All my Cob Makers Adobe/Cob Question can I use just horse manure and mud?

Salutations I was making a yurt out of pallets when I decided to change the build and make it into a hogan.I'm using discarded tin for the roof.Adobe/Cob for the walls.Can I just mix clay,sand and horse manure for the walls?(I have a ton of horse manure.)Can I or have you tried using Pinon/Pine needles and cob?Have you tried using tumble weeds or bark?I want to do do slipstraw but no beso for the straw.So Trying to find a resource that'd readily available.Climate is High Desert.

Cob is a balance between sand, clay and a binder material, usually straw or horse hair. It often had cow or horse manure added too, although I believe these are best left to ferment a little before mixing. Given the high fiber content of these manures, they aid the role of the binder.

There are ideal proportions of sand and clay in the soil that you are looking for. Typically a clay soil will need a little extra sand, although this is not always the case. Performing a jar test is a good way to determine the makeup of your soil.

If you don't have clay in your soil (i.e. it is all sand or silt) then it will probably be prohibitively expensive for you to use cob.

Finally, you'll want to use subsoil (not topsoil, which contains organic matter). If you dig down, you'll notice the difference clearly. This may not be a problem for you - I don't know anything about "High Desert" and maybe there is little or thin topsoil.

HTH

Horse manure can be used as advised above.
BUT research the soil where you are and study the details you find, it needs good mixing.
If you were making bricks [ adobe] which I use here is some more info
Horse manure in Adobe

Yup, you guessed it, the poop! Horse manure not only added strengthening fibers to the adobe mix, it also added an enzyme, which produced a harder and more resistant brick, once dry. ... The wider your brick means the wider your wall, which means more thermal mass of your building.

There is both clay and sand present.Zone 7.elevation 5,210.I'm trying to use what's around me instead of buying straw.Not alot of grass though.Thank you for the article John.I guess the biggest thing is to get out there and do it.I was just looking for input/suggestions.So thank you both for your help.I'll let you know the results.

It does rain in the desert, though seldomly. I'd suggest adding rocks as a base to the wall so the walls don't wick up the moisture and crack over time.

Sounds like a cool project tho, hope it works out.

I've been suggesting folks switch to HEMP For bedding AND food/fiber supplements, livestock does all the trampling/mixing and you end up with manure hempcrete. Add some lime and lye automatically gets produced to kill smelly pathogens. Even let some compost turn to ash and mix some of that in too.

Thanks for this discussion, we were just talking about this today, hemp and bamboo can be used to construct molds and skeletal structures AND the structure could likely be easily SODDDED as well... maybe grow hemp on t? https://greenbuildingelements.com/a-journey-through-the-natural-building-techniques-adobe/

Can bedding from  goat stalls be used as a combo of goat manure and straw for  clay/sand cob? The goat poop pellets are fairly dry.

I expect that would work, though you would need to break up or dissolve the pellets.Chunks of organic matter would make weak points in the cob instead of adding reinforcing fiber.