The Clydesdale problem is pressure, not jumping
A Clydesdale escapes slowly and then completely. He does not need to jump or squeeze; he leans his chest or hindquarters into a fence to reach grass, scratches against a post, or rests his weight on a gate while waiting to come in, and hardware designed for a lighter horse fatigues under that repeated load. Rails bow, screws work loose a fraction at a time, posts tilt in their holes, and one evening the boundary that looked intact at breakfast folds outward under a calm, determined lean. Your inspection should therefore measure movement, not appearance: every component gets pushed, rocked, and loaded, and anything that moves more than a fraction is treated as already failing.
Load-test rails, posts, and wire in sequence
Walk the inside of the field and work in order, putting your shoulder into each rail at mid-span and again beside the post, watching for flex, cracking sounds, and fixings that lift. Clydesdale height means his chest meets the top rail and his rubbing reaches lower rails with a hind foot not far away, so check the full height of the fence rather than only the line at your own waist. At each post, grip and rock firmly and look at the ground line for a widening gap in the soil, fresh tilt after rain, or rot where the post enters damp earth, because a post can look sound above ground while its base is softening out of sight.
Where wire or tape is used, check tension corner to corner and test any electric offset properly rather than assuming a clicking energiser means every strand is carrying that charge to the far end. Clear vegetation touching the line, repair broken insulators that let a strand sit against wood, and look for stretches where this big horse has learned a dead section exists, often shown by chewed or rubbed rails right beside it. Pay attention to gateways and water points, where heavy feathered feet churn mud that buries bottom strands and loosens the posts everyone passes daily.
Gates must hold a leaning horse, not just close
Hang your own weight on the closed gate, then push low and high in turn, listening for hinge strain and watching whether the latch end drops or springs. A gate a Clydesdale leans on daily needs hinges, posts, and a latch sized for that habit, with no chain arrangement that stretches or slips a link under steady pressure. Check that the gate cannot be lifted off its hinges by upward pressure from a chest or a hooked headcollar area, confirm the gap beneath stays even rather than widening as the gate sags, and inspect the receiving post as carefully as the gate itself, since that post takes the load when he pushes. Keep the area inside the gate free of deep mud where his weight driving downward makes every push stronger.
Schedule checks around weather and use
Repeat the loaded inspection after storms, after prolonged rain softens post holes, and after any day you see him rubbing hard enough to shake a rail, because mass damage accumulates in those moments. Replace a doubtful rail outright instead of sistering guesswork beside a horse this heavy, and record which corner or gateway needed attention so the pattern is visible by the second repair. If he still eases a boundary open and ambles onto a lane, a ready profile on KinsLe in the Lost Pet Alert System spreads word around the area and lets whoever takes hold of him reach his owner through that profile.