# Has anyone built a round pen from vinyl fencing?



## longhorngal (Aug 4, 2005)

We really need a round pen but those panels are pretty expensive! Searching around, I found a couple of articles for vinyl horse fencing round pens. Much less expensive but was wondering if anyone here had built one or had any experience with one. 
Here's a link to one of the articles.
http://horses.about.com/od/horsetraining/a/buildroundpen.htm


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

I think a lot of how it would work would depend on what you plan to do with it. If you plan to exercise well broke horses in it with you in the middle, it might be just fine. But if you plan to start horses in them or turn them out in them to burn off some energy, I would advise against it. 

I used to train at a barn that was built brand new as I came in. Beautiful piece of land, gorgeous heated barn with all the amenities in plumbing, dust control, ventilation, big indoor arena, etc. All the outside perimeter of the front portion was done in paddocks with vinyl fencing. It was stunning.

We soon found out that the vinyl fencing was terribly fragile. If the horses were at all young, we found we couldn't turn more than one horse out in it at a time. The rambunctious youngsters would get to playing and could break 'boards' with a bump of the hip. A swift kick would shatter them. A couple of good ol' boys who just wanted to graze would get along fine; but even then, sometimes we had to drylot the horse first to get rid of the fizz before they could be safe in the vinyl pens. 

One of the pens ended up being more of a turnaround area for trailers, and another became more of a riding pen. We put the horses in sturdier fences.

Another option for your round pen might be post and rail. I built one here at my place years ago out of lumber salvaged from when our 4-H arena was changed to all pipe panels to accomodate cattle work. It was great because I could work with horses who were confirmed pullers by tying them to the posts with a single strand of jute baling twine. If they didn't care to stand tied, they could run awhile. Then I'd stop them and tie them again with another strand of baling twine. I changed the behavior by helping them to change their minds. No fancy clips or hitches, and no injuries.


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## longhorngal (Aug 4, 2005)

Thanks for the reply. Yes it would be for broke horses. I had no idea vinyl fencing was so fragile not having had any experience with it at all. We did make an "arena" of sorts with electric fence tape and posts but it wasn't hooked up. Worked fine for riding until the cows decided the grass in there looked pretty good and bulldozed it over! That was our first year in the country LOL. Now I know to consider the cows too! 

I'm going to keep thinking about it as we really need something and it seems like we could build something a bit bigger if we go with the fencing.


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## longhorngal (Aug 4, 2005)

This looks like another interesting option too.
http://www.fencingsolutions.com/#Designing%20the


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## Cheribelle (Jul 23, 2007)

Cara, thanks. That is a good looking, practical, fence.


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