From: Steve
Dear Jessica, my family is pretty new to country life, we moved out to the country five months ago because my wife and daughter both have horses and we decided that it's just better to keep them at home. We are all long-time HORSE-SENSE readers and fans of yours. Can you answer some questions we have about fences for horses? One of the farmers near us has been farming forever and he invited us to drop by his place and look at his fences and stuff. He has cattle not horses, but the fence he has (2x4 wire) is what we're going to have installed for our horses. I know the V-mesh fencing is better, but it costs a lot more and the 2x4 is supposed to be safe for horses. If we're wrong about that please tell me. Right now we're figuring out how many fence posts we will need for our pasture, and we need you to settle a little argument. All of the fence posts at our neighbor's place have tops that are cut on a slant, I guess to make the fence look a little bit fancy. My daughter is convinced that if we get posts like this, a terrible accident will happen and a horse will get impaled on a post. She wants all the posts to have flat tops. I know I've seen posts with flat tops at the building center, so I can probably get either kind. Is there a reason to use one or the other? How likely is it that a horse could get impaled on a fence post with a slanted top? Thank you, I didn't know who else to ask about this. Also, if you would answer just a couple more fencing questions, how high should our fences be and how far apart should the posts be? We just have the two horses and our pasture will be a square shape, almost two acres. One side of it will be next to the road and one side will be next to our driveway and house. The other two sides have farm fields next to them. This will be our first winter here, but we've heard that we can expect deer to jump the fence and come into our pasture in the winter. I was thinking that 4' high might be tall enough of a fence for our horses, but if we wanted to keep the deer out of the pasture, how high should the fence be? I know that you always recommend talking to the county extension agent, but to tell the truth, I don't think ours knows very much, because I've got a couple of flyers from the extension office, and the only time I talked to the agent, he didn't really answer my questions and everything he said, I could tell he was just reading it right off those same flyers!
Steve
There's a very good and very simple reason for cutting the post tops at an angle: this lets the posts shed water instead of holding it. When water is allowed to pool on (and soak into!) fence posts, it weakens the wood and promotes rot. So think about encouraging water to run off those posts as quickly as possible, and when you cut your post tops, make the angle at least 30 degrees. Tell your daughter not to worry, because it's extremely unlikely that any horse will ever come into that kind of contact with the top of a fence post! Weakened posts that can splinter, twist, and break would present a MUCH greater danger to her horses.
You're right, V-mesh or diamond mesh is ideal horse fence, but it's definitely much more costly and a lot more trouble to install. As long as your fencing is 2x4 WOVEN wire, not welded wire, it should be fine. It's not as strong or as safe as the V-mesh, and it wouldn't be suitable for a small enclosure, a crowded enclosure, or to contain small ponies or foals that could get their feet caught in the openings. But if you'll have only two (mature) horses in your two-acre enclosure, and you make the fence tall, strong, and highly visible, all should be well.
Fence height - for a horse pasture, 4' is too low. Your fence should be at least 5' tall, and you can certainly make it taller if you like. If either your wife's or your daughter's horse has been known to jump out of enclosures, you should make it at least 6' tall. I've never heard anyone say "I wish I'd made my pasture fence a foot lower." Don't even try to build a fence tall enough to keep out deer, because they're amazing jumpers. I've seen deer sail right over an 8' fence. Don't try to factor in the deer, just build a good, strong, durable fence that will keep your horses IN. With a woven wire fence, setting the fence so that there's an 8" clearance between fence and ground will help preserve the fence by preventing horses from stepping on the bottom of it and "walking it down". This will also increase the overall fence height - always a good thing. The 8" gap is large enough that it won't trap horses' feet, but small enough that horses won't view it as an invitation to try to reach underneath it to graze outside the fence.
The distance between your line posts will depend partly on what kind of fencing you use, and partly on your pasture land. If it's flat, you might be able to space them 10' or even 12' apart. If it's uneven or hilly, you'll probably need to place them 8' apart.
You probably know the basics of choosing fence posts - first, buy weather-resistant wood! Look for wood that is naturally weather-resistant (e.g., cedar and redwood). There are some firms - you should be able to find one if you search online - that sell natural fence posts made from locust or osage orange. These woods are incredibly dense, strong, and as close to weather-proof and insect-proof as any wood can be. If you buy pine posts, be sure that they're pressure-treated.
You didn't mention this, but I would advise you to plan a top rail for your fence. This will serve several purposes. It will make the fence a much more effective visual barrier, which is always important when you're dealing with horses. Horses need to have a clear sense of fence location and fence height, and the smaller the enclosure, the greater their need to be perpetually aware of the location of the fence. A top "sight line" rail will also add a little bit of height to the fence, which never hurts. And it will be a physical barrier as well, preventing the horses from leaning on the top of the wire in an attempt to reach grass on the other side (remember, it's always greener there). The top rail can be traditional 1"x6" wooden boards, or PVC boards, or one of the flat, flexible "rails" like Centaur or Spur. Some people use a narrow line of braid or tape that can be electrified, which is useful if you have a problem with horses leaning on and "riding down" the fence, but doesn't provide the needed visual barrier. The sight rail is an important part of safe horse fencing, because horses are far less likely to crash into a fence that's highly visible, and a 5" or 6" rail, whether white, brown, or black, is something that horses can easily see.
I'm sure you already know this, too, but just in case someone else reading this does NOT, I'll remind you that the fencing material (the 2x4 wire, in your case) goes on the INSIDE of the posts, so that even the strong pressure of horses leaning against (or crashing into) the fence will not push the fencing away from the posts.
Good luck with your new pasture fence!
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.