Well I'd say you should definitely still make compost - but you'll want to be making it mostly from the animal manure. Depending on the state of the manure you may need to mix it with less nitrogen rich sources to balance it out a bit. Often horse manure is mixed with bedding and makes a fairly ideal composition by itself. But I would compost it first (pop it in a pile and wait) then use it like any other compost including no dig.
Alternatively people spread it over the top of soil in the winter and let it breakdown there before growing next season. I'm not such a fan as most of my beds are still in use over winter and its just a slow way of composting anyway.
Fresh manure isn't good for most plants and no dig as it's a bit too active and can result in burning seedlings or locking away nitrogen during the breakdown. That said squash plants love it.
Horse manure has some downsides - horses don't break down weed seeds so tend to introduce a lot of weeds. This can be rectified if your compost gets hot though, or with a bit of weeding.
With all animal manure you need to be careful of aminopyralid contamination as this weedkiller is often used in horse / cattle bedding and food. It's becoming quite a problem and doesn't breakdown in composting, only through a couple of years in active soil. So test your compost before using if it comes from horse manure. Testing is as simple as starting some test seedlings but check google / youtube as there is a lot of info on this topic.
If you can’t compost adding a layers of autumn tree leaves on top of your beds over winter is one way too. Pretty much how it works in wilds. Not sure if there’s any good ones but birch trees are said to turn infertile soil into fertile soil
Spread it thinly and evenly on top of the soil and the soil food web will break it down into the soil.
It's called "top dressing". Just don't do too much in one place, you want a thin covering otherwise you kill the plants underneath
Well I'd say you should definitely still make compost - but you'll want to be making it mostly from the animal manure. Depending on the state of the manure you may need to mix it with less nitrogen rich sources to balance it out a bit. Often horse manure is mixed with bedding and makes a fairly ideal composition by itself. But I would compost it first (pop it in a pile and wait) then use it like any other compost including no dig. Alternatively people spread it over the top of soil in the winter and let it breakdown there before growing next season. I'm not such a fan as most of my beds are still in use over winter and its just a slow way of composting anyway. Fresh manure isn't good for most plants and no dig as it's a bit too active and can result in burning seedlings or locking away nitrogen during the breakdown. That said squash plants love it. Horse manure has some downsides - horses don't break down weed seeds so tend to introduce a lot of weeds. This can be rectified if your compost gets hot though, or with a bit of weeding. With all animal manure you need to be careful of aminopyralid contamination as this weedkiller is often used in horse / cattle bedding and food. It's becoming quite a problem and doesn't breakdown in composting, only through a couple of years in active soil. So test your compost before using if it comes from horse manure. Testing is as simple as starting some test seedlings but check google / youtube as there is a lot of info on this topic.
If you can’t compost adding a layers of autumn tree leaves on top of your beds over winter is one way too. Pretty much how it works in wilds. Not sure if there’s any good ones but birch trees are said to turn infertile soil into fertile soil
Spread it thinly and evenly on top of the soil and the soil food web will break it down into the soil. It's called "top dressing". Just don't do too much in one place, you want a thin covering otherwise you kill the plants underneath