# Stallion in high tensile?



## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

We are doing fencing right now, and we are finishing up about 10 acres or so in high tensile. The back has 6 strands, and the front will have 3 strands that are electrified. Should I feel comfortable turning our stallion out in this or just stick to the woven wired 2 acres for him?


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## 2horses (Jul 19, 2004)

Do you have a vet in residence? High tensile is the most dangerous fencing you can install - I'd rather have barbed wire any day before I'd have HT.

Stick to the woven wire for him and all your animals.


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## Oregon Julie (Nov 9, 2006)

It depends on a number of things in my opnion. Do you have horses on the other side of the fence from him and does he respect fences? 

I have an Arabian stallion who has been kept in some pretty funky fences over the years, often as not on the other side of that fence are our mares coming in season on a regular basis. He is very respectful of a fence and has never in his 16 years gone over one in an attempt to breed a mare or to fight with our gelding, whom he does not like. 

He will stand at the fence and tease mares, all the while being "ready" to do the deed if the fence were not between them but that is as far as it goes. He does come from a family of multiple generations of stallions who have pasture bred and I think that this disposition is definately inherited. His breeder would turn her stallions out in a 60 acre pasture together during the fall/winter each year. They would have some lumps and bumps, but everyone sorted themselves out and got along ok. Come spring they were back with their mares and doing what came natural.


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

Well, as far as high tensile goes, I've had an awful lot of recommendations from other horse folks, but I have had one person who didn't like it and found it dangerous. . .I hate barbed wire as I've had horses injured with it in the past, and these were horses that respect fence in general, but I have no person experience with it. 

JC is a well mannered guy, but we've only had him out in our turn out that has corral panels, so I am not sure how he will treat electric high tensile or woven wire at this point.
No horses will be on the other side of either fence. Mares would be in whatever area he isn't in and they are several acres apart.


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## malinda (May 12, 2002)

I wouldn't put any horse in high tensile fencing if I could help it, and especially if part of it isn't electrified. I just removed all the high tensile from my property and my horses, including a stallion, are in a fence that is part electric wire, part electric rope, and part vinyl rail with electric rope on top. The stallion is separated from the other horses with just electric wire. He respects it very well and I haven't had any issues with him (the mares are a different story! haha).

If you put an electric wire inside of your woven wire, you will probably save your fence and your horse would be safer than in high tensile.


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

Well, the back and sides of the property are HEAVILY wooded where the high tensile already in place exists, and it is such that the horses would have to be walking carefully to even get back to where it is; however, the front is open and likely where they would come in contact with it, so budget wise, the only way for us to afford it is to leave the back and sides as it and do the front in tape or electric reg. wire, which is no big deal, and I know the mares would never test it, but I think JC, the stallion, might. . .but maybe that is what we will do. If we used it, it was going to be electrified though.


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## jill.costello (Aug 18, 2004)

A horse galloping at a _leisurly_ pace can literally cut his own head off on high tensile wire. I have seen the pictures.

You have to weigh the cost savings vs. possible loss of your horse. "Hmmmm, if I save $1.95 per linar foot by installing hightensile vs. woven, then how many feet of fence do I need to install to defray the cost of the death of my stallion?"

I wouldn't do it. But if it's high tensile or a stallion running loose in the community, then FLAG IT and ELECTRIFY it!!


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## 2horses (Jul 19, 2004)

So, are you saying the high tensile itself would electrified, or you would run an additional electric wire or tape?


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

The fence on 10 plus acres in the back and sides of the property is done. It is heavily wooded, and a horse could not gallop or trot up to it - they would need to walk and weave themselves through the trees to get to it - so I have no fear of them running into what is already in place at all. They can get to it, but must walk around heavily wooded land to do so, many, many trees, rocks, bushes, briars, etc. 
If high tensile is this dangerous if a horse were to run to it, then I don't want to use it where there is a chance they might do this, which would be, as I said, only on the open front, which we haven't done yet. I don't mind doing plain electric fence in either tape, aluminum or rope all on the front and forgoing the high tensile there. Our mares would not challenge even the thin aluminum electric, if we do that, as they have been behind it before and never did. 
I do not have to let our stallion into this area. I would like to because there is a lot of steep dirt roads for him to travel and gain condition, but if keeping him behind electric only would be unwise, I will just turn him out behind the woven fence we are put up in a flat and small area.

If I put up the high tensile in the front, I had planned to electrify if only. The people who owned this place before and had it all in high tensile did that and had no issues in the 4-5 years they were here, but again, I know nothing about high tensile.

So, would a well mannered stallion likely be safe behind electric only - be it aluminum, rope or tape?


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## Lionrose (Jun 4, 2006)

Iâm in Arkansas and after having trouble with the closest neighbors stud getting out over and over and over again. Coming up and stomping our fence and running the mares up and down the fence line. I was talking with another neighbor a couple days ago and she told me she believed that it was state law that studs had to be kept behind a double fence. I donât know if its fact or not I plan on calling to find out. So you might want to see if there are such laws in your state. I have be very nice about it all but am getting very tired of it. If his stud gets out and over to the other neighbor she wonât be so nice about it. Sounds like heâs libel to be in big trouble.

Yeah I agree high tensile wire is bad stuff wouldnât use it anywhere near my horses either. 

D


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

In WV, laws for stallions are the same as for any equine, but there are some states that place laws like you mentioned on stallions.
I understand the need for such laws. I suppose I will just try him and see, and it it doesn't work, I will stick with the area with the field fence.


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

I've had stallions myself for 30 years or more and personally will not keep a stallion in any kind of a fence without electric "backup". All of the pastures where my stallions have been kept, whether board, woven wire, smooth wire or barbed wire have had a minimum of one hot wire along the top to prevent them from reaching over and remind them that fences are to be respected.

I have had no experience with high tensile fence myself although I have heard that it can be a disaster for horses.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

I don't see the reasoning - why would high tensile be any worse than smooth hotwire?


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

jennigrey said:


> I don't see the reasoning - why would high tensile be any worse than smooth hotwire?


The way it was explained to me (and I don't know if it is right or wrong) high tensile wire is strung tighter and has a higher breaking "weight" ... so if an animal hits it at speed, they are more likely to get bad cuts from it. Regular smooth wire will actually "stretch" if an animal hits it ... giving first and then breaking. The HT wire doesn't stretch/give so cuts and then doesn't break as quickly either, so it's likely to cut deeper.

Smooth hotwire is even lighter than regular smooth wire, so has an even lower breaking point. A horse hits smooth hotwire and it breaks almost instantly.


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## jBlaze (Dec 26, 2007)

HT is usually a much thicker wire. the smooth wire breaks pretty readily.

My neighbor took down ALL her HT and put up woven (non-climb - smaller holes) after she had a mare tear its face up after being spooked by a bull that had gotten out from the place across the creek. 
I'd guess she re-did about 5 acres of fencing aftehr the injury and vet bills.


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## Jay27 (Jan 11, 2010)

not to hijack... but... the worst Horse v. Fence incident that I have seen was with woven wire field fence. Those holes are about the perfect size for a foot to get in when a horse kicks out. Horse dang near cut his foot off and ended up completely tangled. Nasty!


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Properly tightened good quality woven field fence, with properly spaced T posts and Camel backs, with a couple lines of hot wire on it, is a pretty safe fence as far as fences go.

Worse fencing accidents I have seen were with Pipe fence.. horse spooked, and smashed into it high speed.. caved his face in. No give to pipe fencing. And High Tinsel, horse was so badly cut up they had to put him down. Not my horses, Thank goodness.


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## mem (Oct 28, 2005)

Some of the best fences that I have seen for horses were high tensile wire, either electrified or not. I have seen a few scared animals run into it and it bounces them back into the pasture. I think the trick is proper spacing and height of the fence. My favorite fence is 7 strand high tensile wire with alternating strands being hot, and the others grounded.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

I think that the type of fencing vs severity of injury might relate to type of fencing in relation to size of pasture. I think if I was worried about high tensile wire but it were the best location for the stud, I'd probably put up temporary type electric fence (my preference is the tape because it's visible) inside the HT fencing. I've always done similar with bulls when they aren't breeding for different reasons. I tend to keep idle bulls separated pretty solid pens when they aren't useful but horned bull tend to pry off boards to fight so I found a strand of hot wire inside their pens saved me a lot of money.


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

Well, I was freaked enough by the stories here that I took ALL the HT stuff back to TSC today - lol.
I bought the small bright orange and black rope for the top strand and 14 gauge electric for the next 3 strands. This large pasture will be mostly for the mares, but I wanted to option of letting our stallion out for conditioning, but I will be doing 2.2 acres in woven wire with a strand of electric in a flat field, so if I let him out in the area with the electric at front, and it doesn't work, I will stick to the woven wire area for him.


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Jay27 said:


> not to hijack... but... the worst Horse v. Fence incident that I have seen was with woven wire field fence. Those holes are about the perfect size for a foot to get in when a horse kicks out. Horse dang near cut his foot off and ended up completely tangled. Nasty!


This is why we have used non-climb fencing around our arena/ turn out area and why the horse stalls in the barn are constructed of non-climb horse panels. We do have some three rail wood fencing in one paddock, but that is reinforced with hotwire to keep the horses off of it. Worst horse/ fence accident I've witnessed is a horse that repeatedly cast himself in pipe pen fencing. Also knew of a horse who died when she was struck by lightning when she had her head through a pipe rail gate.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

It seems to me that we can cite reasons why every type of fencing is dangerous but in all reality, all we can do is our best to ensure the safety of livestock and no matter how safe we think the situation is, there`s always one or two that are going to prove us wrong.


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## deineria (Aug 22, 2009)

I do agree 100%, WR.


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## Farm 36 (Mar 21, 2009)

Just put a good hot fencer on the fence and he will behave .I like to have 6000 to 8000 volts on my fence . If you don't want a shock don't touch the fence .


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## jBlaze (Dec 26, 2007)

We really like our 5.5 ft no-climb horse fence. Works Really Well for the goats too!! 
I don't really like to put it on t-posts, we have it all on wooden frame. 
Happy fencing! 

(tractor mounted post hole digger and pneumatic tools - nailer and stapeler - really really cut the time! - glad Dh argued for them, but shh, don't tell him he was right, lol.)


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

wr said:


> It seems to me that we can cite reasons why every type of fencing is dangerous but in all reality, all we can do is our best to ensure the safety of livestock and no matter how safe we think the situation is, there`s always one or two that are going to prove us wrong.


I agree. I think high-tensile could be appropriate in some instances, especially if it is hot. 

I think a lot of people use HT and it is too loose and horses can get caught between the wires and anything could happen then. We had HT through a tree line when we bought our farm and had heard that it caused a nasty accident with the previous owner's horse, and based on how loose it was I could see it being dangerous. We replaced it with non-climb and a wooden top rail & wood posts. Our non-climb is 2"x4" so way too small for an adult horse's hoof.


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## waygr00vy (Aug 7, 2005)

We have HT fencing, 5 strands on the perimeter all electrified, and a few cross fences that are 2 strand. I flagged it when we first moved just to be safe (all flags have since come off) and no problems. If a horse knows electric fence, they usually are VERY aware of it. Like WR said, we can find things wrong with just about every type of fencing. I know someone that had electric rope that broke off, wrapped around the horses leg and continued to shock him while he was freaking out. Also knew a horse that had to be put down due to barb wire puncture that caused an infection in the joint and plenty of horses that have torn through field fencing with some major chunks out of them.


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## bluebird2o2 (Feb 14, 2007)

My daughters mare was boarded at a place that had high tensile fence.She and her sister came back here with serouisly ugly cuts.she still has a nasty scar thank God no lame maeness issues.The fence was loose everywhere and had no electric in it.It was an accident waiting too happen.I wont have it on my property.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

In all reality, any fence in poor repair is an accident looking for a place to happen.


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## Jay27 (Jan 11, 2010)

I think part of the key to a safe fence is having a low wire - 12" or so off the ground. I have seen a horse (not my own) go running balls-to-the-wall into a wire fence he did not see. When there was a low wire, his foot hit it and he stopped before his body hit the fence... it wasn't pretty, but he didn't go through it. When their chest is the first thing to hit, the usually try to go straight through the fence.

ETA:
Some horses can hurt themselves on a round rubber ball... I have one of them! 

I have a drylot fenced with 5' high cattle panels (actually made for bulls with heavy oblong tubing instead of round). My pastures are fenced with multi-strand high tensile that is electrofied. I live on sandy soil, so I have a two-wire fence system in which I ran a ground conductor. The ground wire is right next to the hot wire - bridge the two and you are in for a heck of a shock! Because of the sandy soil, I cannot rely on the earth to complete the circuit. Then again, my horses are thick skinned drafts.


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## MollyK (Mar 19, 2010)

My stallion is in a single wire high tensil fence. He's not your typical stallion, even though he has his moments! He has a lot of respect for fencing and people 
Pretty soon I will move him into a no climb fenced pasture. He does exceptionally well in this pasture. It has a single electric line running along the top. 
I never use barbed wire with my horses. I have seen my neighbors horse rip his ENTIRE chest off and one of his shoulders. surprisingly they got him all fixed up. it was horrible. 
But good luck fencing in your place! all my pastures except the one that has no climb are either single wire high tensile or 2 wires.


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