Coming to Jeju with him, there were also trainees drawn from the cavalry training team, baggage training team and artillery training team. These three arms all need to use a lot of horses, so in Lingao, they take turns to Mopanling Ranch for horse training. The practical work of raising and training
Except for leaving a small number of personnel in the cavalry training team to maintain the organization in Lingao, one company was transferred to Shandong, and almost all the rest of the personnel and equipment were transferred to Jeju. According to the order of the General Staff, the location of the cavalry training team was changed from Lingao to Jeju Island. It is the cavalry formation and training base of the Fubo Army.
In addition, the baggage and artillery training teams will also set up their own draft horse training squadrons in Jeju Island to train their respective horse control and breeding personnel.
There are more than 200 students in this batch of students from Lingao. Although most of them are first-year students with no experience, they are still the basic force that Nick can trust most. Compared with the lifeless local Fenggong team, whether it is Both work enthusiasm and loyalty are much stronger. Needless to say, they have received three months of military training and are equipped with weapons. They are a force that can guard the honor.
Since these students came to Jeju, Nangong Wudi even felt that he could mobilize more mobile troops to promote the next step of extending his rule to every area of Jeju Island-this group of students could be used to serve as the garrison of Jeju City.
The cadets set up their own temporary camps outside the horse pen according to their military types. Although there were houses for them to live in Jeju City, Nick believed that the cadets must get used to horse manure and the smell of horses, so that they can be competent in raising and controlling horses in the future. work
The camp was very simple, just like a stable except for the walls on all sides: walls made of volcanic stone and a wooden roof, but with a thick layer of clay on top to prevent fire.
The floor inside the house is compacted clay, with stone blocks on both sides to support the bed frame. The standard bed planks are placed on it to serve as the soldiers' beds - the conditions are more difficult than in the Lingao camp. Sleeping in one room in a row is the most elegant. It was a window inlaid with glass, which attracted many locals to watch curiously.
With all the personnel and horses in place, Nick took his apprentices and herdsmen and began to train the cadets and the public troops.
The training is on-the-job training or on-the-job internship, where you learn how to raise and care for horses at work.
First, all horses are screened, the horses are inspected, assessed and classified
Sick horses are separated separately and put into sick stables for treatment. Those that are healthy are separated according to male and female if they can be used. Nick noticed that fat loss is common, but most of the horses are still healthy - it seems that Jeju Island is relatively healthy in winter. Lower temperatures are still good for horses' health
Fat loss is relatively easy to solve. As long as you strengthen management and add more concentrated feed, you can recover quickly.
However, almost all horses are not shod, and their hooves are not regularly polished. Many horses' hooves are worn to varying degrees, which is very detrimental to the use of the horse.
Nick knew that this was a very common phenomenon in East Asia - especially folk horses, which were basically unhandled, so he specially brought a large number of factory-made horseshoes, and also brought a craftsman who specialized in repairing horseshoes.
Some of the students had learned how to shoe the horses' hooves. He immediately arranged for someone to trim and shoe the horses' hooves. He then screened the reproductive status of the selected healthy horses.
Generally speaking, the horses used by Jeju Prison Camp and Chaocheonpo Station are quite chaotic. There are old horses, young horses, mares, geldings, and uncastrated stallions. The composition of the horse group is mixed.
He roughly measured the tallest 5cm of each uncastrated male horse, and the average height was about 120cm.
Even compared with the average level of ordinary Mongolian horses, this body height is still low. Whether used as a riding or draft horse, it is too thin and is not even as high as the average shoulder height of Shandong donkeys - a full 130cm.
Nick knows that the average body height of Mongolian horses raised on a modern scale is about 25cm. Mongolian horses from Jeju Island are obviously unqualified.
The reason for the failure is obviously related to the lack of scientific breeding. The horse breed in Jeju Island is a pony. Even after the improvement of imported Mongolian horses, this gene still exists. If there is no good control in breeding, will result in poor quality horses
Obviously, the local horse breeding is very rough, and the castration of male horses is not strict. Some low-quality male horses are put into service directly without castration and are not separated from the mares. It is conceivable that once the horses are in estrus in the spring, such low-quality male horses will be with the females at will. Horse mating not only wastes mare resources, but also has no benefit in improving the quality of foals.
Moreover, the mixed service of young stallions, prime stallions and old stallions means that the prime stallions at the optimal breeding age stage cannot be matched with enough mares, while the young stallions and old stallions take up many mare resources.
Scientific horse breeding, first of all, is to select the best stallions. It is not only meaningless to retain too many stallions, but also cannot optimize the pedigree.
In addition, Nick found that the proportion of old stallions was relatively high, accounting for about half of the number of stallions. Considering that the stallions in prison camps and settlements are mainly used for drafting, it is difficult to imagine why so many old stallions should be retained.
Under normal circumstances, the stallions used in drafts will be castrated for the purpose of management and use. There are many stallions and even many old stallions among the draft horses, which makes people feel very abnormal.
As for the mares, the situation is not ideal either. Not only are mares of all ages mixed in, but many mares have the same problem of being overworked, just like the stallions. A large proportion of older mares are
The result of malnutrition and overuse is that the mare is only in estrus and does not become pregnant, resulting in an "empty pregnancy". This not only wastes the mare's pregnancy opportunities, but also wastes the breeding resources of the male horse.
Nick carefully inspected every stallion and mare, and took this opportunity to take Noble and a few trainees to reorganize the "horse stalls" - during the field investigation, he discovered: the horse stalls of the Jeju Supervisory Camp It is very confusing. Not only are there stalls but no horses, and there are horses but no stalls, there are also many cases where the records on the stalls do not match the marks on the horses.
Obviously, there is a lot of fraud among these official horses. The horse stewards and grooms whom Nick summoned to retain him readily admitted that there was a lot of fraud.
According to the horse steward's confession, a group of horses are transferred from the official horse ranch every year to supplement the official horses in the three local prison camps and nine towns to replace the dead and eliminated horses.
However, the transferred horses are often replaced by others as soon as they arrive at the prison camps and settlements. The strong and good horses that are brought in are often replaced by horses that should be eliminated by the officials in charge.
The officials in the official ranch are not fools. In the spirit of "equal interests", every time they replenish horses for the prison camps and villages, some useless old horses or bad horses are mixed in. The officials turn a blind eye to accept them - there are many old horses anyway. , just as fast as you fall down, and as fast as you replenish horses, everyone will benefit.
As for the misappropriation of feed every year, it is normal. A large part of the feed allocated to the official horses every year is grains such as sorghum, buckwheat, and barley. It is also normal for officials at all levels to embezzle and resell them. Basically, it is good if only 10% of the concentrate can be put into the manger. Got it
"That's it," Nick sighed. No wonder the horse death rate here is so high.
Although he roughly guessed what was going on, due to his horse-loving nature, he became even more indignant at this kind of "taking food from the horse's mouth"
However, the real problem is that since the horses in Jeju Island are managed and used by such a group of people, it goes without saying that the quality of the horses will not be high.
From this point of view, it is necessary to introduce stallions from Lingao as soon as possible and start improving local horse breeds immediately
During his three years in Lingao, he has used the Tieling draft horses brought by the Senate and the British thoroughbred horse racing "Alanchi" he brought as stallions to breed a number of stallions and have initially separated them. Riding and draft horses
Originally, he was worried that transporting stallions would cause death due to bumpy sea routes. The death of "Landian" left him with deep psychological scars, which made him unwilling to easily transport horses by sea. It was not easy to obtain a few stallions. The gestation period of a mare is as long as 11 months. Even if the mare is bred to a blood foal immediately after giving birth, a pair of stallions can give birth to at most three horses in three years. Moreover, from the perspective of protecting the reproductive potential of the broodmare, Nick cannot The purebred Tieling draft horses are willing to breed with blood horses. Apart from the earliest pair of stallions, Big Tiel and Little Tiel, there are only two more horses, one of which is a male horse.
Of course, there are still more than 20 so-called improved foals produced by using Tieling stallions and Mongolian mares. In addition, there are several horses bred with early Yunnan mares. In order to distinguish them from pure Tieling stallions, Nick Nick named the former "Gaoshanling" and the latter "Wenlanjiang". Among them, there were several sexually mature stallions that could be selected as breeding stallions. Nick thought about it again and decided to transfer some of these stallions to Jeju Island - ―After all, the stock of horses in Lingao is too small, and stallions cannot fully play their role if they stay in Lingao.
As long as a stallion can be ensured to land safely, Nick believed that more than fifty mares could be impregnated using artificial insemination. By 1633, he had direct descendants of fifty stallions and selected them from them. Stallions and broodmares
After much thought, Nick decided to send a message to the Lingao Agricultural Committee and ask them to prepare two Gaoshanling stallions and a Wenlanjiang stallion and try to transport them to Jeju Island by ship.
He wrote in the cable: "Every effort should be made to ensure the safety of horses during transportation."
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