friend, and she loved his work, and so do I.
I agree 8ft is certainly best, but we went with 12, since with cemented corners, you can do that with this product vs. board post needs. See my photo link for pix of how it looks on 12 fts. and good choice!