Monday, 31 July 2017

Horserail Review


Last week I had to have some posts replaced for the fencing around the field.  The fence has been in place for just over 7 years now and because the soil is heavy clay it is not ideal for wooden posts.  The posts rot and break off at ground level :(


I had a few replaced last year but some more have broken this year, it will be an ongoing job I think.  However, it made me think about how happy and impressed I have been with the fencing I chose. 
As those of you who follow my blog or my You Tube channel will know, Basil is a windsucker/crib biter.  Despite trying many different things with him in the nearly 10 years I have owned him I have not managed to stop him.  He not only cribs in the stable but also in the field, where he finds a post or rail! 

Where I kept the horses previously the fencing was traditional post and rail and after 2 years of Basil many of the top rails were half chewed through – which looked very untidy and meant constantly replacing them.  As you can imagine when faced with fencing in a new field I was keen to find an alternative.  Now and in the past I have  used electric tape to partition part of the field off to limit grazing, but Chesney often went through this and it blew down.  I was not keen to put an additional line of electric tape inside post and rail as that seemed excessive!

Whilst watching a video of Redwings Horse Sanctuary I noticed they had some amazing fencing – which the narrator said was electrified …. Horse Rail. So I looked into it more and found my solution.

 
At a distance the fencing looks like normal post and rail, you can choose how many ‘rails’ you have – I just have 2.  As it is flexible it also makes a really smart curve, which post and rail fencing is not so great for.  One side of my field is all curve! 


The ‘rails’ are made from polyethylene so they don’t splinter (another worry when Basil cribs), a wire is contained within the edge of the fence which is then electrified.  This means that horses don’t lean on it or chew it!  I also have a single ‘wire’ on posts around the rest of the field which keeps the horses out of the ditch on one side.  It runs inside the hedge on the 2 sides because there are some thin places and I don’t want my horses running away.

The ‘rail’ is flexible so when a branch falls on it the fence bends but is still in place, a wooden rail would break with the possibility of escapees!

 
A couple of years ago Chesney rolled too close to the fence and ended up with one leg under the bottom ‘rail’.  If it had been wood he would have hurt himself but because it was flexible he got his leg back under safely and managed to roll back over. 

I really am so pleased with the fencing I would recommend it totally over any other type and it works out cheaper than post and rail too. 


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Until next time!

Jo

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