I checked with my neighbor, who has some vinyl fencing for his llamas. Most of his gates are like mine: Priefert 16-gauge tubing in most places, except for one white vinyl gate nearest the house where he wanted it to look nicer. He says that gate kits are available for vinyl fencing, and usually end up being most practical since they include all the parts needed. He suggested this as a useful link to explain how vinyl gates are usually installed for horses:
http://www.gardnerfence.com/images/Vinyl_Horse_Gate_Installatio3.pdf
He put up one of those one-post signs in front of his place, mounting it on a 4X4 wooden post that he set deep in concrete and then just slipped a white vinyl sleeve over the wood. It looks nice.
There appear to be a lot of You Tube videos on how to install vinyl fences and gates. There must also be folks in this group who know a lot more about handling serious vinyl gating than I do, but I hope this helps.
(My gates are all 16-gauge tubing, like this one. http://www.priefert.com/ProductDetails/gates-264/bull-gates-453/rg216 . I gave up on the lighter ones because the horses kept squabbling over them - even though they were as tall as the fence, there was no hot wire - and finally bending them enough to knock them off their hinges, jump or climb over, and chase each other around. My posts are all round, heavy wood with the hooks screwed in and the gate clamps setting the gate itself as high as I want it. I changed out one of these by myself, although it's easier with two people, of course. Finally, at the gate they fought over most often, I added an electric "spring gate" at the top.)
Thank you for the information and your suggestions.
I have several types of fence... hot wire in the
pasture, corral panels for some fencing, cattle
panels for others and a 3 board fence near our road
and driveway. The board fencing has a strand of hot
wire on the inside.
I still need to know how most horse people set up the
gate posts. In my opinion a gate is heavy. I wouldnt
want to see it break or crack a vinyl post, or have
damage done if a horse pushes on it when hanging his
head over for socialization.
Joyce
------- Original Message -------
>From : Kathryn Berck[mailto:ksrberck@prodigy.net]
Sent : 7/30/2012 7:33:23 PM
To : DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Cc :
Subject : RE: Re: [DIY] Vinyl Fencing... Gate Post
It won't take anything like a whole day for a
horse to either
destroy or kill itself on just about any kind of
fence if it sets
its mind to it, or just by accident. Two minutes
is plenty of time,
IME.
You should be able to use your vinyl fencing,
though, unless it's
too fragile. If it's less than 54" high
installed, for example, you
can run a line of electric tape above the highest
rail.
If you haven't had to fence horses before, this
is an extremely
thorough and accurate primer; it includes a lot
about layout, about
gates and posts, etc. It taught me a lot when I
first started out
taking care of my own horses:
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/ub037.pdf
This is a nice link, too, with a lot of sound
info on different
types of fences:
http://www.fivestarranch.com/articles/horse-fence.html
Here is the stable in Virginia where I boarded
one of my horses.
The photos aren't great, but you can see that the
fences were wood,
almost five feet tall, with a line of electric
wire around the
inside near the top to keep the horses from
leaning and pushing.
http://www.criswoodfarmandtackshop.com/
This is the standard in Virginia, so when I
brought the horses to
Texas, where the standard is wire, I worried
about them simply not
seeing the fence. That's why I had the tape
added at the top, and
they saw it right away. When two geldings who
keep forgetting they
aren't stallions any more started quarreling over
the tape, I just
ran power to the tape. When they then shifted to
nipping at each
other between the lower lines of wire, I had two
lines of electric
wire run on one side at about 18" and 48", two
feet inside the
fence. Now they are, very reluctantly, more polite.
Most important, please courteously ignore anyone
who tells you that
barbed wire is perfectly safe for smart horses.
There are no smart
horses.
Hope this helps.
On 7/30/2012 6:58 PM,
snaffles@essex1.com wrote:
I should have added that the grass lots
that will be
enclosed by vinyl are a temporary
pasture for the
horses. They would only be in there
during the day...
and only a day at a time.
Tell me more about the fences in
Virginia. The gate
posts are sturdier? Are they wooden?
I was very lucky and picked up this
vinyl fencing
from a lady who moved and pulled up all
her vinyl
Fence. None of it was set in concrete.
------- Original Message -------
>From : Kathryn
Berck[mailto:ksrberck@prodigy.net]
Sent : 7/30/2012 11:36:37 AM
To : DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Cc :
Subject : RE: Re: [DIY] Vinyl
Fencing... Gate Post
Sorry if this rambles a bit -
Horses not only push on fencing, they
also love
to scratch on fence
posts and gate posts, exerting
considerable force
while doing so.
Although vinyl fencing isn't as
satisfying to
scratch against
because it's so smooth, they will still
use it in
the absence of
anything rougher.
I am lucky enough to have bought my horse
property with pastures
already laid out but with wire fencing;
swapped
out that barbed
wire, of course, for something less
quickly fatal
to suicidal
animals; would have loved to have put
up wood or
pipe, but couldn't
afford it. My mesh fences are supported by
telephone-pole thick
wooden posts set at least four feet
into the
ground every 30 feet or
so, with simple T posts between and a
string of
hot tape all around
the top to discourage leaning and
nipping at one
another, and to
make the boundaries more visible. The
gate posts
are either similar
no-fooling-serious wooden posts, or are
heavy
pipe set it concrete,
also running about four feet deep. If I
were to
be able to use
vinyl i would still follow the examples
I saw in
Virginia, where
vinyl fencing can be seen on very wealthy
properties, the corners
and the gate posts are far beefier than the
running fence. If I
remember right, they are normally iron
set very
deep in concrete,
then disguised with the pretty stuff.
On 7/30/2012 6:04 AM, snafflesnshelties
wrote:
We will be putting up our vinyl fence
this fall. I hope.
There will be 3 pipe gates that measure
5 and 6 feet.
The areas of this fence will hold
horses. Horses often
push against a fence when watching
something.
What is the best method for setting the
gate posts in this
situation?
Thank you
Joyce
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