Over the years, we have used many different kinds of fencing and seen many others. All have plus's and minus's.
In Hawaii, the boarding stable we had our horse had welded pipe (oil pipe?). 3 & 4 bars. We only had our horse for 1 year and went to the stables for about 2 1/2 yrs before returning to the US.
Some of the barns we went to in VA had wooden fences. Some boards were bolted on, some slid into slots cut into the posts. One had fences that that were angled and the boards lay atop each other (a lot of wood! but think it was cut from the property?). Others had various types of wire. I was a pre-teen and don't remember much more than that...
In CO, when growing up, we used barbless wire for 3 or 4 strands attached to heavy, round wood posts in the corners and attached to T-posts along the long fence lines. A single strand of barb wire on top kept the horses and large ponies off the fence. Also had our first intro to cattle panels in 1977 - when we purchased our "farmette" of 5 acres and two runs attached to the barn had cattle panel raised off the ground on round wood posts with a wood 2x4 covering the edges top & bottom (all from inside the pen). The panels were attached with fence staples and the 2x4 boards were attached with lag screws.
Most of the ranches I was around used some type of wire fencing, sometime barbed, sometimes barbless and sometimes field fence. One of the ranches I worked for had welded oil pipe for fencing around their smaller pens for the yearlings - the pipe were the posts and the top rail (4"round) and then a combo of smaller pipe and heavy steel cable for the fences.
In MT, our fences were cattle panel attached to round wood posts for the pasture and paddock fences. The round pen were treated landscaping timbers put on round posts with lag screws.
Here in NC, there are issues getting fences hot and staying hot (dry sand doesn't work for grounding), sometimes. I think I have some type of sink hole in one of my new pastures - the fence posts i put in for the one paddock/pen of cattle panels keep disappearing(sink right into the ground)! The panels stay in place... Currently the panels are either "tied" with steel wire or with haystring to T-posts. The haystring lasts longer than the wire (too small/light diameter). Tried zip-ties once. That does not work - so temporary as to last only a day or two in some cases!
When we've had actual wood board fences - we've had the most injuries both in CO and in NC (head, neck, body, legs) - over a 10 year period in CO and a 5 year time frame in NC.
The boarding barn I leased 4 acres from for 7 years had pens made out of the Ramm Fence (vinyl "boards" w/ 2-3 strands of high tensile wire thru it - looks like wood fence from a distance, better than straight high tensile wire). Those pens were NICE - but the ponies needed a hot wire strung at their chest level to keep them on the correct side of it. The 2 round pens are made from the portable fence panels (heavy steel type), the riding arena is a wooden fence - two boards on round posts and the pastures are high tensile wire - 4 & 5 strands.
Using the cattle panels and field fencing (even the diamond mesh wire specifically made for horses) has created it's own share of injuries - some really ugly and time consuming to treat. Easiest for me and the pre-teen daughters to put up and maintain ourselves was high tensile wire. But w/o it being hot somewhere, the ponies didn't stay between those wires, LOL. We are currently using a combination of fencing - none fantastically pretty like I'd always wished for, but easy enough to maintain and keep our ponies in... And it's amazing how much time you always spend on maintaining any type of fencing. There is no such thing as "no maintenance required" when it comes to fencing, in my opinion. I've used Horse Guard (type of hot tape) and LIKE it - getting ready to reuse and put up some new here on our new property.
A friend used Cameo fencing - and along with one strand of hot wire with full size horses - LOVED/s it. Believe she still uses it - many, many years later.
Gates have also been a combination. The ponies are crafty - they can destroy a wooden gate of just about any type in minutes if they so choose! I used a cowboy gate (5 or 6 strands of braided haystring attached to a PVC upright that fit into loops on the post to draw it tight) - until ponies realized it wouldn't hold them & they crawled right thru (after several years of using that gate, 2 Arab mares blew right thru it - completely destroying it and from then on, it never did contain any of our equine,so we finally put up a real gate - but it worked for a long time when I needed it to and we didn't have the extra $200+ for the gate). It was as if the Arab mares laughed and told everyone - won't hold any of ya - go thru it.). I've had the "flat" aluminum style stock gates, wooden slide gates, pipe gates w/ bars, pipe chain link gates & pipe cattle panel gates. Yep, more than once we had gates lifted right off of the "L bracket" posts and the ponies paraded them around. Now, even when the "L posts" are turned opposite of each other, I always use some type of rope or chain at both the top and the bottom of such gates - especially around the stallions! Do ya have to ask "Y"?...
One of mine crawled UNDER a horse size round pen panel, and proceeded to create mayhem. She also went through snow fence. Just because they're little doesn't mean they aren't devious....
