Black Beauty
The world is composed of relationships. These are interactions with each other of the same species, and interactions with other species. These relationships include what species are able to do for each other. The bees pollinate flowers, dogs are not only companions for man but also obey commands that help in many ways, and so many more. For hundreds of years, man has been using animals for work, and in return we give them shelter from the weather, food for their stomachs, and the care and love they deserve.
If the relationship fails, it is only due to neglect and disrespect on the human part. The human trains the animals, particularly horses, to do work for them. In return, humans are to feed them, give them shelter from the weather and, above all, respect the horses by treating them with kindness and compassion. If the human does not possess these qualities within them, the result could be an “unruly” horse. Some humans do have these qualities. These are the people the horses are willing to work for, because they know in return they will receive a good life with caring masters. However, there are more people who do not possess these qualities. These people horses are unwilling to work for and, unfortunately, end up being hurt and abused, and eventually strike back.
Ginger is the perfect example if such abuse. Her bringing up was not a pleasant as Black Beauty’s and she lets it be known as her humans did not treat her correctly from the beginning. Children threw rocks at her and her first coachman beat her after several training periods with no rest. “A bad tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse.” (ChVII) After such an affair, who could blame Ginger for biting and kicking? Once abused, it is hard for any animal to trust any human again, hence why Ginger also bit James in the beginning. But once she was able to understand John, James, and Squire Gordon and saw their compassion, she was able to be friendly to them as well as the other horses in the stable.
These unqualified individuals that deal with working horses and training them, obviously, have no business doing it; they lack the human touch of compassion. They would tell you that having compassion is a flaw and that it is the wrong type of training for a horse as they are only “Horseflesh! That is all they think about.” (Ch VII)
It is not a crime to have compassion. Actually it is a crime to LACK compassion!! Especially for animals! These inhumane people are criminals and should be treated as such; thrown in jail and sentenced to the same treatment that they had provided to their horses. “We heard afterwards that he [Joe] had given his evidence so clearly, and the horses were in such as exhausted state, bearing marks of such brutal usage, that the carter was committed to take his trial, and might possibly be sentenced to two or three months in prison.” (Ch XX)
Those people will also tell you that you cannot learn kindness; it is a required part of the man that is able to do the training and the working. This is both true and false. It is true in the sense that certain people cannot learn kindness. It is a part of you when you are born and, it seems for boys, awakened later in life. It is false in the fact that while you may mean well, young people are also ignorant. They may think they are helping but only cause more trouble and end up hurting the horse. As was the case with Joe after John and Black Beauty went to get the doctor. Young people need to learn the correct care of animals. Only then can their kindness be rewarded fully. “Only ignorance! Only ignorance! How can you talk about only ignorance? Don’t you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? – and which does the most mischief heaven only knows?” (Ch XIX)
So it is possible for man to be kind to their horses. Those who aren’t are ignorant fools and need to be taught by way of retribution. Otherwise, it is important that humans keep the relationship pain free as much as possible. Only when we can respect them can they respect us in return.
