Every horse owner understands the importance of strong, safe, reliable fencing you can trust to keep your animals enclosed without posing any risk of injury to them. As we all know, horses are powerful and sometimes excitable creatures whose instinct is to roam wild and free.
With the main objective of keeping your equine friends away from the dangers of the world at large, the priority for stock fencing is that it must be strong enough to resist their best efforts at escape. But at the same time, no horse owner wants to put barriers in place which might harm their animals if they try.
Here are three tips for putting up stock fencing that will keep your animals safe and secure.
Choose the right materials
It is really important to select materials for your stock fence that are up to the task in hand. There are a wide variety of options, including thermo-plastic resin or wooden panels, high tensile wire or wire mesh. The two most important factors in achieving the desired strength and resilience are a) the sturdiness of the posts and b) the tensile strength of the horizontal rails.
Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to opt for a cheaper product not specifically made for animal enclosures. For example, standard wire fencing products can be less than half the price of stock fencing equivalents. But there is a good reason for this, as standard mesh designed for use in gardens just will not provide the tensile strength to resist a large animal pushing against it.
Make sure all fencing is visible
One of the most common ways horses are injured by fencing is by running into it unawares because they simply have not seen it. This can be very dangerous, so the advice is to build fences around equine enclosures as close to their eye line as possible. Visibility can also be improved by installing a top rail in a bright, obvious colour like white.
Don’t give them room to lean over
Another reason to build fences for horses is to stop them leaning over, typically in an attempt to get at tasty-looking grass on the other side. This can lead to neck injuries, especially if they lean too far and overbalance. A taller stock fence is an effective deterrent.
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