Your opinions on fence type

[mydaddysjag]

I'm trying to get the money togther to bring Midas home in the spring, and recently came into unexpected hard times. Ideally I wanted to fence his paddock in 4x4 posts with cattle panels. Realistically with what has recently came up in my life I'm not going to be able to afford that right away.

I was wondering about 4x4 posts every 8ft, with 4x4 wire mesh, then 2 strands of hotwire to keep him off of the wire mesh. I want something to deter other animals from going into his paddock, and like I said, ideally I would do cattle panels, but i dont think Im going to be affording them this spring.

 

[susanne]

Two strands of hotwire is good with no-climb or other 2x4 mesh fencing, but I think with 4x4 field fencing I'd want a third hotwire.

 

[Marty]

Using 4 X 4 posts are pretty costly around these parts especially since they will need to be pressure treated. I use metal t posts from Lowes or Tractor supply 8 foot apart. Much easier to shove in the ground, I don't need any help doing useing them, not to mention not nearly the cost of wood posts and no worry about them rotting.

Then I have Field Fencing, I think its RedBrand, around $129. for 330 feet. No problems with strays getting in. I also run two rows of hot wire on it. Its all cost efficient and works for fine us.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Marty, do you ever have any problems with the horses getting hurt on the T posts?

What gauge wire do you use for the hotwire?

 

[Jill]

Our fencing is cattle panels on oak posts every 8ft. Every 4ft is totally unnecessary! I'm fencing in some stallions, too. Every 8ft is fine and yes, field fencing will do you fine for years. We had that at first and switched it over to the cattle panels on the posts which I do like a lot better, but the field fence did fine for years. If you go with the field fence, get the heavier duty gage of it. That will last a lot longer.

Also, I do think you could safely use t-posts. We used them a long time ago to put up a quick section of fence to partition off part of a paddock. Worked fine. Make sure the fence is on the inside (towards the horse) of the post so when the horse rubs it, they are not pushing the fence away from the post but instead against the post. You should also probably get "topper" for the top of the t-posts to be sure no one hurts themselves on the top which can be sharp.

 

[MinisOutWest]

i know everyone is telling you cattle panels, but please reconsider. I had one get his nose/head stuck and break his neck. Then my show boys were playing / running around the dry lot, slip and fell and a leg went thru the fence, scraped/ banged it up pretty bad. so for me personally- I hate them, especially for the smaller minis heads and any minis legs.

 

[Minimor]

4x4 posts are very expensive, or at least they are here. I'm guessing about $6 each, compared to $2 for an ordinary round fence post.

What do you guys pay for T-posts down there? Here they are $6.50 on sale, $7.50 or $8 regular price--makes them far too expensive to use. A couple years ago I had told a friend that I'd like her to bring back some T-posts when she was down in the US--I'd been told they were $2 or so each. she got some for $2 each, but they weren't the good T-posts, they were "U" posts, much lighter than what I'd had in mind--they have their uses, but paddock or pasture fencing isn't one of them--they bend and break very easily.

 

[Shari]

I have a combo fencing of, Woven field fence properly stretched, Heavy duty hot wire, Heavy duty T-posts every 7' and camel backs every 100'. Hot wire serves a double duty.. keeping the horses off the fence and the predators out. I always cap my T-posts no matter how tall.

Would love to be able to do the heavy no climb fencing but my budget doesn't allow for it,,,so this set up is the next best thing. The T-posts we bought were $9.50 each but they were heavy duty and special order because of their height.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Angela, what do you use for fencing? have you had any troubles with the field fencing?

 

[dmm]

We have had pygmy goats, mini horses and mini donkeys here for 11 years now. We use steel T fence posts and cattle panels. We got some of our cattle panels second hand from someone going out of critters and also got some used steel T fence posts from a man who sold all his cattle and took up all the fencing. That saved us a LOT of $. We have never had an animal get hurt on our fencing. We put the T posts every 8 ft. Works GREAT!! Also, they make it so easy to change fencing around.

 

[MinisOutWest]

we have put up the big horse panels, expensive as all get out, but now I am hitting all the farm/ ranch sales and buying used ones. getting 8-12 panels for $10 each, not pretty, but a little paint and they look great. After the incident with the cattle panels, I hate them, not just losing one, but banging up one of my show guys legs, that was not funny.

And I have a certain weird fencing I use and love, will try to post a picture tomorrow, but it is for big horses, it is like 4-6 inches wide, made of a rubber plastic and has high tensil wire inside the top and the bottom of the 4-6 inch fence. we put 2 rails up and the horses like it. I have it in my arena too, a mini can hit it and bounce right off, whether running free or in a cart, they dont get hurt. the fence can take up to 1200 lbs of impact per strand, so the 2 can hold 2400 lbs of impact. thats a bunch of minis, ha ha ha