My Goat/Horse Fence

[EddieWalker]

Exactly 2 years ago, I got serious about fencing in 27 acres of my land to create a bigger pasture for my goats and horses. The fence has to be safe for my animals, and the only thing that does that is 2x4 horse fence. It's also the most expensive fencing out there. My thinking is to do it as good as I possibly can, and hopefully not have to do it again.

Here is a rough layout of what I'm doing with some measurements of what each run is. All totaled up, I installed 5,060 feet of fencing, plus gates. Eventually I plan on dividing this pasture in half, and building two more pastures that will all be around 12-14 acres each, plus a couple acres for my barn/feeding area.

 

[EddieWalker]

Before I could install the fence, I had to clear the trees and level out the ground. My neighbor spent a bunch of money fencing in part of his place, but he didn't clear the trees. Every winter, the branches fall off his trees and break his fence. I think the worse year, there where over 20 places that where destroyed along his fence from falling branches covered in ice.

My goal is to not have any trees close enough to fall on my fence, but for now, I only got enough cleared to stop falling branches. This was very time consuming. My backhoe is great at removing trees, but it's a 1998 with 2wheel drive that breaks down fairly often. Most repairs are hoses, but sometimes it's something more challenging.

With the grapple on the backhoe, I used the bucket on my Massey to move dirt

One of the issues that I discovered with the Massey was how tippy it was with a load of dirt, so I built a rear ballast weight to stabilize it that really helped.



I also widened my wheels to the widest they would go!!

 

[EddieWalker]

Once I had the trees cleared, I drilled my corner posts, set them in concrete, and stretched high tensile barbed wire from corner to corner. I divided the distance by 100, or less to make it equal. There is a treated 6 inch every 100 feet or less, and in some places, they are as close as 20 feet apart if I felt I needed them there.

After visiting dozens of farms, I decided that I do not like H Bracing. I have all sorts of reasons for this, but mostly it's because in every one that I looked it, they where failing. Instead, I saw that some professional fence builders are going to metal diagonal bracing to hold there corners in place, which made more sense to me.

Every wood post is set in concrete. I use a 12 inch 3pt auger to drill the holes down about 3 feet. It takes four 60 pound sacks of concrete to for each post. The holes for the bracing take 2 60 pound sacks.

 

[EddieWalker]

Some holes drilled easy, others where a battle. For the holes that wouldn't drill, I could usually get down deep enough to add water. I would add water during the week, and the following weekend, they would drill fine.

For the ones that I couldn't drill down, I used my SDS Max rotary hammer with a spade bit. I powered it with my small Honda generator, and I fought it down deep enough to get water in there. This usually worked, but there where a few holes that I had to use the SDS Max to do all of the digging!!

 

[Rockbadchild]

Once I had the trees cleared, I drilled my corner posts, set them in concrete, and stretched high tensile barbed wire from corner to corner. I divided the distance by 100, or less to make it equal. There is a treated 6 inch every 100 feet or less, and in some places, they are as close as 20 feet apart if I felt I needed them there.

After visiting dozens of farms, I decided that I do not like H Bracing. I have all sorts of reasons for this, but mostly it's because in every one that I looked it, they where failing. Instead, I saw that some professional fence builders are going to metal diagonal bracing to hold there corners in place, which made more sense to me.

Every wood post is set in concrete. I use a 12 inch 3pt auger to drill the holes down about 3 feet. It takes four 60 pound sacks of concrete to for each post. The holes for the bracing take 2 60 pound sacks.

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the barbe wire was just to line yourself up ? you are not using it right ?

 

[RjCorazza]

That hammer drill bit is a great idea for stubborn holes. I recently installed ONE stupid mailbox with a digging bar and clamshell digger.... It about killed me!

 

[EddieWalker]

Once the posts where all set, I retightened the barbed wire and measured for T posts every ten feet or less. I left the barbed wire in place as the bottom of the fence. My thinking is that if something tries to dig under the fence, it might be discouraged by the barbs. I also mowed the run real good with my zero turn. The shorter the grass, the easier it was to work.

I installed 6ft T posts with a Roher Mansaver T Post pounder. I used my small air compressor and Honda generator to power it.

T- Post Driver 98-E

Rohrer Manufacturing’s T Post Driver is an easy to use one person fence post driver.

rohrermfg.com

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In soft ground, they would go in quickly. Less then a minute. In hard ground, it could take half an hour to get one T post in. The best thing about this is that I'm not beat to death by pounding them in manually!!! I can do 50 to 100 T posts in a day, and feel great the next day.

A couple notes about the Mansaver. You have to add an inline oiler for it. It takes a very specific oil that they sell online, but it's expensive. Hydraulic Jack oil is the same thing, and it's very affordable at Atwoods, where I buy my feed. The handle will work itself loose after a little bit in hard soil. Sometimes I'd have to retighten it every couple of minutes. It's not comfortable to tighten, so I kept a rag in my hand to make it less painful. I really need to weld something onto the handle so it's less painful. There is a counter balance on the on/off lever. In hard ground, it works better if it's removed. Air pressure is critical. Too much and it pulls itself out of the ground on the up stroke. You want just enough air pressure to lift it up, but not force it up out of the ground. Overall, it's one of my favorite, most useful tools!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

the barbe wire was just to line yourself up ? you are not using it right ?

I left the barbed wire as the bottom run of the fence. So far I've found one place that something has dug under it. I'm guessing a coyote because of the grey hair in the barbs. I filled the hole with half a sack of concrete after it rained the other day, and it's raining again today.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I left the barbed wire as the bottom run of the fence. So far I've found one place that something has dug under it. I'm guessing a coyote because of the grey hair in the barbs. I filled the hole with half a sack of concrete after it rained the other day, and it's raining again today.

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ya I saw on your post above... that's good, I simply wanted to make sure you didn't use it as top wire as a deterrent for horse to lean or reach over the fence because it doesn't work and you end up with injuries to deal with.

 

[jyoutz]

Nice work and a really durable fence. I’ve used that no climb horse fencing and it’s hard to stretch but extremely durable once installed. You will be pleased with your finished project.