Horse Manure

Yoshi, my homestead horse. 

Meet Yoshi, superintendent in charge of manure production. Often referred to as the mobile lawn ornament, this retired ranch horse is an important farm employee. She works 365 days a year, demands minimal benefits, never takes a vacation, and doesn't belong to a union. She helps keep the pastures under control, keep my land taxes low, and produces all the horse manure I need.

Having on-site manure production is a farm requirement for my homestead. Years ago I use to go out a gather manure from others' pastures, but often the timing was wrong. Other gardeners beat me to the close piles, so I had to hand carry buckets a distance. Trudging around unimproved pastures dragging five gallons buckets was work! Manure gathering was time consuming. Plus I never knew when medications and dewormers were being used on the horses. I didn't want manure with unwanted chemicals in it.

Having always enjoyed horses, I wanted one of my own for the farm. While just the fact that it would produce horse manure was plus, I wanted a safe horse that wouldn't intentionally hurt me. If I were able to ride, that would be a bonus, but it wasn't mandatory. I initially purchased two horses with the fantasy idea that hubby and I would go riding together. That never happened, so my hubby's horse was sold. That left Yoshi as the farm horse.

Horse manure is one of the ingredients of my compost. It's a very important source of fertilizer on the farm. Using compost really works well for me, helping this homestead to be reasonably self reliant. No need to purchase commercial fertilizer for the gardens.