I hate to say it but I'm just a tad bit pissed off about this situation. There is SHARP barbed wire all over that fence! That's extremely dangerous!

That is annoying, but I noticed that most farms I've been to have barbed wire around the top of fences and the horses don't mind it. I understand it's dangerous, but they do seem to avoid it.

Yes, I can understand that horses will learn from injury. If they get cut by the wire, they will definitely not make that mistake again. However, the possibility that the horse gets spooked still remains. When the horse gets spooked, they will run away from whatever it is that caused them fear. If that means they go for the fence, that fence is coming down or they jump over it. If the horse catches its leg on the loose wire, ... well, let's not even think about that any further. Someone really should be told about this potential danger. In this case, the danger is double. First it's barbed wire. Second, the whole strand of wire is loose.

To be honest, I have no idea why the metal gate has the barbed wire. Horses can't chew through metal heh. Many farmers over here put a strand of electric wire just above the top board on a wooden fence so that the horses won't crib (chew and bite down on) on the board. It gets expensive to replace boards that get chewed up constantly. I've never noticed anyone using barbed wire here though. Horses will crib on metal, but that is rounded, and it's a lot harder for them to crib on that. I don't see any barbed wire on the wooden fences. So weird!

There are also non-harmful methods to stop horses from wrecking pasture fences. The farmers can put some special paint or sticky resin on the fence boards. This stuff tastes horrible to the horses, and they won't eat it. So there are lots of other options. (Sorry for being a pain in the arse about this, but it is really dangerous)

No I totally understand what you are saying. It's just that every time I see a horse near barbed wire, they seem clever enough to know what it is and not to touch it. I agree that other options are much better, like the ones you mentioned.