(edited because I forgot to say: I have been quite pleased with the job the sheep do on cleaning up the roughs and weeds left by the horses. Have to keep sheep from getting into horse feed or horse mineral blocks, sheep are highly intolerant of levels of copper that are normally supplied to all other livestock. OTOH I know there are a bunch of people who *do* have horses and sheep pastured together so obviously it can be done. My ram escaped into the horse paddock a couple times (see above re: learning curve about sheep =/= horses w/r/t fencing) and they made him *miserable*, running him all around, even my exceedingly creaky and sorefooted senior TB was playing cutting-horse with the poor guy and I know people in Britain with various amusing stories about horses that enjoy picking smaller sheep up with their teeth (in the wool) and carrying them around. I can't give any direct advice on whether to allow them together. Or maybe only sheepproof enough for their winter needs (electronet is useless in snow). You do need to get the grass scalped way down to the ground along the fenceline and keep it that way, and when the mfr's say you "may" need extra posts nad tiebacks "in windy locations", my experience is that they mean "you had BETTER use extra posts and tiebacks, period"Īctually I think if I had a better fence charger and had it to do over again, I would probably go with the electronet-within-normal-horse-fencing option, rather than trying to sheepproof any of the horse fencing. I would not use it where *goofy* horses were on the other side of it, because a horse skidding into it and getting tangled up would be A Bad Thing but if you can close the paddock off, then a length or two or three of electronet can be used to run the sheep safely in there without having to make any structural changes to the "real" fencing. I've done most of my front paddock and driveway paddock in 2x4 wire (added to the existing 4-board wooden fencing, I mean) so that it can be dual use but the wet paddock, which is only for occasional sheep use, I've just got the small-stock fencing on the board fence.Īnother option that you might seriously consider is electronet. This is not the cheapest thing but is the safest for both species. IMO the ideal situation is 2x4 welded wire mesh along the bottom of the fence (with the aforementioned boards or wire-or-electric-twine added if there is any suggestion of sheep trying to break out). However using woven wire is of course a little riskier from the *horse* perspective, as a horse wheeling or slipping while running against the fenceline can put a foot catastrophically thru the mesh, as you know. Woven wire (like 4x4 small-stock mesh) is a lot better, and if there are places you expect they will test the fence, or if you SEE them testing the fence, add a row of boards just above the ground or a standoff electric wire at headbutting height. Just running a few extra strands of electric is a riskier way to go from a sheep perspective, unless you are ok with them getting out sometimes and are willing to play predator roulette (although if you can lock them into an extremely secure night yard, that will help against 'natural' predators, tho not against loose dogs). (Peoples' pet dogs included in the "predator" category). Also they are BIG predator magnets, unlike horses.
The two things sheep do that are a total non-issue with horses are they will headbutt the fence at sheep noggin level to see if they can make the fence go away by that means and they will wedge themselves thru the fencing from underneath (even if it is woven wire all the way to the ground, they will WORK on that bottom edge til they can create enough slack to get through).
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