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Horse manure of our yesteryear is not the same as today.
The pastures are treated with all kinds of herbicides and pesticides - which was proven by research to survive a horse’s digestion and is in manure persistent for years. Even if your horse uses food pellets- still there!
Turning it in the sun may help to break herbicides down. The high rainfall helps too
Add the pesticide all horses are treated with( just check in any agricultural stores on the shelves) - I had to reconsider using the horse and any other manure...
So, don’t use it on edibles.
Even the owner of the horse has no way of knowing if there were herbicides and pesticides in the feed
My garden couldn't be certified as organic, and it gets weeds (horse manure or not) - but it produces a lot more with manure than without. (Without, it's nothing. And is chemical fertilizer better?)
I doubt that my produce is any more contaminated than what is sold in the store. Much less, I would guess.
The one time I used fresh manure, I tilled it in my garden in late fall along with mulched leaves from my yard. The next spring and summer everything grew fine. No trouble at all.
This is what I do, only with rabbit manure. Nice dark rich topsoil in spring!
The best year of all in our garden was when I filled our new raised beds about two feet deep with fresh horse and chicken poop, direct from the stalls, mixed with shavings, all winter. Just used it as filler. In the early spring, I put several inches of nice garden dirt on top of it. Didn't mix it in, just added good dirt on top and planted. The rest of the state was still freezing at night in March and April, but my garden was warm and toasty and growing on top of all that fresh poo! Like an electric blanket.
Fresh horse manure is much too hot to mix right in to the garden, but it worked really well as a deep earth heat source
6-year old manure will have little or no nitrogen left, so it won't burn your plants and you won't see an immediate growth spurt.
It is a fantastic soil conditioner though, and it will pay dividends for years to come. I second the advice to use it as a top dressing/mulch - just kind of stir some of it into the top 3-4 inches, and leave the rest right on top of the soil. Most of the soil critters live in the top layer of soil, and you don't want to kill them by turning them under, as they have the huge job of keeping the soil fertile.
As others have noted, fresh manure will burn your plants. If you get fresh manure, you should be very picky, as it can contain noxious weeds, herbicides, and worming medicines, which can really harm your garden. Educate yourself a bit on these issues before you use fresh manure.
My garden couldn't be certified as organic, and it gets weeds (horse manure or not) - but it produces a lot more with manure than without. (Without, it's nothing. And is chemical fertilizer better?)
I doubt that my produce is any more contaminated than what is sold in the store. Much less, I would guess.
Hopefully.
Hope people would follow the directions in the links from the university that I provided on how to speed up the breakdown of chemicals in manure - to be on the safer side..
6-year old manure will have little or no nitrogen left, so it won't burn your plants and you won't see an immediate growth spurt.
It is a fantastic soil conditioner though, and it will pay dividends for years to come. I second the advice to use it as a top dressing/mulch - just kind of stir some of it into the top 3-4 inches, and leave the rest right on top of the soil. Most of the soil critters live in the top layer of soil, and you don't want to kill them by turning them under, as they have the huge job of keeping the soil fertile.
As others have noted, fresh manure will burn your plants. If you get fresh manure, you should be very picky, as it can contain noxious weeds, herbicides, and worming medicines, which can really harm your garden. Educate yourself a bit on these issues before you use fresh manure.
Wood chips, I might add are fantastic as a soil conditioner- especially 2-3 y o chipped/ cut brunches/ prunings
An ancient French farmers technique
Wood chips, I might add are fantastic as a soil conditioner- especially 2-3 y o chipped/ cut brunches/ prunings
An ancient French farmers technique
Cf- HugelKultur---Whereas organized raised beds are for those with OCD, HugelKultur is for the more slovenly among us They both accomplish the same thing.
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Like an electric blanket. 
