question about horse farms

[twickster]

Why do horse farms have double fences around the paddock? There will be a fence (usually post-and-rail) around the property perimeter, then another fence about ten feet inside that. Why do you need two fences?

[John Carter of Mars]

They use the space between the two fences to ride the horses in. It's a convenient workout area for them.

The post and rail fence is used for asthetics, and also because horses are frequently cut by barb-wire fences.

[twickster]

Why can't they just ride on one side or the other of a single fence?

[micco]

I don't know if this is a design reason or a consequence, but the double fences also prevent the horses from jumping the fence. Many horses can jump a standard fence, but they won't do so if there's an obstruction in the "landing zone". If you need to contain something that can jump the fence, you can either build a higher fence or a "wider" fence, and two fences are often cheaper and easier to maintain than a single high one. As John Carter said, they often uses the space between the fences to run horses without mixing one with another group, and I don't know whether they are designed for this and the anti-jump properties are a side effect or vice versa.

[Hanna]

Couple reasons:

When turning horses out in pastures that are farther out, it is easier to lead them through a lane than through a pasture full of other horses.

Stallion separation. You cannot turn stallions out with other horses, in most cases. When there are mares in heat nearby, they will stop at nothing to get to them.

The distance of the lane between fences is to guarantee they can't fight over fences.

Barb-wire is horrible for horses, never use it around them.

[twickster]

All very useful information, gang, thanks!

Sounds like there are a whole bunch of good reasons for the double-fencing.

[Hello Again]

This type of fencing has a name, which is "Stallion fencing." Stallions should not share a fencline with another horse, because they like to start fights with geldings and have been known to hop the fence and "take advantage" or mares.

Since Stallion fencing is expensive to build and maintain (and most people don't keep stallions anyway as they are a hassle in more ways than this), one usually sees this fencing on high-end farms that "stand" stallions for breeding on a regular basis. It is definitely a desirable feature when one considers buying a horse property.