New gardener +horse manure

Frank said:

We just decided to start a vegetable garden, were givin fresh horse manure. We spread and tilled it without composting .
How big of a mistake did we make?

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We use horse manure every fall and spring. But, I know that before we spread it onto our soil we always mix in some hay and grass and water that down into our soil first.. but some other farmers that we know say horse manure is not all that strong and won't burn out plants like other materials can. You may be ok.

I have horses and have planted things directly into or by accident, currently have a squash of some kind growing in my manure pile of fresh not composted manure. horse is very mild and can be used as a top dressing on trees,roses,asparagus. depending on what the horses where fed and what was used as bedding you may have a bunch of grasses grow up or oats in your garden. best thing to do after your harvest is to cover the area with a black plastic tarp and let it heat up to kill any grass weed seeds.
also check out the back to Eden gardening film for handy no till tips. it saves a lot of back breaking weeding and tilling and you can plant earlier with a better harvest.