I try to smash the apples when they roll out of the pile which they seem to like to do a lot

LOL. I'm sorry. I'm being so immature, but I literally laughed out loud when I read about smashing rolling horse apples.

"I have been confused by the facts shared by others . Some say 3 months and others say a year before use."

Ya, sometimes it's tough to separate the chaff from the wheat.

I've never done HM but if I were to try, I'd be tempted to rototill it to break up those clumps and mix in some shredded leaves. A gentleman who used to be a member of this forum, roto-tilled his HM CP often. I always wanted to try that but never got around to it. Your question reminded me of his procedures.

Lloyd

LOL. I'm sorry. I'm being so immature, but I literally laughed out loud when I read about smashing rolling horse apples.

I can see that you are from the Bay Area . If you ever lived in Amish country that would be an everyday occurance . Nobody minds washing the car BUT nobody wants to take a high pressure hose to the wheel wells .

The longer you wait to use HM (or any type) the less available N, which isn't too high in the manure to start with- you'd be better using the alfalfa first. 'Course, you won't get that for free.
There are some who insist it be composted for a year, presumably to remove pathogens...but compost without manure can also contain pathogens.
A sensible approach says don't put raw manure near soon to be harvested produce.
My own method is to soil incorporate prior to sowing a cover crop, either spring/fall, buckwheat or rye/vetch.
The road apples or muffins have a hydrophobic mucous coating. Smashing or grinding will speed up breakdown.

The fellow who Lloyd refers to was Gone fishin', indeed a gentleman with a novel approach...judging from pics he posted, quite successful.

The Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health both have come out with a recommendation that all animal manures should not be applied to a soil that will be growing food crops sooner than 3 months after it becomes available and that that manure then should be tilled in before food crops are planted there. Better is to properly compost that manure before applying it to any soil that will grow any food crops.
The term "road apples" to refer to horse manure is used by people that are too squeemish to use the proper term manure, or by people that do not know what manure is.

Any links to CDC or NIH, I'd be very interested in reading them.

Link to their recommendation, please?

I wholeheartedly disagree with the road apple vs. manure statement. Just because I don't call what comes out of a human backside "feces" or "fecal matter" or "stool", and instead opt for "poop", or the more crass "sh!t", doesn't mean that I'm squeamish about it, and I certainly know what it is. ;)

Colloquialisms add color to language.
But I haven't seen "squeemish" before.
Must be a CDC or NIH term.
Maybe they squeem when confronted with scatology?

Well, I got horse manure from a very nice neighbor too. They let me go to the grassy feild where they let the horses hang out. So I raked an area that the horses hang out at a lot. I used a rake to pull it into piles and shoveled it up into bins to take home. This manure was already aged on their ground and broken down by their hooves so it went direct into my garden. Maybe your neighbor can lead you to a better spot to get the manure from that is already broken down.