Manakin Poo

Manakin Sabot Equestrian Center makes: Manakin Poo, A Premium Horse Farm Compost Proprietary aerobic composting process uses all natural materials from our horse farm in Manakin Sabot, Virginia: Manure, hay, stall bedding, leaves and other organic matter. Twenty horses make a lot of manure --- about 40 cubic yards each month! Our horses are turned out in the pasture overnight and before we bring them into the barn each morning, we have to clean their stalls. By hand. With a shovel, pitchfork and rake, we pile manure, spoiled bedding and uneaten hay into a wheelbarrow and wheel it out the back door to the manure pile. Kim and I took over this horse farm in May 2006. In the beginning, we paid a guy to haul away the manure each month. After writing a checks for a while, I figured there had to be a better way. A landscaper friend said, “Hey, Bruce, you ought to compost that stuff, and I’ll take it off your hands.” I did a little research and it turns out we have all the ingredients for a top quality compost: Carbon, nitrogen, water and air. Stall bedding – pine sawdust – provides the carbon. Horse manure and plant materials add the nitrogen, water falls out of the sky and we have plenty of fresh air here in rural Virginia. All that’s left is labor to turn the pile, and that’s my job. Our 20 horses do the eating and pooping, I supply the labor, and Mother Nature adds the magic to make you this terrific garden compost.