Different Lessons – Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

My well read and tattered copy of Black Beauty. You can always tell if a book is a good read by how tattered it is!

Last week I had the pleasure of answering some thought provoking questions for an Interview by Gina McKnight. http://ginamc.blogspot.com/2013/04/carmel-rowley.html

The question: What is the first book that you remember reading?

The answer: I can’t really remember the very first book I read but I can recall two books that had an impact on me as a child.

The first was ‘I Can Jump Puddles’ by Alan Marshall a story of the author’s childhood. Despite his crippling poliomyelitis, he plays climbs, fights, swims, rides and thoroughly enjoys his world living in Australian countryside early last century surrounded by rough-riders, Bushmen, farmers and tellers of tall stories. I was in hospital with a serious illness when I read this book.

The second book was ‘Black Beauty’ by Anna Sewell. A touching story filled with lessons about life and combining memories and experiences told by Black Beauty himself. Every time I read this story I learn something new and writing this has prompted me to take it down from my bookcase and read it again. The story shows the cruelty some humans inflict on animals, as well as the kindness. This is an everlasting classic, loved by anyone who loves animals.

As I mentioned, this question prompted me to take ‘Black Beauty’ from my book shelves and read it again for the umpteenth time. Once again I was transported straight into Black Beauty’s world. I sighed and pondered how the horse was used for everything in the time of Black Beauty – horse power is now reserved for the size of an engine but in Black Beauty’s days horses were the one and only means of transport. Certainly they were used for pleasure but their life was compliant to mans every whim, need and desire. In fact horses were used for everything.

Through Anna Sewell, the worldly wise Black Beauty tells us his story his affection for his beloved family where he was born and then as circumstances change so do his owners. Some are blundering and careless while others are plain cruel.

I know when I was writing Tails Carried High one of my horse characters “Saarhm” had the nickname of “beauty” and (he was not black though he did have a black brother) I made this mention of “beauty” as a type of personal tribute to one of the books I loved most as a child. Another lesson learned from Black Beauty is how Anna Sewell appeared to want to spread the word to people who own horses to take responsibility for them and treat them with the care they deserve.

Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty when she was in her 50’s, the last years of her life and it was first published in 1877. For most of her life Sewell was not able to walk around easily, and used horse-drawn vehicles. I love the idea of writing the story from the horses perspective and apparently it was a fascination in Victorian England. Apparently animal rights activists gave out copies to horse handlers/carriage drivers and stable hands. I wonder what they thought when they read the story? It’s interesting to read that Black Beauty was widely credited with helping to change the manner in which horses were cared for.

Today with the Internet we are inundated and very aware of cruelty to animals but to think that Anna Sewell had the courage of her convictions and raised the issue of the several horse cruelties of the time. The first being the “bearing rein”. This was a strap used to pull in a horses head to it’s chest to force the desired look of a smooth and a highly desired arch in the neck. The horse was unable to use his neck and chest muscles and the practise often resulted in serious breathing problems for the horse. Sewell also wrote about the desire for “docking” a horses tail for the sake of fashion.
It would be nice to say that man now has seen the light and in this enlightened world now treats horses with the respect they deserve but sadly, there are still issues with fads and undesirable training methods within the horsy world.

I would agree with others that Black Beauty wasn’t necessarily written for children, the book is ageless and everyone can get something from this story. If you don’t have a copy of Black Beauty you should hunt one out and read it together as a family. I can guarantee it will incite some wonderful discussion.