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''Black Beauty''
The story starts at the beginning, with Beauty's birth.
Beauty's story is set in Victorian England, a time when horses were crucial
since they were the main mode of transportation for humans. Raised by his
mother, Duchess, under the kind care of Farmer Grey, Beauty learns from a young
age that humans can be either a horse's greatest ally or their worst enemy.
Beauty spends the early part of his life with thoughtful, caring people who
know how to keep horses healthy and happy, but he is always aware that other
horses aren't so lucky. After an idyllic childhood with Farmer Grey, Beauty is
sent to Squire Gordon at Birtwick Park, where he spends the happiest years of
his life. There he's cared for by John Manly, a wise and perceptive groom, and
makes friends with the other Birtwick horses, including spunky and feisty
Ginger, who learns to chill out under John's care, and sweet Merrylegs, a pony
who adores the young children on the estate. But Beauty's life isn't all
rainbows and sunshine, since he often encounters other horses that have been
mistreated by their masters. At one point, Beauty's caught in a stable fire,
and on one very memorable night he rides to fetch a doctor and saves the life of
Squire Gordon's ailing wife.
Sadly, it's Mrs. Gordon's illness that closes the chapter on
Beauty's happy time at Birtwick. Ordered by the doctor to move to a warmer
climate, Squire Gordon and his family leave their estate in England and sell
their horses. From this point onward, Beauty's story becomes a struggle as he
falls victim to ignorant treatment and negligence from a series of new owners.
One night, a drunk groom causes Beauty to fall, a mishap that kills the groom
and permanently scars Beauty, turning him from a fashionable carriage horse to
a horse-for-hire, thus moving him down the ranks of the horse hierarchy. When
Beauty is finally sold to London cab driver Jerry Barker, it looks like maybe
he'll be okay. Jerry is basically the Horse Whisperer of London cabbies, and
Beauty adores him. Even though the work is hard, Beauty grows to love his life
with Jerry and the Barker family. But illness once again changes Beauty's fate,
and after a near-deadly round of bronchitis, Jerry gives up his London cab and
moves to the country with his family. After that, Beauty suffers at the hands
of brutal owners who work him until he literally drops. Along the way, he
encounters his old friend Ginger, who's been treated so cruelly that Beauty
eventually sees her carted away, dead. Although Beauty's nearly dead himself
from overwork and injury, he's saved by a perceptive horse doctor who thinks he
can still be fixed up and sold. Beauty is bought by a kind farmer and his
grandson, who rehabilitate him. They sell him at last to a family who
recognizes him as Squire Gordon's beloved Black Beauty, and give him the happy
ending he deserves.
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