Equestrian run of Turkmen collective farmers along the route

Ashgabat - Moscow( 4300 kilometers) lasted 84 days.ha 350 kilometers on the waterless Karakum desert they took three days. ..

As a rule, the guys are interested in books about the Red cavalry. Before self-oblivion, they are fond of stories about the heroes of the civil war - Parkhomenko, Kotovsky, Budyonny.

The courageous and experienced cavalryman, Alexander Yakovlevich Parkhomenko knew how inspiring for the fighters was the personal example of the boss. And, if the situation demanded, he led a cavalry attack squadron, regiment, brigade, and sometimes, and the whole division. The soldiers were proud of their talented military commander, and commanders learned from him the art of fighting leadership, reasonable maneuver, personal courage, the ability to instantly assess the situation and make the only correct decision at the most critical moment.

"... From the height on which we were stationed, waiting for our hour, we saw how the enemy cavalry, threatening to pick up the pace, strengthening the pace, moved to the 14th division. .. And immediately before the front of the 14th division, a rider swept pastin a broad black burk. We learned that it was Parkhomenko, Oka Ivanovich Gorodovikov wrote about his fighting friend. "The blade shone in the sun. Then thousands of checkers flashed to the sky. The division went into battle. She flew to meet the enemy, complete the will to overthrow and crush him, destroy. Ahead was flying nachdiv-14, Parkhomenko Alexander Yakovlevich, a Bolshevik, a handsome man, mighty and cheerful. .. "

He was very fond of horses. In the fall of 1910, when he returned from the Lugansk prison, he told his wife: "Sometimes, as I see a horse through the window from the prison cell, my heart sinks like it is torn from the root."

All this Oleg and Natasha learned in the summer, in the village, where they invited their school friend Peter. For a long time horses have been forgotten. Tractors and harvesters worked on the fields, MAZs, UAZs, and "Volga" rushed along the highway. The boys of childhood started riding bicycles and motorcycles instead of horses. And they probably would not be able to mount a horse. Jump on it through the moat, like Oleg - even more so. The stories of Grandfather Korney, with whom Peter lived, Oleg and Natasha, seemed to village folktales fairy tales, no one worried. But their city peers were ready to listen for hours to the memories of their grandfather about tachankas, horses, army commanders. When the boys and Natasha, defeated by the heat, ran off to the lake, my grandfather patiently waited on the mound of their return.

And again flew into dashing attacks the red horsemen from the youth of the old Corney. They broke into the village, not to life - to death, they cut themselves with sabers with whites. Of course, always defeated the grandfather of Roots and comrades - in the same as his, red star helmets, which are now called Bodenovka.

In the Great Patriotic War, Grandfather Corney was no longer able to ride on a horse: the years were approaching sixty. But he asked for the army, the horses. He was taken to the veterinary divisional infirmary. How happy Natasha was when she learned that the woman was in charge of the infirmary, the captain of the medical service Natalia Andreevna Khomenko. Grandfather still pronounced her name with great respect.

On the Karelian front, in snow drifts and forest windstorms, people were helped by horses more than cars. In the division there were several hundred. With the enemy were, as they say, battles of local significance. Although the front line was almost unchanged, continuous fierce counterattacks by the White Finns, the actions of the famous "cuckoo" caused considerable damage - people and horses were killed.

At that time the artillerymen brought the horse to the infirmary after the battle. At the throat of his neck a bloody wound gaped, his eyes looked sad. Natalya Andreevna comforted him with a palm: be patient, they say, we will cure. She led me to the operating table, under which several tight bales of pressed hay, covered with tarpaulin, were fitted. They gave anesthesia. ..

In the morning, Natalya Andreevna was awoken by the orderly: something wrong with Thunder. He was tearing himself out of the machine, neighing uneasily, frightening other horses. Khomenko came out and saw - eseninsky pink horse rode nearby, in the light of the rising sun.

- What, did Thunder escape? She asked, frightened.

- No, it's Rom.

The divisions are accustomed to the touching friendship of two strong white horses with blue eyes. They almost never parted: they worked together in harness, on vacation - they were always there. And now Rom was bored alone, he came to the far end of the world to visit his friend. It seems that horses are capable of strong feelings. How here to act?

- Should we take Roma to the infirmary for the company? "Korney asked." For a couple of days. "There's enough space.

Slightly hesitant, Natalya Andreevna agreed. If, warned, gunners do not mind.

The artillerymen did not object. As soon as the horses were near, they greeted each other with a joyous neigh. Wounded Thunder calmly put his friend's head on his back. And from that moment he recovered very quickly.

Soon, friends, as always, dragged a heavy cannon in their sled. Together with the people the horses again went into battle.

- That's how it happens, - sighed Korney. ..

Returning to the city, Natasha and Oleg were upset - his father was still on a march. They told the mother about his grandfather Root - his strongest impression of the summer holidays. The mother looked at the children with pleasure - they grew up, sunburned. And they ran in, and bought themselves plenty, and they helped the grown-ups on the field, and strewed the garden. Only horses, oh, these horses! She was angry with her husband: what for guys such hobby? Especially Natasha. Let it be in the circle cutting and sewing went. And it is safe, and useful, in life it will always come in handy. Oleg is also anxious when he goes to a riding school. Is it far from trouble? Fall, break, break arms and legs.

Why do we sometimes forget, with ease, that a man is growing up in the house, a future warrior? He must be educated with the clever, strong, courageous, enduring. Look how Oleg has changed in two years! Above his father he stretched out, matured, grew stronger. And it all began with stories about a good and faithful horse, from a meeting with a horse kaura during a trip, from the very day when Oleg himself saddled Bismarck.

When we quoted the words of F. Engels, a dog was mentioned next to the horse. About it, the truth, you will not tell, how about horses - she supposedly makes guys physically stronger, more hardened. But a dog is a friend of a person, a true friend. It is not for nothing that the expression "dog fidelity" is perceived inseparably. The dog pulls the wounded from the battlefield, displays lost travelers in the blizzard in the mountains, with enviable cleverness performs the duties of the guide of the blind. And how many exploits are committed by our four-legged friend in the name of science! Who does not know the Squirrel with the Arrow, who have been in space? One of the authors of this book was present at the operation, when one dog was transplanted from another heart. In the name of learning how to restore such health to people.

Before the Great Patriotic War, all the boys were literally raving about the brave border guard Karatsupa and his faithful Hindus. Forgetting everything in the world, playing trackers, went to "patrols", caught "offenders".Gradually, Hero of the Soviet Union Nikita Karatsup turned into a collective image of a reliable guardian of the Soviet borders. The most fascinating legends sounded about him in every house. And now the name of Karatsupa is known to our children? Do they hear from their parents about the man's courage, his hard work, his amazing fate?

Perhaps, the main thing that fascinated the guys in talking about Karatsup - outwardly the future hero was no different from his peers. Ordinary, even an impudent boy. In the special school where Nikita got to, declaring his ardent desire to become a frontier guard, he could hardly find a horse because of the low growth. With the dog, too, no luck: all the sheepdogs have already been dismantled by those who came there earlier.

Near the school, Nikita found under a bridge a blind homeless puppy. Patiently nursed him: fattening, grooming, and training. Hard work has brought up the Indus, famous for the whole country. Similar to a wolf, in abundance gifted with intelligence, skill, instinct, devotion, the Hindu served the border guards with faith and truth. He took not a single criminal, caught bandits and saboteurs. Karatsup and his Hindus were at that time devoted to reporting, essays in newspapers and magazines.

In one of the materials collected in the museum of the history of the Leningrad police, it is reported about the most interesting fact of the relationship between man and dog in the difficult days of the blockade.

At the most tragic time, on December 2, 1941, thieves stole from a store in Komsomol street, near the Finland Station, 15 kilograms of fat, 120 loaves of bread and a bag of cereals. Unpreservedly impudent, a major theft threatened to kill hundreds of people.

When an operative group of criminal investigation workers headed by Ivanov and Sergeev together with the conductor of the search and rescue dog Grigory Ishchenko came to the scene, they saw an old canvas mantle on the floor of the pantry. Sniffing it, Garnet confidently took the trail, which led through the courtyards, to the embankment, then along the Neva.

They were running on ice and snow for about an hour. The frost and wind turned the skin into a bust. It seemed that the breath was about to break, the heart would burst with exertion. Still, the group overcame the unobtrusive path to the walls of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the shortest possible time.

In the old cemetery, the sheepdog began to tear the snow off the ancient, dilapidated crypt with its paws. Opened a barely noticeable laz. In the crypt, however, no one was found. But they found several boxes of products and a second canvas mitt. Next, the pomegranate did not go - it was exhausted.

All the way back, Grigory Ivanovich and his comrades carried a sheep-dog in their arms. And in the barracks everyone pinched off a piece of bread from the ration and handed it to a four-legged friend. Granat thanked for support: the criminal group was soon detained. She was brought to court by a military tribunal.

Five years ago, an ardent childish imagination stirred up the publication in Komsomolskaya Pravda of two friends - sergeant Gennady Motylkov, who performed an international duty in Afghanistan, and a reliable assistant to a warrior in the difficult service of the Shepherd Amur. Gena is still grateful to his mother, who brought him, a schoolboy, a wonderful black puppy. Next to the owner, Cupid learned to overcome barriers and teams in the club of dog breeding, joined him with the army.

Afghanistan. .. Any armored column was always headed by a sapper tandem: a dog is a man. When Gennady worked with Amur, the column was calm.

- A dog like a man, "said Motylkov." My life depends on her mood and how we understand each other. Often it can not be forced, you can only ask. You need to know it better than yourself.

How many times have they saved life and each other, and others! When the car's tent flew away enemy bullets, Gennady sometimes fell on the Amur, shielded him with his body. More than once the dog of the owner also rescued.

Finding a mine, the dog usually sat next to, and then left. Once Cupid did not leave. Now it is difficult to explain what motivated Motylkov to be on the alert, not to hurry up to lift a round plastic cake from the ground. Why did not the rumble of engines behind him, heat or fatigue drive him up, forced him to make a mistake?

- Probably because I really love Cupid, which means I believe him, I feel him. I did not think about anything like this, I just was not in a hurry. ..

For these "unhurried" seconds Gennady saw two thin wires going from mine to the side.

An enemy bullet overtook Motylkova in an armored personnel carrier, when he calmed the Amur, worried by the near breaks. Heavy wound, hospital for two long months. But even in the forty-degree delirium thoughts about the Cupid did not leave: "He can not without me, will be lost".I could not stand it - I wrote a friend to Yuri Chereshnev.

Soon received the answer:

"It's OK, working together. My Ralph fell ill and died. Cupid did not notice anyone. But one day I had to accompany a column of grain. And, besides us with him, there is nobody. I understand everything, but he whines. I come up to the aviary in the evening and say: "It is necessary, Cupid. Work".He heard "work" and jumped up. Well, I think, order. So we started. But he remembers you. Recently one joker screamed: "Where's Gena? Von Gena is coming! "- so Cupid with a leash broke, the whole column ran around, sniffed, and how he turned around, as if crying, and tears dripped. .."

Cupid continued to carry out his difficult service until they found him a replacement. After retiring to the reserve, Chereshnev brought the dog to its rightful owner. Friends met again. They are reminded of Afghanistan of the Order of the Red Star by Motylkov and a gold medal on the chest of the Amur.

Hearing such stories, the boys begin to dream about their own puppy. Mothers are unhappy. Sometimes they agree to have a dog at home - a poodle, a lapdog. But to keep in the apartment a puppy, able to wield over time in a huge dog, allow his son to go with him to a special school for training dogs - no, thank you! I'd rather study with lessons. And the mother does not add any worries. Everywhere the wool will fly - just have time to clean up. You can get sick or bite, God forbid. So parents ruin the dream of a true four-footed friend, about serving with him in the ranks of defenders of the Motherland.

However, whether we like it or not, the children still carry with the dogs - secretly, so that the father and mother do not. This deprives the parents of the former trust.

According to scientists, children aged between ten and fifteen years have a need to love. Whom? Mom and Dad? Well, it goes without saying, is inherent from the cradle. Speech now is more about a kind of reserve of feelings, not expended for the time being. So our sons and daughters are dragging on to their lesser brothers. It is difficult to overestimate the moral impact on a child, a teenager of communication, for example, with a horse or a dog - reliable assistants, friends of a man in labor and on the battlefield. Observations of the habits of domestic animals, caring for them give the child's mind a rich food for thought, are an important condition for the all-round development of the individual. By the way, this kind of communication is very beneficial for physical conditioning of a person.