Black Beauty [Potential Spoilers]
By CloudCloudy84
Alright, so right off the bat the vibe is basically “good luck, hang on, this is gonna be rough.” And somehow I got into it thinking it was one of those super famous books I’d somehow missed… I only ended up finding it while digging around online about old carriages and those horse-drawn London cabs. I didn’t think I’d actually stick with it, but I couldn’t really put it down. From the beginning it grabbed me in that way where you’re like “yeah, I’ll probably like this,” and then it actually delivers. And then you see who Anna Sewell was—born 1820, had that ankle injury when she was young, so she had to use crutches and couldn’t walk far, which somehow makes her whole respect for horses and carriage life feel way more personal. Like, it’s not just a random topic, she really lived around it. The whole “welfare of others” dedication theme is all over the place too, and the book is basically an autobiography told through a black horse named Black Beauty. It runs for years, from when she’s young to when she finally retires, and she kind of gets passed along and talks with other horses about what they’ve been through. It really messed with my head in a good way because I’ve always cared about animals and other people. Even as a kid I had this dumb idea that I wanted to “rescue” wheelchair users from their wheelchairs… obviously that’s not what a wheelchair is for, but I was young and didn’t understand. Reading Black Beauty just made that whole “think about how other beings feel” thing hit harder for me. It also freaked me out in a couple specific places. Like, I remember going into a sports shop and seeing the equestrian stuff, and I swear I nearly gagged when I saw the bits. I’d seen people ride with them before, but seeing it for real made me think, “how is that supposed to not hurt?” Then later in the book, when Black Beauty has to start wearing the bit and she describes it as cold and hard and awful… but then she adapts, and it still sounds like there are worse things a rider can put a horse through. So yeah, it didn’t make it feel “safe,” it just made it feel like there’s a line and some people cross it way harder than others. Same deal with other tack too. I once saw a horse and carriage/dogcart when I was younger and the horses had those eye patches, and I asked my parents and they said it was normal for safety so the horse wouldn’t get spooked. The book mentions blinkers like that too, and it made me feel less “what is wrong with this picture,” more “okay, there’s a difference between safety and cruelty.” And then there’s the whip. I can’t stand that sound already, and in the book it’s described as this mix of soft and brutal depending on who’s using it, and how the horse reacts, sometimes until there’s blood. It’s hard to read. I’ve also had my own “horse fear” moment from when I was little—my family had a mischievous grey/white horse (Hidie). She was a menace, got out, broke into the house, chased my sister, and my sister got hurt and ended up hospitalised. The irony is gross, but honestly it’s what put me off horses for good. And later, when I read Black Beauty, the idea that a “bad horse” usually comes from bad upbringing or ill-use/abuse made that story click in my head. That same message shows up constantly: horses get sold and sold again, stables to a lord to a cab and back, and it’s always connected to other horses having stories about being mistreated—bad reins, tail docking, sharp bits, hard whips, the whole thing. And Black Beauty even witnesses something horrible when a hunter gets into an accident and the horse doesn’t make it. There are parts about London streets too, with really chaotic driving, and honestly it still sounded like the same attitude people have with horses—like treating them as if they’re machines. And it also gets into the worst scenario where someone drives a horse drunk, there’s an accident, and it kills the master and injures Black Beauty. Just… grim. So yeah, I know this book is famous, but I can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner. Now I’m thinking about respect in a totally different way, especially toward equines.