Black Beauty’s story strongly touched me as a reader. I have always considered myself sympathetic and compassionate but this book made me realize that, at times, I am unknowingly unsympathetic and uncompassionate. Sewell’s account chronicles the experiences of an oppressed animal by writing the story from the victim’s point of view. Reading this tale puts the reader into the horse’s “horse shoes” – sorry I could not resist the pun!
Black Beauty, as a character, provides the reader with great detail on his situation. The horse discusses issues of which a casual rider may not be aware. For example, the driver who rents out Black Beauty for the day has no idea that she has a rock in her foot or any comprehension of the consequences of his actions. 
[1] Enterprise Rental Car He treats the horse like a modern-day rental car, an object for which he paid for the day and no sympathy or respect for. When a reader discovers the situation from the animal’s point of view, as one does in Black Beauty, it becomes much easier to sympathize with his situation. When a person does not take the time to understand an animal’s side it is impossible to truly be compassionate. Instead, it becomes easy to abuse and write off the animal as an unimportant life form. Merrylegs sums this notion up when he criticizes the boys who overworked him during a play date. “They [boys] never think that a pony can get tired, or have any feelings.” [2] Instead of realizing that Merrylegs was a living creature with physical limits, they assumed he lived for their personal enjoyment.
The story reiterates this message of sympathizing with an animal’s circumstances revealing drastically different outcomes that result from sympathetic and unsympathetic masters. Black Beauty grows up in a land of liberty and plenty where he muses that he “used to lie beside my mother in the green, pleasant meadow at Farmer Grey’s.”[3] Sewell cleverly contrasts Black Beauty’s upbringing to that of Ginger’s. Ginger reluctantly left her mother at a young age and was ill broken-in by an overzealous master (well, his crazed son) who though of her only as “horse-flesh,”[4] an object to be used. Black Beauty enters into John Manly’s care as a calm and well-trained animal. His first master broke him in slowly and compassionately, with care. Interestingly enough, Black Beauty is able to reframe Ginger’s misanthropic paradigm. He tries to identify with Ginger’s plight, which is impossible, and instead offers her insight about how appreciate her life under John’s care, drawing from Black Beauty’s life experiences.
Not only do Black Beauty and Ginger serve as foils representing caring and negligent training, so do the horses’ treatment under John and then under the Earl and rental horse company. John understood his animals; he knew when they were happy, upset, hurt or apprehensive. Because John and the Master cared, the horses listened and were more effective work animals. The two men realized that “[God] had given animals knowledge which did not depend on reason” [5] This realization saved the men’s lives on the river trip when Black Beauty sensed that the bridge was broken. 
[6] A rickety bridge On the other side of the spectrum, at the Earl’s house, Black Beauty and Ginger were ill-treated and forced to wear bearing reins, simply for fashion. Then, instead of desiring to help his Master, Black Beauty felt tired, weak and irritable and “going out was a constant harass instead of a pleasure.”[7] In the end, Reuben, an irritable trainer, pushed the horse so hard that he caused his own death and the ruin of Black Beauty’s former.
Sewell asks through Black Beauty’s stream of consciousness “What right do they have to torment and disfigure God’s creatures?”[8] The first section of the book asks this question of the reader. Sewell exposes the evils associated with horse-rearing, illustrating man’s tendency to abuse all that God/Mother Nature gave humanity. Society pushes animals past their physical and emotional limits without considering the feelings of these living, breathing creatures. I was formerly unaware of the details of horse training. I simply rode horses at a friend’s ranch or camp. I was ignorantly unsympathetic to these beautiful animals. Sewell’s novel opened my eyes to the trials of horses, and consequently many other animals.
[1] http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bnm.com/images/ent_wrap_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bnm.com/enterprise_nonairport.htm&h=113&w=200&sz=8&hl=en&start=4&sig2=qcdKE-MXwTE1qIpUMlO14w&um=1&tbnid=Jius8zpauQ0IjM:&tbnh=59&tbnw=104&ei=FoHDR9C_BKXWigG09ISWDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Denterprise%2Brental%2Bcar%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
[2] Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1993), 50.
[3] Black Beauty, 109.
[4] Black Beauty, 42.
[5] Black Beauty, 63.
[6] http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/130/332672531_0860bc75ae.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blogs.bootsnall.com/TravelRich/thai-sa-nook.html&h=500&w=375&sz=196&hl=en&start=7&sig2=gRP_DiqKf78r3hfu7_Hchg&um=1&tbnid=jP08-tzZ0re_aM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=98&ei=nIHDR7eLI5WIiwG28JnwCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drickety%2Bbridge%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
[7] Black Beauty, 96.
[8] Black Beauty, 54-55.
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