When I was a child, the families with the conditions in the production team all raised horses, as little as one and as many as two or three. I also have a mare at home, it has a jujube red body, shiny fur, fat and strong, we affectionately call it "jujube red".
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I became a little stable, leading the horses out into the field every morning, tying the reins to the trunks of trees, and letting the horses graze freely. The reins of horses are generally more than ten or twenty meters long, so that horses can graze over a large area.
We have a hilly terrain where "the ground is not three feet flat", so we should also pay attention not to leash the horse too steeply, so as not to stumble over the reins and fall down the steep slope, causing casualties.
Every year after the autumn harvest, the crops in the field are harvested, and there is no need to tie the horse. At this time, whether it is a horse or a cow, they are all "wild". The so-called release of the wild is to put the cattle and horses in the wild and leave them alone. The cattle and horses were free, and they did not run far, but grazing on the fields or hillsides a few miles from the village. At that time, the local economic development was relatively slow, but the law and order situation was good, and I had never heard of the loss of cattle and horses. In the spring of the next year, we will be ready to plant crops, and then we will get the cattle and horses back.
At that time, we raised horses for three main purposes: one was to accumulate horse manure for fertilizer, the second was to carry things, and the third was to let them give birth to foals for money.
In those days, the paddy fields were all produced by the production team, and the horse manure was given to the production team, which had to be weighed and converted into labor points according to weight, and the labor points were exchanged for grain during the autumn harvest. Each family also has a small piece of dry land, called "self-reserved land", and part of the horse manure is left from the family, which is used as fertilizer for growing vegetables and corn in the "self-reserved land".
Farm manure such as horse manure is better than chemical fertilizer, and if you use chemical fertilizer continuously, the land will be compacted, and the more you use it, the harder it will become. On the contrary, if you use farmhouse fertilizer for a long time, the land will become softer and softer, which is conducive to the growth of crops. Moreover, the rice and vegetables grown by farm manure are much better than those grown with chemical fertilizers, and they are truly "green food".
In addition, there is another advantage of using farmhouse fertilizer for paddy fields: it can raise snails and loaches while planting crops, so as to increase the added value of paddy fields. The fields belong to the public, but the snails and loaches do not stipulate the owners, and whoever catches them will belong to whomever they catch. If you catch snails and loaches, you can sell them and make some money. Don't sell it, enjoy it yourself, it's also a rare meat dish, which is a rare blessing in the era of extreme material scarcity, but also a kind of joy. And once chemical fertilizer is used, those snails and loaches in the field will not survive, which is undoubtedly a big loss.
It is also common to transport things on horseback. Because at that time, there were no roads in the villages, and everything had to be carried by shoulders, so it saved a lot of people's effort to use horses to transport them. Usually carry firewood, rice during harvesting, and public grain when handing over public grain, which greatly reduces the labor intensity of people.
As for the mare giving birth to a foal, it is a great joy that the family is looking forward to, because the foal can be exchanged for a lot of money.
In those days, in our country, the cattle belonged to the production team, and the family had no right to dispose of them, but the horses belonged to the family and could be bought and sold freely. The foal can be sold when it is one year old, and the foal can be sold for more than 100 yuan when it is a year old. If you don't sell it until you are two years old, you can sell it for 400 yuan or more.
At that time, the monthly salary of ordinary workers and cadres was only more than 30 yuan, and selling a two-year-old horse could be worth or even more than a cadre's salary for a year. As for the peasants, their economic income is even more meager, and most of them are only one or two cents per person per day, and these two cents also include rice, so the actual cash distribution is pitiful. For a whole year, ordinary families, not to mention 100 yuan in cash, even 50 yuan are rarely seen, to add a new dress, buy a new pair of shoes, you have to think about it. Therefore, every time you sell a horse, you will make a big deal and get a huge sum of money, and you will be happy for a long time! Those families who can afford to buy a sewing machine rely on raising horses.
In terms of earning money for the family, my family's "jujube red" can be regarded as a great hero, because it gives birth to litters every year, and our family has foals to sell every year, and we are happy every year.
My entire career as a "stable" has been mostly uneventful and uneventful. When I was twelve years old, I inadvertently became a "midwifery" nurse with "jujube red", which added a little "legendary" color to my "stable" career.
At the beginning of autumn that year, "Zaohong" was already pot-bellied and about to give birth. My father told me: "'Zaohong' is about to give birth to a foal, so you should find a flat place to tie it during this time, and don't tie it to the slope, otherwise it will be difficult to give birth to a foal." I said, "Got it!"
But for a few days, I didn't see the production of "jujube red", so I became careless. That day, I tied the "jujube red" to a slope. When the sun sets, I go to lead the horse home. Turning the col, I walked to a place still some distance away from the horse, and saw "Zaohong" walking around at a rapid pace on the slope, looking very anxious, trying to break free from the reins, but unable to break free. I felt something was wrong and hurried over. When I looked down at his nipple, which was already dripping milk, I immediately remembered what my father had said: when the mare started dripping milk, it would give birth immediately. I quickly untied the reins, trying to lead it to a flat and wide place as soon as possible for it to give birth.
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As soon as I finished unreining the reins, "Zaohong" rushed down the slope, came to a small flat land, and immediately lay down: it was about to give birth!
I've never seen an animal give birth (and certainly never seen a human give birth), so I'm very nervous. But then I thought about it, "Zaohong" has given birth to her fifth child, and she is already a very experienced mother. Moreover, the first four litters were all "released into the wild" after the autumn, and it was produced in the wild by itself, and no one helped it, and there were no problems. So I was relieved that this time it would be going well.
I was thinking that the front hooves of the horse fetus were sticking out of the mother's womb, and then the head was exposed. The process took about a few tens of seconds, and it was very smooth. However, its torso was stuck! I saw "Zaohong" stand up and lie down, lie down and stand up, and repeat it many times. You can see that it's trying. After a while, he was not yet born; After a while, I still didn't give birth. I feel like it's been a long, long time. The sun had completely set behind the hillside, and the foals had not yet been born. I was very nervous, one was afraid of "jujube red" dystocia, and the other was afraid that the horse fetus would be stuck in the birth canal for too long, causing severe hypoxia, and even if I was born, I would be disabled. What's worse is that "jujube red" has obviously shown fatigue.
I was so anxious that my head and palms were covered with sweat. It takes a lot of time to run home and call adults back and forth, and it is very likely that "Zaohong" will not be rescued in time and die in childbirth. Just when I was helpless, "Zaohong" looked at me and screamed softly twice. I didn't understand it, so I stayed where I was. "Jujube Red" hissed at me again. From the look in its eyes, it could tell it was asking for help from me. I thought, I can't sit idly by, I have to help it, even if I can't save the foal, I can't let "Zaohong" die in childbirth! Otherwise, the loss will be great! So, I ran to the back of "Zaohong", grabbed the front hooves of the horse's fetus, and pulled it out slowly. Under my tugging, the horse's fetal body was exposed little by little, one inch, two inches, three inches...... While I was pulling, "Zaohong" was also trying to shrink the uterus and "force" out the fetus. Seeing that most of the body of the horse fetus had come out, I finally saw hope, and I made a big effort - "Whoa!" With a squirt of amniotic fluid, the foal is born!
"Zaohong" stood up, turned his head, and whispered at me twice, as if thanking me. I patted it on the head and it lowered its head and began to lick the amniotic fluid off the dry foal. After a while, the foal tried to get up, but once, without success; Twice, unsuccessfully; Three times it still didn't work. The foal stopped, and my heart came up again: Did the foal get stuck in the birth canal for too long and the foal crippled?" "Zao Hong" touches the foal's head with her mouth, and "Boom" screams softly, as if encouraging the foal. I saw that the foal had gathered all his strength, and his two front legs supported the ground, and the two hind legs had strained himself, and he finally stood up!
The foal stood for a moment, then began to stagger.
Well, it looks like the foal is normal and not broken. I was happy, but I never thought that there was a big problem! Because the "delivery room" of "Zaohong" is a small narrow flat land only more than one meter wide, and there is a steep slope below the small flat land, and the foal is not stable, and one stumbles off the road, and rolls down the steep slope until it reaches the bottom of the ditch!
I was very annoyed: if I hadn't tethered the "jujube red" to the slope today, if I had come to lead it to a wide flat area early in the afternoon for it to give birth, this would not have happened. Alas!
It's useless to be frustrated, thinking that those "ifs" are even more useless, and the priority is how to get the foal out of the ditch.
Jujube Red has rushed down the steep slope to the foal. "Zaohong" circled around the ditch, trying to find a way. However, there is no way out, and the only way is to get up from where the foal tumbled. The ditch is not too deep, about ten meters, but it is relatively steep. The foal is not yet able to walk steadily, and it is impossible to climb such a steep slope. I went down to the bottom of the ditch and tried to climb up with the foal, but I tried several times without success.
It's getting darker, what if you don't get the foals up before dark, and it rains overnight? If it rains heavily, there will be floods, and the floods will rush into the ditch, and the foals will surely die. In this case, not only will the foal die a pitiful death, but the eleven months of pregnancy will also be in vain, and the family's hope of making money by selling the foal will also be in vain!
The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. Once again, try to hold the foal with one hand and pull the grass and shrubs up the slope with the other. Before he could climb a few steps, he slid back to the bottom of the ditch. I knew that this method was not going to work at all, and I had to think of something else. After thinking about it, he frowned, and thought about it: only by using the pull of "jujube red" can he do it. I made one end of the reins into a dead buckle trap and put it around the neck of "Zaohong", then patted "Zaohong" on the ass and said, "Rush up!"
"Zaohong" was very obedient, and rushed upwards with all his might, rushed out of the slope, and rushed to the flat ground above. I yelled, "Stop!" Jujube red" stopped. At this point, I quickly tied the other end of the reins around my waist, riveted my strength, picked up the foal with both hands, and shouted, "'Jujube Red', go up slowly!" I used its pull to climb up the slope smoothly with the foal, and the people and horses returned to the flat ground safely!
Animals do have spirits. The first time I saw it in person, I was able to do the almost impossible thing with Jujube, saving not only the foal's life, but also my self-redemption from becoming a sinner.
In order to prevent the foal from falling into the bottom of the ditch again, I carried it to a small flat ground of about forty or fifty square meters, which was wide enough not to be afraid of the foal falling again. I put the foal down, and it stood firmly. At this time, "Zaohong" couldn't wait to come over and lick the foal, as if to comfort it. The foal sticks its head into the middle of Jujube's back, sucking in its first mother's milk since birth. "Jujube" looked back at the foal, her eyes full of pity. My heart finally let go completely.
It's amazing, it must be the mother's milk that gives the foal strength, and after sucking the milk for a while, he starts to walk again, and he is a little shaky at the first few steps, and then he is more and more steady. "Jujube Red" has been following the foal inseparably, protecting the foal, full of maternal love!
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After a few walks on the flat ground, the foal is learning to run! Hey, the little one is so good, in just a few moments, he can jump!
At this time, the moon rose, and shone the earth with her soft silver light, and the whole mountain appeared white, silent and beautiful. Like a victorious general, I whistled and led the "jujube", followed by the foal, and walked home in the moonlight......
After so many years, I still remember the experience of delivering a horse. (The source of this article is American Miscellaneous Talks, thanks to Mr. Liu Leliang for recommending the manuscript)
Author: Wei Shengxu