[greenhead]

Question - can fresh horse (stable ) manure be used on top or dug in straight away?

[smurf]

im no expert far from it, but im lead to belive it should be well rotted before it is used
if your going to dig it in now but not plant till spring it should be ok. but to plant straight away might cause a few probs

[noshed]

It's quite fierce when fresh - the best thing would be to pile it up, cover it with some old fertiliser bags or something and let it rot over winter. The urine-soaked straw should heat up quite quickly and rot away.
You could use it on bare beds as a mulch but it may not rot much come the spring and you'd be left with a very strawy bed. It will keep the weeds down though.

[greenhead]

Thanks noshed and smurf for the info,  I have been offered 18 bags of the stuff, will heed your advice.