Horse Manure vs Cow Manure

As a new gardener, and at the risk of sounding silly, I have a question. Is either type of manure( cow or horse) better to use to ammend my beds this Fall?

In both cases, you want to make sure the manure has had a chance to degrade. it should not smell like ammonia, for example. You may also find that if you mix it with leaves & grass clippings now, you will have a finer product to put on your beds this fall.

To follow up on greenjay's great advice, fresh steer manure (I was always told) contains too many salts to put directly onto a planting area. I've been using horse manure to top dress a lot this summer (I have a lot to use!) and it's effect is much like that of adding grass, just chopped up. But allowing it to compost gives a chance for any seeds in the manure of any animal to burn out, along with any additives - for example, I feed my horses a deworming product every other month. I know that it takes 90 days to breakdown (possibly less, outside of the horse) but before then, I wouldn't want to treat my beds to a dewormer and lose all my worms.

HTH!

Thanks guys! I had feeling this would be the case, and I am thinking that it might be a bit easier to come by horse manure in my area than cow manure.

Glad to help!