Usually when Ange and I gather manure, the horses are all over us wanting some love (or more likely, treats). It's sometimes difficult to shovel unless one of us lures the horses away with grass. This year, for the first time ever, none of the horses were even remotely interested in what we were doing. That is, once they realized we didn't have any food for them. It was easy going -- in no time we had multiple bags filled. We always look for the driest manure available, so it's light for us to shovel and much of the decomposition has already taken place. Once home, we re-filled our vinyl garbage containers with manure, ready-to-go for next spring. Done! Cross that off the list.
Trivia: A 1,000-pound horse produces approximately 40-50 pounds of manure every day. That translates to about eight and a half tons per year! Add bedding to this and the amount of stable waste only grows.