Fencing: will be upgrading next spring...

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MindyLee

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I got approved for a TSC card finally after years of being denied. WELL I want to upgrade my fencing to something more nicer and less flimbsy and looking for some ideals. Please could I see your fencing... THANKS!!!

At the moment, I have 330x4 feet rolls of cattle fencing with t-posts and wood corner posts. It sucks and all my minis push on them and have them all streatched out. I hate this set-up & want something nicer/safer!
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You could take and replace your current cattle fencing with new cattle fencing and add one strand of electric wire along the inside - it only takes one time for them to learn not to lean on the fence. This would be the cheapest thing I think you could do. 

Also, you could replace your current cattle fencing with a thicker gauge of cattle panel if desired along with the electric wire. 
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Mindy, Mindy, Mindy, it may be not necessary to have to refence if you are referring to field fenceing.

Why not try to use what you already have and save your money if it is not completely mashed? Field fencing, even if lagged and butt squished can be saved and made nice and pretty again because we've done it! Drop the fencing from the posts, just untie the wires. Check your tee posts are level and straight with a string line, if not, reset them. Then use your TSC card for a fence stretcher, not fencing! You'll have to get in there in the bad places and maybe use your foot to re-square a bit of it but it will Save you tonssss. Then re-stretch your fence. Sometimes I go along the fence where it is a little loose and use a pilars and just make a notch in it and it will tighten up a section in about 5 seconds. You'd be surprised. This time, be sure to add hot wire and you won't have that problem again.
 
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I love my fence NOW. We had a welded wire the minis destroyed when they rubbed butts on it. We had to continuously repair the welded areas that kept coming undone. We got these panels--goat panels--and it's been indestructable. We have three strands of electric wire around the back pasture, but panels splitting the back pasture and up front. I love having it for new foals too.
 
Marty is right, you can restretch and re-attach. DO USE hot wire on the inside. What a wonderful assist that is.
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Yep, if it isn't too bad, you can kink it and it will tighten. I use a hammer. Put the claw end onto the wire, like you would if pulling a nail, hold the head of the hammer with one hand and the handle with the other, then twist it..........
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OK.......hold hammer in front of you, left hand on head of it and right hand on handle, horizontal to ground. Now push hammer forward so that the claw has a piece of horizontal wire within the claw. Sharply twist the hammer up with the right hand and down with the left. You have just made a "z" kink in the fence. Do this this from top to bottom in that row and you have started to tighten the fence...I've had to do this in a couple of row within a section of fence between posts to get it back in line but, it works great.

Another reason for hot wire besides keeping butts off, it keeps the stallions from trying to climb onto the back of another in the adjacent field. Getting hung up in this fence can be major, major problem.

Then build them a section of fence within the pasture that they CAN be allowed to rub on
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It's a fact that the minis "must" rub
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I find that the four posts I put in the ground to fence off a couple young trees has been a real jewel for this. They love it. This winter I plan to replace the fence with some newer, it's getting a lot of wear!
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In our corrals, exercise arena and turn outs in the stallion barn we have pipe. However, we have added a strand of electric tape the third rung up to keep the minis from sticking their heads through and rubbing off their manes
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Trying to find any good pictures of our fencing. . .

Here is one you can see in the background. It is two rows of fence, we have alleys between all of our stallion paddocks, so the boys don't get rilled up.

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In the big horse pastures we have a strand of electric on the top to keep them off the fence, and in the minis we have a strand but high to keep them off and from rubbing.

I agree with everyone else, I wouldn't buy new fence, just re-stretch it and then maintain it with electric. Just be careful how much twisting and such you do of wire, like people are saying going with hammers and pliers and just twisting sections, as it does weaken the wire!
 
I would agree with saving money and fixing up the fence you have... and investing in electric hotwire to preserve it longer...

Andrea
 
The first two pics are of our cattle panel plus electric (one butt height, one on top as we used to have big horses)

Any new electric we're getting in the future will probably be more a rope as the flat woven stuff moves a lot in the wind

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This photo is of just the electric tape, we're planning on changing this to have a woven componet in the future, this works for now though. Originally we didn't have any minis, just riding horses.

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Hope this helps
 
I have the knotted wire (woven-like) and when I put it up, I put up a strand on the bottom, and a strand about butt high. We had goats originally, and the goats were always trying to get under the fence. There's barely a gap between the fence and the ground, but we did have a pygmy goat wiggle out through there. So the low wire is to keep anything from trying to push the fence out, as the grass is always greener on the other side! Our fence looks as good now as it did years ago when we put it up, because they can't/don't touch it. We do have heavy gauge goat panels in the barn to enclose a run in for them, and they rub all over on those. It's similar to cattle panel material enclosed in metal frame (like kennel panels). I LOVE my panels....and takes their abuse quite well. But there's no way my fence would be intact if I hadn't protected it with the hot wires. The stuff isn't cheap...ya don't want to have to replace it every few years if you don't have to.

Angie
 
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Forget the fencing! Who is this horse????????!!!!

Beautiful!
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Got my attention.
 

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