It really depends. If I'm not going to be using the bed for a while, I put it on it. Otherwise, I put it in my compost pile and watch it. Piles break down differently, depending on the weather and what you mix with it. If you are hauling it yourself, wash any metal it comes in contact with immediately. It will burn the paint off.

I'd be wary of horse manure. Our neighbor used to dump his pony manure at our house. It was full of grass seeds. But then we didn't compost it. Hopefully you can destroy the grass seeds with a well heated pile.

It takes a lot of nitrogen to break down the shavings. We compost straight manure.

Unfortunately, most riding stables have way too much sawdust and shavings in the mix. Kinda reminds me of a bowl of Raisin Bran. A whole lotta bran, and not much raisins!
I used to have a "perfect" manure source, but they went out of business and it broke my heart. There was almost NO bedding in their manure and I carried it home by the trailerload.
I used to let this stuff compost for AT LEAST three months. Six is better.
From what I hear, because of today's economy, fewer and fewer parents are able to indulge their little princesses with horses anymore. The boarding stable owner (before he went out of business) told me people were calling him every day wanting to GIVE him valuable horses they couldn't afford anymore.

I don't think there were any shavings in it.

My BIL has horses, when he takes them to weekend trail rides, he has to lock up the trailer because he said many times people have returned back from trail riding and there will be a strange horse in the trailer, people are just dumping them because they can't afford them and can't find anyone to even give them to. The reason why there is so much bedding with the horse manure is because they don't want to take the time to use the big rake and shake off all the shavings, I know because I've mucked out plenty of stalls where I volunteer.

I haven't hauled horse bedding for a few years now. When I did, I just filled the gap between the rows. That worked for me. I have a regular garden; no raised beds - just raised rows. I had corn that wrapped all the way over the tips. Also, just piled it up around the bananas. They just went crazy.

I dumped a load of fresh with about 30% shavings, raked it level and planted roses within a week. No problems except some weeds and oats.

My rose buds over at the antique rose forum calls horse manure a "cold" manure as opposed to cow which is "hot".

Correct, it does not need to be composted before using. It will not burn like the cow manure.

Plus you can always make tea with it. I use to put 2 shovel full of fresh manure into a 5 gal. bucket and fill with water and let it sit for about 24 hrs and use it around the plants.

I realize this is a very old post. Wanda, would the 2 shovels of manure dissolve into the five gallons of water? Or would some solids remain? And, if so, would you just add more water to it?

Thanks!
Carol