I was offered a truck load of free horse manuer delivered right to my home. It was shovelled out of the barn all over the winter. I usually use sheep manuer but I can get this horse poop by a truckload. I suspect it will have a fierce oder...also contain seeds...am I right about this? Better to pass on offer or jump at it? I have quite large areas that would benefit greatly from manuer of this amount. Pls advise. Serena

Horses don't fully digest their food so the poop is full of seed as may be the straw that is put down in the stall to soak up the horses #1 and #2. Unless you want a whole garden of oats, you should compost the pile for at least one, and possibly two years. And yes it will likely be very smelly. It depends on how much straw is with the horse manure and what the horses were feed during the winter. I'd suggest you go look at the pile of manure, dig into it and give it a smell. The other caution to note is that horse manure is notorious for flies.

I'd grab it without hesitation. Mixing or covering with soil and allowing it to cure for a year or two would minimize any fragrance or fly problem.If that is not practical for space or any other reason, simply spread it and work it into the soil as soon as possible. A temporary whiff of this bonanza is a small price to pay for the fertilizer and humus conent that any garden needs and craves.

Besides being bad for seeds I heard that horse manure looses alot of nutrients over the time it takes to compost it. Would still be a good soil conditioner I guess but wouldn't consider it any where as good as cow, chicken or mushroom.

You are right about losing nutrients however it is a good source of fiber in the soil and does give the micro-organisms something to chew on and if you add some cottonseed meal or canola meal to it you will be pleasantely suprised at the result.

Go for *#it. Your garden will appreciate the 'stable' diet

Years ago we managed two horse stables and had unlimited access to all the horse manure we could use. We grew bushels of beautiful tomatoes, prize winning pumpkins, potatoes to die for, and three foot carrots. Come corn season we had the happiest racoons in Canada.

The garden was on clay so the rows were raised beds. In the spring we would fill the paths with the fresh -green horse manure. The stench was almost unbearable when cleaning the stables but in the garden it quickly dissipated. The following year the paths became rows.

Italian gardeners drove all the way out to the farm and plied me with their finest wines to load their buckets,bags,trunks and trailers full of horse manure

To have green manure delivered to your door we are green with envy.

Never look a gift horse in the (|) ........ :)

Horse manure is wonderful for your garden. Many stables are using wood shavings instead of straw for bedding and this is even better for your garden - no weed seeds!