How to Build a Cable Horse Fence
Using a cable horse fence has its advantages. It is safer than barbed wire and easier to maintain than wooden fences. Many manufacturers have cable made specifically for making horse fencing. This cable is rubber coated for less injury to a horse making contact with it. Building a cable horse fence takes some carpentry skill.
Items Needed
- measuring tape
- doweled wood fence posts with tapered ends
- post pounder
- doweled rails
- cable
- nails
- hammer
- insulators
- termination insulators
- screwdriver
- Lay your posts on the ground where you want your fence. Space the posts eight to twelve feet apart.
- Using the post pounder, pound each post into the ground where you have already placed them. The posts need to be the same height above ground. Pound the posts deep enough that they are secure and cannot be moved back and forth by hand.
- Place a wooden brace at each end of the fence line. This is to make sure the last posts cannot be pulled out over time. The wood brace should be placed four feet from the end posts.
- Cut a 4-foot section of doweled rail, and nail it into the side of the brace. This should be nailed toward the top of each brace.
- Decide where you want your cable to run horizontally for the cable fence. Mark the posts, according to the distance you want between the cables height-wise. Make sure the marks are consistent in height on each post.
- Nail your insulators to the posts where you just marked them. On the end posts, use the termination insulators.
- Unroll the cable along the fence line.
- Secure one end of the cable to the top termination insulator.
- Walk the fence line, with the cable, inserting the cable into the top insulator in each post.
- Hand tighten the cable at the end of the fence with the termination insulator located there.
- Repeat steps eight through ten until all levels of cable have been secured with their respective insulators.
- Tighten all the termination insulators at one end until all cable lines are tight and secure.