The Art of Natural Dressage

What does everyone do with their horse manure?
Do you dung out or harrow?
Do you make compost with it and return it back to the ground?
How do some of you compost it?

I have always been an advocate of dunging out, there are so many benefits to it. Sometimes council takes some for their gardens etc, but my pile is getting rather big and messy.

I also know that a lot of nutrients is taken out of the ground through the grass and I would like to put some back.

Am I better to compost it then return it, or harrow, as the birds do half this process for me getting the insects and grain out of their feed.

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Live, Love, Dream

We just keep a pile, which keeps getting added to!
I put a local ad out and have a lady that takes regularly for her garden and a few community players that use the manure for vegatable garderns in the township. They come and collect and of course I take for my own garden. The underneath of the pile gets nicely composted and makes the most fab soil. The groom gets a little extra cash so is encouraged to pick it up!
When I lived in England we had a company bring and leave a skip to fill which they would replace once full. Maybe you have a company/garden center that will take away for you for free?

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Annette O'Sullivan

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. - John Lennon

I've recently "opened negotiations" to get a bunch of dung-beetles ....

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Glen Grobler

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon

How many?

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Love is Trust, trust is All
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So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

This is what one trainer came up with in response to the horses he boarded at his place:

http://www.naturesfurnace.com/

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"Ours is the portal of hope. Come as you are." -- Rumi
www.imaginalinstitute.com

Dung beattles would be interesting. We don't have them here, but I think they are trying to bring some in for the dairy farmers. It was turned down a few years ago so guess time would tell. Are there any negatives / consequences for having these beattles?

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Live, Love, Dream

big thumb-sized holes under every poo pile

Other than that, nope!

I live on a very small spot ( 1 acre for two horses) so I pick-a-poo every day, all year round. If not, our place would become pure poo-mud in a very short time. To save having to carry each shovel load very far, I make 7 smallish piles in the horse's area. Pure manure (no bedding) and small piles compost REALLY fast and turns black soil in a year. Then we tractor it out to a bigger pile outside the turnout area and sell it off to gardeners.

Still have to watch not to put hay on a freshly cleaned spot or they won't eat it all. And I use DE daily and wormer 2 or 3 x year.

for the last two years I've made two piles: one for urine and one for the pooh.
The pooh pile is spread in the fields two years after I stopped adding and the urine pile is spread out in the woods so it makes a nice even ground.
It is more time consuming but every second day, I bring my new dog for a ATV ride (in the trailer) and empty all my containers.
There is no pooh pile near the barn and no urine smell. So I'm happy about that!!

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Jocelyne
[Hug your animals everyday. You never know!