All Horses | March 27, 2009
Been a while since I had a review of unsafe horse fencing. It’s always good to remember, so let’s get started.
First, the bad:
Cute horse. Ugly fence.
Barbed wire is good for cattle. Not so much for horses. I’ve seen firsthand the severity of even minimal, chance contact, and let me tell you, healing a pastern that’s [...]
All Horses | March 18, 2009
We had to disconnect the electricity from the bottom wire of our rope fence. Care to guess why?
Since we no longer have the escape artist, I don’t anticipate this being a problem. At least not until the grass is quite literally greener on the other side of the fence, and the horses start testing that [...]
All Horses | December 12, 2008
It has been a while since I blogged about horse fence and how some types are inherently more dangerous to any horse, no matter how calm, gentle, old, smart, etc.
Researching for my recent entry about irresponsible breeding brought me to a photo that, well, explains a lot.
This isn’t the worst fence I’ve seen, by far, [...]
All Horses | February 28, 2008
This may be one instance where the barbed wire is actually HELPING this fence to be 1% safer, but this is still an accident waiting to happen.
If the openings in a fence are large enough to allow a hoof to pass through, even the laziest horse can become stuck by a stray kick at a [...]
All Horses | February 18, 2008
One of the safest types of horse fence, poly/vinyl rails are sturdy when erected properly and provide a great visual deterrent.
Be sure the fence is high enough to keep horses from thinking they might jump over.
One pitfall of this type of fence is if a tree falls on it or something else happens to shatter [...]
All Horses | February 9, 2008
Hard to see in this photo, but there are at least four strands of loosely hung barbed wire keeping this very pregnant mare contained.
I hope she was moved before she gave birth. Foals cannot be expected to be born respecting fence.
All Horses | February 8, 2008
Triple whammy here.
Stock fence = no-no.
Barbed wire = BIG no-no.
Loose fence, too low = DANGEROUS for any type of fence!
All Horses | January 28, 2008
Stock fence with openings large enough for a hoof to go through is not safe for horses.
Top it with barbed wire (common practice to keep cattle from “riding” the fence down) and we’ve got double the danger here.
A horse kicking at another horse in a neighboring pasture could get a leg stuck in the fence. [...]
All Horses | January 18, 2008
Barbed wire fence has its place and purpose. It is pretty darn good cattle fence.
It has no place in the horse world, except for possibly a reference for tooling the skirts of a custom Western saddle.
