There’s a new option for owners looking for a reliable, safe and aesthetic option for their farm.

Some things haven’t changed much in the hundreds of years since humans first domesticated horses. We still use metal bits, steel shoes and leather saddles.  

The same is true for how we house our horses—for centuries, the four-board fence has been the gold standard for farm owners. Take a tour of the famous Thoroughbred horse farms in Kentucky, and you’ll see miles and miles of rolling hills crisscrossed with neat lanes of white and black wooden fences.

The industry consensus for all these years has been is if you want a safe, sturdy and aesthetic fence, you’re just going to have to deal with high costs, loose nails and rotting boards. Jim Buckley aims to change that.

Buckley saw the problem the equestrian industry was having and came up with a solution: steel fencing. 

“I didn’t come from a horse background; I’m a metals guy,” Buckley said. For over 25 years, Buckley worked as an engineer designing and patenting various metal machinery parts. “This all started when I was asked to design aluminum fence parts for a client. I started looking into the fencing industry and the options people had, particularly for animals like horses, and I could just see this huge potential for a more modern fence.”

While many other types of fencing had been updated over the years, the equestrian industry was lagging behind.

“As many horse owners know there just wasn’t a great alternative option that gets you the sturdiness and look of a traditional wood-board fence,” Buckley said. “You just had to resign yourself to the never-ending maintenance dealing with warped boards and loose nails, and I didn’t like that. I mean who wants loose nails around the horses they love?” 

So Buckley went to the drawing board and set to work putting his idea in action—the only “steel board” fence on the market. Each post and board is made of a galvanized steel treated with an architectural grade powder coating, which prevents both fading and rust.

“The way the metal is designed and treated, it’s what I call a self-healing steel,” Buckley said. “So even when it gets scratched, it’s not going to start rusting. It protects itself without any additional input or maintenance work from the fence owner.”  

The posts also come pre-cut with slots that the rails fit securely into without the need of any nails or screws.

“It’s a fence you don’t paint; it doesn’t rust; it doesn’t rot; it doesn’t warp, splinter or require a single nail,” Buckley said.

Equestrian Meghan Lewis switched out the wood-board fences on her farm for Buckley steel two years ago, and it’s already proven its durability. 

“It’s holding up so well in the southern Florida climate,” Lewis said. “We took a direct hit from Hurricane Ian, and my fence still looks as beautiful as ever, and my neighbors do not have fences anymore.”

It’s also far safer than welded steel post fencing, because the Buckley steel boards will buckle and come out of the posts under heavy pressure, such as that applied by a bolting horse or a horse that becomes cast.

“We made this fence thinking of all the things horse owners want—they want safety; they want reliability; they want it to look nice on their farm,” Buckley said. “Buckley is all of those things.” 

Buckley is also far more affordable than one may think—compared to a three-board wood fence, which averages $12-15 dollars per foot, a Buckley three-board fence can cost as little as $16-20 dollars per foot. Buckley also has a unique labor advantage when it comes to saving money.

“Once the fence posts are installed, virtually anyone can slot in the steel boards. We have a video of a 5-year-old doing it on our website,” said Kyle Buckley, Jim’s son who works with his father in the company. “It’s not like you need a welder to go through and weld a steel pipe fence, or someone to go through with a nail gun. If you want to pay a fence installer to do the posts and install the boards yourself, you can, and you save a ton on labor.”

While the up-front costs are comparable with a wooden fence, Buckley Fence owners really gain savings in the long run. 

“We’ve been around for 19 years as a company and haven’t replaced a single fence. We had a customer send us pictures of her farm after a hurricane; there was all this destruction, but the fence hadn’t moved an inch.” said Mike Taylor, a Buckley Fence representative. “These fences don’t last years, they last for generations. You’re not spending time or money replacing warped boards, repainting entire fence lines, none of that. Your fence looks as good on day one as it does on day 1000 with no maintenance from you.”

You can get a quote for how much a two-, three- or four-board steel Buckley Fence would cost to install on your farm by going online. They’ll immediately provide you a rough calculation, and someone from their staff will look at your specific farm dimensions and give you a more specific price quote. The fences ship nationwide and around the world, and can be erected by any fence installer local to your area, though Buckley will also connect you with a reliable installer in your area.

The editorial staff of The Chronicle of the Horse had no role in this article’s creation.