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?
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.
Why can’t they just ride on one side or the other of a single fence?
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.
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.
All very useful information, gang, thanks!
Sounds like there are a whole bunch of good reasons for the double-fencing.
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.
If you have animals and want to keep them protected from coyotes or wolves, or prevent your animals from getting out, fences should not have spaces in between them and should be very tall. There needs to be some kind of barrier underground where the fence is posted, to prevent coyotes, wolves, or dogs from going underneath to get behind the fence or out of the fence.
Some farmers have very short fences with large spaces inbetween them and coyotes or wolves get to their sheep, horses, etc. Short fences with large spaces may tell many humans to stay away, but wolves and coyotes will just crawl through them or underneath them or jump over them.
I knew about a pitbull that attacked a pony. He got lose and broke the pony’s leg.
I think you submitted your question many years ago, but maybe you’ll get this comment or someone else will hopefully read it.
Wolves, coyotes, or dogs keep attacking farmers’ sheep, chickens, ponies, etc. because some farmers don’t have fences built to keep them away. Some farmers want to kill the coyotes in the area when all they need to do is build better fences for their animals.
The last two posts were from people who are not real conversant with keeping livestock predator-safe.
Coyotes are not a danger to horses. Dogs, as stated, may run horses into fences or hamstring them for jollies but coyotes know the risk/reward ratio isn’t in their favor. There are also quite a few horses who will kill a dog who gets into their pasture and can’t get out in time.
It is very difficult to fence out a coyote. The best protection for small stock is usually a livestock guardian dog or more than one. They are commonly used for sheep and goats. The dogs live with the flock and identify with them, not humans. Killing coyotes is a poor way to try to get rid of them as you just get new coyotes. There are always more coyotes where those came from.
This is an ancient thread.
I bet even zombies wouldn’t keep out coyotes any better than a good crew of livestock guard dogs. Unless they’re fast zombies. But normal shamblers? Naaah.
mynameisamanda, the original poster of this question hasn’t been around in 7 months, and the question itself is both (A) 14 years old, and (B) adequately answered in its original context. (Coyotes were never part of the question, nor do they really need to be.)
I’ll ask a moderator to close this thread out to prevent further necromancy.
Right.