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Besides riding horses, Shi Wen had also learned the preparations for riding—such as saddletying, mane trimming, tail tying, and understanding the horse's expressions and movements.
If it were any other horse, Shi Wen would be a little nervous, but riding Shi Suo, there's absolutely no need to worry.
They knew each other so well that even without learning to read a horse's micro-expressions, Shi Wen could sense Shi Suo's emotions through Shi Suo neighing and movements, and was also familiar with its abilities and personality, so there were basically no accidents.
Shi Wen's only skill was nailing horseshoes, and Yan Kexing wasn't very good at that either, so he felt more at ease asking Old Man Ma and the others to come over.
Everyone looked Shi Suo around the horse, checking it from left to right to make sure it was alright before letting Shi Wen ride it to see if there was anything wrong with it.
Without a word, Shi Wen mounted his horse, gently flicked the reins, and spurred the horse's flanks. "Giddy up!"
Shi Suo started running with small steps, patiently waiting for Shi Wen to adapt before speeding up and running with the wind at her back.
Fu Meng and his companions only saw the horse carrying Shi Wen disappear from sight in a few moments.
Fu Meng raised his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight. "Shi Wen really does have some skills."
Old Man Ma: "The younger generation surpasses the older generation."
Shi Wen spurred his horse and galloped around the track. The horse was only slightly red, but otherwise showed no signs of distress. Shi Wen himself was neither red-faced nor out of breath, his forelegs firmly planted in the stirrups, his riding posture as perfect as ever.
Before Shi Wen even ask how well he rode his horse, Fu Meng gave him a thumbs up. "You ride better than us."
Old Man Ma chimed in with his comment, "You young people, your waists and abdomens are at their strongest right now."
Shi Wen laughed and said, "Then I'll ride out on horseback."
After making the preparations, Shi Wen told Sikewell that they had finally agreed to depart on the morning of May 17th.
This time, we could stay in the herders' tents, Shi Wen didn't bring much luggage, only a few changes of clothes, a sleeping bag, and some emergency medicine.
On the day of departure, Shi Wen rode out of the ranch on horseback to meet up with Sikewell and the others.
Sikewell and his men also rode horses, but their horses carried a lot more cargo.
Upon meeting, Shi Wen could even speak, Sikewell exclaimed, "You're like a god emerging from the morning light!"
Shi Wen laughed and said, "That's too exaggerated."
Sikewell's assistant, Tang Duohai, said, "It's no exaggeration. When you rode out just now, the horse was gleaming, and you seemed to be glowing too. I was completely stunned."
Shi Wen, "Alright. I didn't bring much luggage, do you want me to help you carry some? My horse has good stamina and pulling power."
Sikewell didn't stand on ceremony. "That's great! I was just saying I had too much stuff with me, and it was a bit too heavy to carry."
Shi Wen, "Then you can transfer some of your goods to my side."
After everyone reassigned the horses, they set off.
Their team consisted of five people: a guide, two assistants, Sikewell, and Shi Wen.
They were going to a summer pasture deep in the mountains.
The place we were going to was very far away. Only a short section of the road was paved; the rest was dirt, and sometimes there was no road at all. We could only follow the faint footprints.
The guide was very experienced and led them along the ancient sheep trail without any problems.
The sheep path here refers to the path that sheep walk on.
These paths were narrow and small; sheep might be able to walk across them easily, but it would really take some skill for them to ride horses across them. Fortunately, no one fell behind.
Around noon, they spotted the tent of the first family.
The family only set up a small A-frame tent. Outside the tent, there was a fire pit, firewood, and a food trough and salt trough placed on the ground.
When the two groups met, the family told them that they were going to graze their livestock deeper into the mountains, but they had stopped on the road to wait for them after hearing that the family would be coming to provide free medical services.
Shi Wen these words were translated by Tang Duohai.
He only speaks a little bit of a minority language and can't understand most of what's being said.
However, even if they can't understand what the words are saying, the livestock all have the same symptoms, so it doesn't delay treating them.
The family drove their livestock back to show them.
Shi Wen and Sikewell examined it carefully and found nothing seriously wrong, just some animal lice, which are permanent parasites that attach to the surface of mammals' bodies.
Sikewell discussed it with Shi Wen and decided to give the family's livestock intramuscular injections of ivermectin and spray amitraz on their skin.
With this two-pronged approach, there shouldn't be any major problems.
With such a smooth start, Shi Wen couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Unexpectedly, after treating the livestock, the woman of the house pulled Sikewell aside and started talking non-stop in her tongue.
Shi Wen only heard the word "illness," but I didn't hear what kind of illness it was.
Sikewell listened and nodded, then took out human stomach medicine and pepsin from the medicine box, and left behind some medications for treating gastroenteritis and water purification solution.
Shi Wen only then that I learned that water was not readily available in the wild, and most of the water people drank came from streams. Occasionally, they would go up the mountain to cut down unmelted ice blocks, melt them, and use them as drinking water.
Most of the time they would boil the water to make tea, but sometimes when they had no other choice, they would have to drink tap water.
After treating the livestock and humans, everyone was happy and started a fire to boil water, preparing tea and lunch. They even brought out naan bread and a fried snack called baursak to treat them.
Shi Wen myself among the crowd, but I didn't feel uncomfortable at all.
After eating and drinking their fill and resting briefly, they bid farewell to the family and mounted their horses again to head towards their next destination.
Before setting off, Shi Wen checked the medicines and found that Sikewell had brought quite a lot, including various kinds for people and livestock, totaling over a hundred pounds.
Shi Wen, still on horseback, said to Sikewell, "I thought you were only carrying medicine for livestock, but I didn't expect you to have so much medicine for humans as well."
Sikewell: "It's inconvenient to buy medicine in the deep mountains, so sometimes we have to leave some medicine for them."