The horse farm was filled with a foul stench. The damp and rotten straw mats were completely mixed with the wet dirt and feces, making the floor of the stable look like a dirty shallow swamp. The flies and insects felt as comfortable as if they had returned to their hometown, and the buzzing noises they made almost drowned out the faint snorting of the horses.
"Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu! Come this way!"
Yu Mengzhou hurriedly brushed off the hoof crumbs on his apron, and then touched the forehead of the skinny horse in front of him with pity. The brown horse blinked its big gentle eyes, purred, gently nudged the young man's hand, and then tilted its head and boldly rubbed against his arms.
"My goodness," to be honest, the smell of this horse is really not very pleasant. Even professionals who are used to working with horses would frown unconsciously here. However, Yu Mengzhou didn't care much. He skillfully stroked the horse's claws and rubbed the end of its mane comfortingly. "It's okay, it's okay. Go stand in the open space over there."
The assistant at the stable pulled it slowly away. After calming down the horse on hand, Yu Mengzhou's mood was not very good. He stepped on a pair of dirty and worn rubber-soled boots and trudged towards the direction of the call.
The soles of his shoes came into contact with the dirty mud puddles, and every step he took made an irritating "crunching" sound. When he got closer to take a look, Yu Mengzhou could see the specific situation clearly.
"Master Hu," he stopped, "what's going on?"
"Very impatient!" Master Hu was a short and stocky middle-aged man who spoke with a thick dialect. If Yu Mengzhou hadn't worked with him for a long time, he wouldn't have understood what he said at first. "The last one, it's like a stubborn donkey, it won't let anyone touch it. Look at its hoof, it's probably rotten!"
The brown and white stallion in front of him was so thin that it was hard to tell whether it was a young horse or an old horse with atrophied bones. It was tied to a horse post, with every bony bone on its thin neck sticking out. Its four hooves, whose color had long been indistinguishable, were desperately slipping in the mud, breathing heavily and struggling, refusing to let anyone get close.
"Look," Master Hu wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, straightened his back with great effort, and stared at the scene in front of him with a grin, "You have to do this, Xiaoyu, you have to fix it, no one else can do it."
Yu Mengzhou shook his head and whispered, "It will take time to fix it. If it takes too long, it won't be able to stand and will fall down."
"I know what's going on," said Master Hu. "Call the others. This stubborn donkey is as thin as a stick. I don't believe two people can't hold it up."
Yu Mengzhou shouted, "All of you move aside and make room for us!"
The horse wheezed and rolled on the ground, its protruding bones sticking to its skin, making a banging sound. Yu Mengzhou carefully walked around the horse from its left side, lowered his hands in front of him, and whistled softly to attract the horse's attention.
"Good boy, good boy..." Yu Mengzhou whispered, "It's okay, look, I don't have anything in my hand, you are safe, it's okay."
Master Hu watched this scene in wonder. No matter how many times he had seen it, he had to admit that Xiao Yu was good at handling horses. Xiao Yu always had a way to get close to the restless and fierce horses that others couldn't control. No matter how arrogant and prickly a horse was, after spending some time with Xiao Yu, it would stick to his buttocks like a little tail.