alright, alright, you guys are right [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] I just called the home despot, and lowes and each of them wants $4.97 apiece, for the 4X4 PT 8' long. So, I guess my only other question is are there any drawbacks to using the PT stuff around horses? Will they chew up the posts and be poisened by the CCA or is it a common practice to use the CCA stuff around the horses. I have checked with the local sawyer and he wants around $4.30 for the Hemlock. Since I only want to do this job once, I will gladly pay .70 more for the PT if it will be safe for the horses. As usual my thanks goes out to all who reply [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] Your experiance will help alot with this project [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
As everyone else has said, I wouldn't put anything but PT in the ground. Re the horses chewing - either use a string of electric tape on top to keep them away from the fence, use the pvc plastic covers, or paint some old motor oil on them. They don't like the taste. (Whether it's pressure treated or not you don't want the horses chewing on your fence). The motor oil would have to be reapplied periodically as will any no chew product. (They make stuff just for this purpose but it gets a little pricey and I always thought it was a pretty good use for the old motor oil. Gives the wood a nice patina too)
Usually horses won't bother the posts. Are they chewing on your other posts now? They would have to eat a tremendous amout of wood to have it affect them. They usually will chew because of their natural instinct to graze. As long as they have good pasture or plenty of grass hay they will leave the fence posts alone. It's usually the guys feeding high quality alfalfa where you see the chewing problems.
Well, I had 2 horses on the property 4-5 years ago, when the fences were in good enough shape to contain them. Now the fences are a mess and I am working on reinstalling them. When they were on the property, they seemed to chew on the top rail. The old fence did not have a hot wire on it, this new one will.
What do you guys think about using the electrical tape Vs the single strand of wire for the electric fence option. I have a few spools of the single stand, and only one spool of the tape type. Does one work any better than the other?
I have tomorrow off from work and will go get the PT stuff from either Lowes or HD, I will have to check to see if there is any difference in the PT quality between the 2 chains, since they are the same price at each. What do you think about putting a shovel full of gravel in the bottom of each hole, before putting in the post? Would it do any good, is it worth the trouble?
PT posts are made from Sothern Yellow Pine (SYP). It is a soft wood (like any pine) that is easily damaged by chewing. However, SYP does not seem to be very appealling to horses tastewise, which is why untreated SYP is often used to construct horse stalls. Add the CCA flavoring and most horses will leave them alone. It would take a real beaver to ingest enough CCA treated lumber to be a problem. But rails are much more appealing then posts for chewing.
This is the ultimate in electrified wire: 5/16" Hotcote
If you have relatively straight fence lines the other PVC/wire products (Belt rails and coated wire) and are fantastic for horses. Low maintainence and, I believe, the PVC wire belt fencing is considered the safest type of horse fencing.
We backfill our posts with stone dust. At $8 a yard you can backfill a lot of posts cheap. It is well draining and locks up like cement whan packed.
All of our pastures are 1 1/2inch electric tape. Line posts are t posts covered with plastic sleeves. Corner posts are 4 x 4 pt also covered with pvc sleeve. Looks good, little maintenance, very horse safe. re The single strand high tensile wire: I've seen pitures of horses that have been startled and went through one of these fences. Acts just like piano wire and cuts right through everything. While horses seem to be able to hurt themselves no matter how safe you try and make things, I wouldn't use high tensile wire - just not worth the potential injury. (Of course my neighbor uses old rusted single strand electric wire about 30 inches high, falling down in places, and his horses never get hurt!!) Go figger!!!!! Bottom line is the tape is very horse safe and very effective.
Interesting, thanks for the reply, Since I only have one roll of it currently, do you splice it somehow when joining spools? What are the sleeves that you are talking about. Are the like a 8 foot long 4 X 4 box that slides over the post? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
It all depends on how many strands you have up Gerard. I've had some pretty wild horses just bounce off of high tensile fencing. One strand could cut a horse but I've never had it happen. I do agree that if you want to spend the money that coated high tensile wire is nice. Can that be electrified though?
Yes, the PVC coated wire can be electrified. Check out that link I posted. It's called Hotcote, it has carbon seams embedded in the PVC that act as a conductor between the wire core and the surface of the coated wire. Usually you'd run a couple hot wires on the top and bottom and use the regular coated wires for middle strands.
The PVC belt fencing gets a little pricey, but we have some of the 5/16th PVC coated wire and it was pretty cheap. Not as cheap as regular wire I'm sure, but still pretty cheap. We are putting up a 2 acre pasture now with 1 four inch belt on top and 4 coated wires underneath. I'll post some pictures when it's done (if it ever stops raining around here). We are not using any electrified strands as we haven't had a problem with the horses abusing the fencing in our small paddock, which is CCA PT rail and post.
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