The number of horses has grown steadily in Finland in recent years, about one thousand individuals per year. Nowadays the majority of the stables are located near the towns and because of this problems have appeared in the final disposal of manure. It will be often difficult to organize the manure maintenance when there are no fields in the immediate surroundings and all the dumps cannot take any more horse manure.

The subscriber of this thesis is Horse Friends Oulu Ry which operates in the premises of real estate company Oulun Rantatalli Oy in Oulu. The aim is to find an alternative solution to the present manure maintenance of the stable. The aim is to clarify if the composting of peat litter or linen litter would be a solution to this problem. Furthermore, the aim of the thesis was to clarify the opinion of shareholders of the stable, the tenants of stalls and workers on the operating characteristics of sawdust litter, peat litter and linen litter. The objective was to find the litter with the best operating characteristics.

The material for the thesis was gathered with questionnaires and with compost tests in the summer 2012. The subscriber chose peat litter and linen litter as litter materials to be examined. With the help of compost tests the arranging of the composting of linen litter and peat litter and its success were clarified. After the composting the nutrient analyses were made in Finland Environmental service incorporated company.

The results of the questionnaire survey show that sawdust litter is the most liked alternative at the stable and peat litter is the second most agreeable. From the use of linen litter there is only little experience because of which it is not known how to comment on its operating characteristics. From the results of compost tests it appears that the nutrient contents are high in both litter for soluble nitrogen, total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium except for a few exceptions.