With the garden, greenhouse, and beehives now up and running on our property it’s time for the next project — building a barn and fencing in our pasture. Looking to get some guidance from folks on woven wire fence (I’ve read many of the older threads here but still have some questions).
The CFO sadly denied my request to buy a hydraulic post pounder, so I’ll be hiring out the work to fence our ~4 acre pasture. The plan is to raise sheep with a couple of standard donkeys as guard animals (and pets to be honest), but I want to build everything to work well for horses if we decide we want some in the future. The plan is to go with 5” round posts pounded into the ground (thicker corner posts - I forget the size), then run 4’ no-climb woven horse fence with three-board over it for aesthetics, using the top board to get us to about 4.5’ total height. We’ll run the wire and boards on the inside of the posts.
I’m in the middle of getting a quote from the fencing contractor who did our dog/yard fence, and have a few questions for the experienced folks here:
1) I’m trying to ensure we get class 3 galvanized wire. Doesn’t look like Red Brand sells that in a no-climb horse fence, but Bekaert and OK Brand seem to. Is there something else I should be looking at?
2) With horses, my understanding is you want to avoid 90 degree or sharper corners. How is this normally done with tensioned fence that needs bracing? Can you do two consecutive 45 degree “corners” instead?
3) We’ll want some curves in the fence line - see photo below. Bekaert’s install guide suggests swapping the fence to the other side of posts to keep it on the “outside” of a curve, but obviously we’d like to keep the wire and boards on the same side of the posts. For mild curves and posts 8’ apart will it work to keep the wire on the “inside” of the posts?
4) what about a larger “sweeping” 90 degree turn?
What else should I be concerned about making sure they do it correctly? Appreciate any thoughts or input.

The CFO sadly denied my request to buy a hydraulic post pounder, so I’ll be hiring out the work to fence our ~4 acre pasture. The plan is to raise sheep with a couple of standard donkeys as guard animals (and pets to be honest), but I want to build everything to work well for horses if we decide we want some in the future. The plan is to go with 5” round posts pounded into the ground (thicker corner posts - I forget the size), then run 4’ no-climb woven horse fence with three-board over it for aesthetics, using the top board to get us to about 4.5’ total height. We’ll run the wire and boards on the inside of the posts.
I’m in the middle of getting a quote from the fencing contractor who did our dog/yard fence, and have a few questions for the experienced folks here:
1) I’m trying to ensure we get class 3 galvanized wire. Doesn’t look like Red Brand sells that in a no-climb horse fence, but Bekaert and OK Brand seem to. Is there something else I should be looking at?
2) With horses, my understanding is you want to avoid 90 degree or sharper corners. How is this normally done with tensioned fence that needs bracing? Can you do two consecutive 45 degree “corners” instead?
3) We’ll want some curves in the fence line - see photo below. Bekaert’s install guide suggests swapping the fence to the other side of posts to keep it on the “outside” of a curve, but obviously we’d like to keep the wire and boards on the same side of the posts. For mild curves and posts 8’ apart will it work to keep the wire on the “inside” of the posts?
4) what about a larger “sweeping” 90 degree turn?
What else should I be concerned about making sure they do it correctly? Appreciate any thoughts or input.

. Pole had a level on it. She would hold it & I'd guide her L&R...then stick in ground mark.