"Swingman" wrote...
:
: Being raised on a horse farm and having used many types of fences, he
: may want to rethink the round posts and the rail dimensions, unless he
: wants to put up electric wire on the inside.
:
: Those proposed 1 x 6 rails will not hold up to the inevitable horse
: shenanigans ... ideally they need to be 1 1/2" thick and that will
: obviously impact your plans to cut "slots" in your posts.
:
: I like square posts for a wooden horse fence ... it is easier to replace
: the inevitable broken rails if you nail (galvanized) them on. It is
: difficult to replace rails that run through a post. I've had to deal
: with this very thing using concrete posts and through rails, so DAMHIKT.
:
: That said, you usually have to make the mistake to realize the wisdom of
: experience ...


I too was raised with horses and agree with every point Swingman makes.
Horses get bored, even in a pasture full of grass and other horses, and
will eat any wooden rails provided for their entertainment. They also love
to scratch their asses on the fence and I've seen plenty of rough sawn 2x8s
broken by them. Fence maintenance was a weekly task until we added a
hot wire along each and every rail.
No way would I ever consider mortising the rails into the posts on a horse
fence. Use really sturdy posts (we used old telephone poles) and spike the
rails solidly to them.
Art