braided rope horse fencing

[mjhoover]

anyone ever use the braided rope fencing
such as electrobraid or endurasoft?
we are getting ready to fence our new pasture
and have been looking at these products.
seems like there many +'s for these products
(no/little maintence,simple to install,reasonable price,
20+ year warranty)but I am sure there some -'s also.
any thoughts?

 

[MikePA]

Do you have a web site for the rope fencing?

We've used <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.horseguardfence.com>Horse Guard Fence</A> with great success. We plan on using it around our new 3 acre pasture.

 

[mjhoover]

www.electrobraid.com
www.premier1supplies.com
sorry, I'm still trying how to mark it as a clickable link!

 

[rf33]

I have heard good things about it, but for me, I prefer a fence I can climb. I know that this might sound silly, but I really like being able to go over a fence to get somewhere I need to go, instead of always having to walk to where a gate is. This combined with my general dislike for electric fence is why I am building pipe fence. I do not like electric (although I know it works well and is very cost effective) because I worry about my kids getting caught in it, and because animals are able to tell when it is off, and if a fence charger were to go out, I no longer have a fence (at least as far as the animals are concerned)

 

[rockyridgefarm]

If you are talking about HORSES, these are great. Most horses won't try an electric fence twice, so that if its off, they still won't go through. I have had one turned off for a year, and my stallion won't go that way anymore. They work best with a highly visible fence. Pipe is really nice, and quite expensive...

 

[mjhoover]

yes, it is for horses. we priced locust posts and rough sawn
oak boards for our fence and its about the same price as the
electrobraid BUT if you figure in your labor and maintence
of a wooden fence the braided is much cheaper. when you
refer to a pipe fence what is that?

 

[rf33]

A pipe fence is made of metal pipe for the posts and the top rail, and then either pipe or a solid rod called sucker rod for the rest of the rails. This is all generally welded together. It is more common in areas where olifield work is done as the most common source of this pipe is either old drill stem or new reject drill stem which is pipe which did not meet the specs to be used for oilfield work, but is still perfectly fine for fence. I like it because it is strong, pretty permanent, and I really like a very substantial physical barrier keeping my animals in.

I found it interesting that your stallion does not try the fence, as all of my horses seem to sense when the fence is off, and will stick their whole head through it trying to get to the grass which is always greener on the other side. I suppose it also depends on the horse as well as the strength of the fence charger. I have seen some cattle chargers which would literally throw you back 5-10 feet if you got ahold of the fence. I was hunting on a ranch which had one of these (and with hot wires across the gates/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. The owner said that if you do get into the fence, after you wake up, you can get back up and try to convince yourself that you are still alive./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning Ron,

I hope you're not using used drill stem for your fencing.

I used to weld it up all the time for folks that wanted a pipe fence and we could get it for sixty five cents or so a foot while schedule forty was considerably more.

Then about six or eight years ago a friend of who's also a fence contractor like myself hauled in a load of his scrap of used drill stem into one of the bigger scrap yards in Dallas. They refused to take it.

It seems there's been some problems with the stuff being contaminated and radio active. My bud asked the operator of the scrap yard if there was a way he could test it and then take it if it was okay. The guy wanted to know if bud really wanted him to do that. If he did test it and it was bad then he was to impound it and bud was to suffer the cost of disposing it. Bud hauled it home and he never told me what he did with it.

I haven't welded on drill stem since.

It's been my experience that the best fence for horses is V Mesh on a welded frame. That's schedule forty pipe posts and top rail with the V Mesh a foot off the ground. Second best is pipe frame with two by four woven wire aka "horse fence" again, a foot off the ground. That space off the ground allows the varmints to varmint which ain't all bad and it allows the livestock to help with maintaining the weed control along the fence line.

I have found over the years there can be problems with pipe and pipe, pipe and rod, and pipe and cable fence when it comes to horses.

People with show horses usually have to run a hot wire as an auxillary barrier to a rail fence if it's pipe or wood if the horse can stick the heads through. If a horse rubs the mane wrong it can cost it in a show. So if the fence has any places where a horse can stick it's head through there's that potential problem.

Another thing nice about V Mesh and two by four wire is they act like a net. A pipe or heavy wood fence doesn't give when the animal hits it at speed. So the animal's body has to take all the impact. With rail fencing this impact is distributed unevenly. Where a woven wire fence distributes the impact over a large area of the animal and will stretch and absorb some of the impact.

Hot wires or fear barriers as their known work. But they work best around animals that are naturally real shy to begin with. Horses, cattle, and goats, sheep, are shy but they're not the same degree of shy like dogs. I have found that a dog hit with a hot wire is cured of getting near the barrier after about three tries.

Cows, goats, and sheep will test the wire it seems almost hourly. They don't necessarily touch it but they seem to know if it's off or on without touching it. I've watched goats hit it at a run as if they know that way they're only gonna get a little hit if at all as they go through.

Here within the city limits is one old boy that keeps cows on about three acres that uses nothing but a single hot wire. I've never heard of him having a problem but it would keep me nervous as heck if I was trying it.

I've seen studs that were calm even while working a mare and I've seen them that I would sooner climb in a pen with an upset bull before I'd lean on the stud's fence.

I once built some stud pens twenty four by twenty four a guy in southern California who was into quarter horses. I made them out of schedule forty inch and a half (1 7/8" o.d.). They were seven rails and six foot high. The only way to move a panel was with a tractor.

I made them to his spec's. He claimed the problem with studs was they weren't just interested in sex. He said you could have three studs in pens at the fartherest points on the place possible from each other. Have one mare in season in the middle and have one of the studs get out.

Most male animals are going to head straight for the female. Not studs according to him. They're first gonna go whip the other stud's butts. Then they're gonna go to the female. So he said the stud pen wasn't always just to keep the stud in but another stud out.

BTW I'm not a horse person. Never have been. But I have been on many horse ranches trying to help their owners with horse problems and fences. Few animals are more susceptible to hurting themselves in the most unlikely of situations. I've learned that fencing them is a constant search of what possibly can happen in the most unlikely of circumstances and trying to allow for that.

 

[rf33]

Wow, thanks for all the info Harv. I actually am not using used drill stem, but rather reject .190 wall 2 3/8 pipe (found it at a place called Texas Tubular in Lone Star for 79 cents per foot. Sounded like a pretty good price based on what I had seen, and was actually cheaper than lots of people are selling the used stem for.)

I have never heard bout it being radioactive/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif, magentized sure but radioactive, YIKES... I see lots of people using it, perhaps they know and think it is some advanced form of hot wire/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif, but I bet that everyone is ignorant of that fact (like me).

I have considered using either the v-mesh or the woven wire fence, but I will tell you why I think I want the sucker rod (I have planned to use 7/8" rod). Most of the fences I have seen around here which have the pipe and woven or v-mesh wire really look awful after a couple of years. It seems that most horses like to think of the mesh as a wonderful scratching wall. They all seem to bow and sag all over the place from the horses rubbing on them so much. Perhaps you have some tips on how to keep theses fences from stretching, sagging and bowing? Perhaps posts every 4' or so might help but wow would that be alot of posts.

I sure do agree with your sentiments about horses being able to hurt themselves in unique ways. It seems that they have a real knack for finding the one thing which you have not padded, braced, fixed, moved etc. and making the worst of it. I see lots of people round here fencing their horses in with barbed wire and / or t-posts. Scares the dickens out of me, especially the t-posts. I have seen some of the damage a t-post can do to a horse, and to me, it is not worth the $$ saved on the fencing.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Afternoon Ron,

This picture is of a fence about a block from my home. I did it back in 92. What you're looking down is over two hundred foot of fence. It's a drill stem frame with two by four horse wire fabric.

The drill stem was in a pile on the property. My shop is down the street so one day as I was walking by I mentioned to the then homeowner (three back) that we could probably work out something on the installation.

The picture doesn't reflect it well but the fence is still straight. They have goats on it now. But some of the other owners have had cattle and horses.

I've see fences that were started and never finished where they set the posts and no one has touched them since. They are as crooked as a dogs back leg.

It isn't the fabric or the horses that make a fence lean. It's the poor installation. Livestock might rub on it and bow out the fabric but they won't lean over a well done fence.

If you think the rubbing is gonna be a serious problem, which I don't, then be sure and use V Mesh. If you want to keep them off the fence then do what some dairy farmers have found very productive. They stretch a piece of heavy gauge chainlink, at least nine gauge, preferably six. Just place two good well anchored posts in a pasture and pull the chainlink tight. You'll have to retighten it occasionally but it's the cat's meow for back scratching as far as cows and horses go. If you don't believe me sometime do a double take where some fool has used chainlink for livestock fence.

MAKE SURE THE CHAINLINK IS KNUCKLE KNUCKLE! It comes three ways, knuckle knuckle both ends tucked in. Knuckle barb, one end has the points. Barb barb, great for prisons etc where you want points on the bottom and the top.