Repairing a Broken Horse Fence May Prevent Greater Horse Problems

Ben Theyre's stallion, PassU (right), and Little Mare at the fence line. Did last winter's broken fence lead to an unintended consequence?

A broken horse fence in winter might lead to greater problems. Procrastinating a horse fencing repair could allow horses to escape their pastures and paddocks. One Saturday last fall, I spotted a problem with our horse fencing. A laneway separating two horse paddock areas behind our barns narrowed to a point, rather than being situated at an equal distance its full length.

I mentioned this problem to Vanessa. She agreed we should correct it soon if we were going to put our stallion, Pass-U, in his winter paddock. When it's cold, we contain all the horses in paddocks next to the barns. From there, we can bring them inside quickly if the weather gets nasty. They're also protected from the northwest wind carrying lake-effect snow. And, we can easily bring them into the barn for grooming. Generally, they seem to enjoy interacting with us when the days get short.

The laneway separates PassU's paddock from the one where four geldings and Little Mare, (www.bentheyre.com) a 13.2-hand purebred Arabian mare, spend the winter. PassU enjoys this arrangement: He can prance back and forth, snort, and talk to the horses. All seem to coexist in harmony in their winter stabling. In their respective paddocks, there's plenty of territory to spread out, if necessary.

Still, that narrowing laneway provided a critical separation between stallion and mare.

Yet, I procrastinated.

An Arctic Blast
November came and went. Preparing for Christmas is a great excuse to procrastinate. Then came the New Year, and we celebrated everything we'd accomplished in 2006. Unfortunately, correcting the laneway fence wasn't on that list.

Last December and January, the weather in the Finger Lakes was unseasonably warm, with temperatures often reaching the 50s. Grass kept growing. We had pasture and open water well into early January. PassU didn't need to be in his paddock - he was able to romp and roam on our lower 10 acres, complete with a pond. He was also out of sight of the 8-year-old maiden mare.

The inevitable came to pass when the weather pattern changed.

In late January, arctic air plunged into New York from Canada. The mixture of cold air and the open waters of the Great Lakes produced record snowfall in upstate New York. Some areas received 10 feet of snow in one week!

Here in Canandaigua, we were a bit more fortunate; we received only a couple of feet in that particular storm. But it just kept snowing. We brought the horses into their winter quarters, where they were protected from the harsh weather.