by Deborah Messner

Created on: July 04, 2008   Last Updated: September 12, 2010

Choosing the correct fence enclosure for your horses can be a daunting task, especially for new horse owners who don't have much experience with confining equines in a pasture setting. Horses, by nature, are flight animals, and their sheer size and inability to think rationally when frightened can cause some serious problems when it comes to their enclosures. The ideal setting for your pastured horses is animals that are grazing peacefully on a summer afternoon. What you need to take into consideration is the construction of a fence that commands the ultimate respect from your horse, even in the most unexpected situations.

When selecting a fence, consider the type of horses you are trying to enclose. Are you pasturing young or high-strung horses with a propensity to test their boundaries? Will there be mares with foals in the pasture? Are you planning on having a stallion on your property with turnout privileges? Have you ever considered owning miniature horses or ponies? Knowing your most immediate needs, as well as your eventual needs, will help determine what type of fencing is best for you.

In my 20+ years of owning horses, I have been on many farms with dozens of types of fencing. I've also seen my fair share of injured horses that decided, quite suddenly, that they didn't want to be in their pasture anymore, for whatever reason. These injuries have ranged from minor cuts and scrapes to massive open wounds requiring many stitches. It's important to choose the fencing that will offer the least possibility of injuring your horse, or allowing it to escape outside of its boundaries.

It's important to try and visualize what can, and will, happen to a horse when it tries to run through its fencing. The worst types of fencing that I have encountered are barbed wire and non-electrified high tensile wire. These types of fencing, while relatively inexpensive to install, can be lethal to a horse that gets entangled in them. Barbed wire will rip flesh when it comes in contact with a frenzied horse, and can cause dangerous wounds to legs, chest and belly that require quite a bit of reconstruction to correct. Horses that become entangled in barbed wire fences often bare horrible scars of their accidents, as the wounds are difficult to stitch and cause massive amounts of scarring from open wounds. High tensile wire can slice like a razor through a horse's hide when a horse comes in contact with it while running, causing dangerous injuries as well. Both of these types

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