OT: Horse Fencing

I'm planning on setting 8' treated lumber posts about 2 feet in the ground and hang the wire fence about 10" off the ground. This makes the fence height about 5 feet. I also plan to put a 1x6 top board in place to keep the horses from leaning on the fence wire and to add stability.

My question is this... I've been looking at 4" treated posts and found the going price to be a little over $7 for the 8 foot length. I've also considered using 8 foot 4x4 lumber for my posts at a cost of about $7 each. I've noticed that I can buy 8 foot treated landscaping timbers for about $3 each. These are are 3" across the flats, and 5" across the rounds, ACQ teated. So, is there any reason not to use landscape timbers for posts? They look just as stout as other 4" diameter posts.

Thanks in advance,
John

Good luck, Wm

That seems like a shallow depth, good compaction around the post would help. We have some areas that you can't get down too deep, a few feet and hardpan, rock, or shale, makes it a pain to keep a gate post secure, unless you pour some concrete around it, frost heave is always a problem, every year, a lot of the fence posts have to be re-set, pack the hole with stones, to fill tha gap around the post from them leaning on it. The paddock with the electric line, stays straight for the most part, and they are not shy about going through the gate, but like Allan says, once they are spooked at something, they don't soon forget.

You might try dry packing the posts with gravel mix, straight portland mixed with the soil or something cementitious, containing portland, it will tighten the soil around the post, but at that depth, around here, if frost were to get under the dry packed area, it will give it surface area to push on. Without the frost, should help keep em straight, couple shovels full of portland mixed with the soil, pack tightly, next rain, water em down yourself, will be tight.

I forget the species of pine they cut up there, logs come out of the Adirondack mountains, could be white or ponderosa pine, but they chew it up. Years back I can recall creosote being used to curb that habit, can't get that anymore, although telephone poles are saturated in it. I know they sell a substance to apply to the wood that they don't like, not sure how it works and if they are using it at our place. The boards eventually look like a mountain range once they chew em up.

If we turn any horses out into the indoor riding area, they chow on the rails used for the jump fences. I think a lot of it is due to boredom, so it's good to keep em busy when you can, when there is no grazing in the pastures, and they get low on or don't like the hay, that top rail starts to look mighty tasty, especially the pine.

Always a joy to take care of a bunch of horses, and the fences, never a dull moment !

I think we have a few growing here, fast growing tree, have to check around and see who may have some when it comes time, I'd like to see how they react to it.

Yeah, it is all boredom. I leave the gates to the pastures open even in the winter and just let 'em run during the day.

Gives 'em something to do and it stops that corral biting. Bout three times a day, they will take a long hard run clear to the other end of the place and back. Kinda neat to watch. :>)

Allan

Certain times of the year, they get stuck in the stalls, too icy or too wet, will turn up the soil and mess up the grazing, and that is when the boredom is high. Right now the snow cover helps, protects the sod. Fortunately, they ship most of ours if not all down south, with the other ritzy farm that we work with ( the barn alone is still beyond my comprehension, you could live in it at this place - north and south locations ) so they are kept busy, which is a good thing for horses.

In the summer they have grazing, but the bugs are a problem, or t-storms or some other darned thing, we've got 2 large pastures 20 acres each, and 2 small ones, but before they were all useable, rotating them in and out along with borders horses, can be tight when the place is full, then all of them need to be ridden everyday, they keep a schedule on that, and to be honest it's a royal pain in the butt to keep up on everything, this one gets along with that one, that one has to be alone, etc. etc. then other people see things their way and want to change this and that, and that's where I used to draw the line, and stay out of it. It's great when you've ones that get along, run and play, always fun to sit back and watch especially if you just have a couple and tha's all I'd ever own, no more than 2 !!!

Both pastures are nice, would make excellent hay, one has clover and timothy, the other got really depleted, so me being the equipment savvy guy say's, "I would enjoy replanting it", did get the entire field turned with a 2 bottom and my tandem disc's, then the committee gets involved, it never got planted, just rolled, to flatten some of the bumps, and here I am expecting weeds to no end, it came up thick with timothy, all timothy ! Still too many lumps, not sure what they want to do there, but the good grazing sure helps em keep their minds off trouble, and that field was plantain or plantin ( whatever that broad leaf thing is ) infested, grazing was nil and they were gettin into trouble. I still cannot believe how the timothy came up, was a blessing in disguise, PH in that field was not too far off as I remember, turned it in late summer, set all winter, even made arrangements to by a seeder, before the bottom fell out on the re-plant job.

Is there any way I can talk you out of using that hot wire with your horses?

Electric fences and horses just don't work too darned well. Silly things are dingy enough the way it is. :>)

Allan

I don't really like the idea of a hot wire, but we have a mare that does not respect anything else. She seems to know when the line is hot and when it isnt. I suspect that she can feel a slight charge in her wiskers when she gets close to it.

Another problem is that this particular mare has begun cribbing and I'm hoping that the hot wire along the top will keep her away from the board.

The fence chargers I use are not especially hot, but they do hurt if you make direct contact with the wire.

I worry that the horse may become entangled in the wire and get stuck while it continues to shock. This has happened to this mare once before when we were using the electric poly-tape fencing.

I could put the charger on a timer and run it only during the day when I can keep track of her.

Any other suggestions?
John

And come back 7 years later and the damned nag still won't cross that line; know what ya mean.

Dunno, I've never seen it, but the neighbor used to tell me of horses dropping dead when they touched the wire. Sometimes their heart just can't take it? Dunno.

Allan

I remember them too well. Neighbor used barb wire for electric fence. I went running to the apple tree in lower field and did not see his new EF, got stuck right between the eyes with a barb. Neighbor went running to barn to shut off the fencer.. My dad knocked me loose from the fence. I never ever forgot that little experience.

Keith & Shawn

When those suckers snapped, there was no getting away from 'em until they released.

Allan

The 10" off the ground thing// why not just go 3 board if you are leaving that much gap?

Soundguy

The 10 inch off the ground thing is to allow the horses enough room to eat the grass below the fence but not high enough to allow them to get in trouble under it.

I also plan on running a single "hot" wire around the top to discourage our mare from testing it too much. My gelding (15 hand, 16 yo quarter horse) will behave himself but I'd like to keep the top of the fence at least 5 feet to discourage my wife's 16 hand gelding from trying to jump it.

I do plan on using the RedBrand fence.

Technically I could go 3 feet deep since I'm using 8 foot timbers for posts. That last 12 inches might be hard to get though.

Thanks for your quick reply,
John

Soundguy

• Hobby farm

I enjoyed your web page. I worked on an Allis CA a couple of years ago. It was a blast to drive. My tractor is a 1953 John Deere 50. I've also got a 1968 Case 450 track loader with a 4n1 bucket thats been indispensible for clearing the woods for our house.

John

John