[Appsolute]

Does your horse property have a fence between the horse facilities and any public roads?

Just curious as to what the “norm” is.

[HorsesinHaiti]

I have a very small yard beyond what I no-climb fenced for the animals, but the rest of the house and yard are fenced and I rebuilt the gate. More for the sheep than the pony though.

All the rest of Deschapelles grazing space though - no chance!

[bighorsielittlehorsie]

Yes, my boarding facility has a fence with a gate that is kept closed all the time. It is absolutely necessary though as the facility runs alongside a really busy road with traffic that drives way too fast.
In fact, just a few weeks ago, a car was going way too fast for the slick road and totally took out a telephone pole right next to our outside arena!

[quietann]

We've been on my BO for a while to fence the property, or at least the two sides that run along busy roads. Almost 30 years ago, when she built the barn, the area was quite rural. That is no longer the case. A gate might be overkill, and to be fair, along one road it's partially fenced and where it's not, there's a big hedge, but the corner that is open freaks me out.

[Couture TB]

The whole property here is fenced in with two gates. One large enough for trucks to get through, the other is a small one for people. And if any of the boarders, guests, students, etc leave either open there is h**l to pay

[JoZ]

Nope, no fences around the farm where I board. But it is 110 acres and on a VERY quiet road. When horses have gotten out of their stalls/paddocks/pastures, they are inclined to wander DEEPER into the property, looking for grass or buddies.

I find a hard time imagining a situation in which any one of our horses would be so spooked by something on the farm that they'd make the effort that it would take to get to the road.

The worst thing around here is when the landlord calls and says "one of your horses is in the Hmong garden". It's a commercial garden i.e. these people's livelihood, growing flowers for grocery stores and produce markets, and we have enough problems with floods and acid soil -- they sure as heck don't need a bad fat horse munching the dahlias!

[ddashaq]

Yep, there is a fence around the entire farm (former TB breeding farm), and one of the gates is always closed. The other gate stays open, but it is well away from the barn/pastures and is not the direction horses typically choose when they get loose. When I was in Iowa, none of the farms I boarded at had perimeter fencing, but they were also in very remote sections of farm land with no major roads.

[BeeHoney]

Mine is. Obviously a solid perimeter fence to a large property can get expensive, so I think there are some considerations when deciding whether or not it truly is necessary. I think any side of the property with access to a road has to be fenced. Usually horses that get loose go for an initial gallop, and then dance around and head for grass/buddies. You need to be sure that initial dash isn't out into the road. Depending on how your driveway is situated, a gate on the driveway may or may not be necessary. The number of boarders and age/reliability of the horses on the property is another issue. If you have mares and foals or are breaking young stock, I think a perimeter fence is a little more critical.

[skykingismybaby1]

My boarding barn is in a public park. The side toward the road is fenced and gated, but the gate is left open during the day. Rangers lock the gate at sunset or when the barn is closed, which is around 8pm during the week. Good thing is that anytime a horse has been loose - they have always gone toward the fields, which are in the back of the property and surrounded by park land, but they never go far. My guy has riled the fields up and then put himself back in his stall.

[PRS]

Yes and no. I keep my horses at home, on my own property. My barn is fenced off from the road where you have enter the gate at the end of the drive way and go through another gate to get to it yet some of my pasture fences do border the road.

[bits619]

Answered for the barn I ride at. Pastures completely surround the perimeter of the property, and the front field with the driveway is a turnout pasture at night. The driveway gate is closed by the last rider to leave in the evening, or the barn owner.
I'm so paranoid about gates that if I arrive for an early lesson and the gate is still closed, i close it behind me, even though I'm fairly certain the bo has turned in all the horses from that field for the day. I also text her to confirm that i have closed the gate behind me in the evening. The gate can't be seen from the house, and she's had people forget to close it at night which is a huge liability.
So her property is completely enclosed, but not cross-fenced.

At our place, we always leave the gate closed to the front yard. Well I should say, MrB sometimes leaves it open even if he's left a dog or two in the backyard (for short trips, like grocery store.). I worry too much not to have all gates closed but that's just me!
We can see the front gate from the house, and i can't imagine not being able to glance and alleviate my worries of an open gate immediately.
Now, an electronic gate opener, now that would be lovely.

[katarine]

My arena is fully enclosed complete with a gate. My property is not, and i live on a very quiet road. the last place i boarded featured a barn fenced off from the busy road, and the arena was behind it. You could certainly 'ride out' but lessons and young colts were 'handled' inside a fence, you bet. a horse getting loose 'in the barn' had to jump a 5 foot fence to tangle with cars. It was on a very busy road, no other option would have been wise.

[Texarkana]

I've boarded at dozens of farms and worked at even more in various states around the county.

In my personal experience, perimeter fencing enclosing the entire property is NOT the norm (as it may seem from this thread). Driveway gates are more common than full perimeter fencing, but I would still say more farms don't have them than do. Most properties do not have the barn or horse facilities fully enclosed.

[Crackerdog]

My property is completely fenced, the gate is always closed and at night it's padlocked. We have a pony so we don't take any chances.

[callidorre]

The barn I board at is completely fenced in. There's a gate across the driveway. The last person to leave the barn each night closes and latches the gate. Then whoever gets there first in the morning opens the gates up for the day. It's more to keep any escaping horses in rather than people out since there's no lock for the gate.

[SMF11]

My farm has a fence/gate across the driveway. Whether it is closed depends on where the horses are. I aim to always have two gates (and fences) between the horses and the road. I live on a very quiet road, but on the other hand if the horses got out down the driveway potentially would be an attractive direction to take.

[exvet]

Our property has a perimeter fence with a couple of gates which we keep closed actually because of our dogs. Here range grazing is still practiced. It's the land owner's responsibility to fence their acreage/property if they want to keep things out (as opposed to in).

[tangledweb]

I do have trails and woods that you could find your way through to a road, but the road frontage is fenced and there is a fence around the arena.

One of the reasons I liked this place was it already had a fence and gate on the arena. I'm sure I ride 50% better in an arena with a gate.

[pAin't_Misbehavin']

No. I have a fenced arena, but only close the gate if I'm working with horse at liberty inside it. The perimeter of my property isn't fenced. But we live on a dirt road and we're a mile or so from the nearest road with any traffic.

The barn where I take lessons is similarly situated, with the same set up. Although they do usually close the arena gate when people are inside riding or lunging. Horses have been known to get away from people on occasion. Although they never leave the property - they generally head for whatever paddock their friends are in. They may play keep-away with their disgruntled handler for a bit, but they don't head for the horizon or anything.

Have any of y'all ever known a horse to get loose and leave all the other horses on the place and flee for parts unknown? Just curious - it seems to me that would be kind of counter to their herd instincts. Although that seems to be what happened with the horse on the other thread.

[rustbreeches]

Our perimeter fence is barbed wire with cattleguards at our driveway and the ditch road. The horses are behind smooth wire. Conceivably they could jump the cattleguard but I doubt it