Destructive to Dignity

Black Beauty gives me a tremendous feeling of heaviness each time I sit down to read it. The more the novel continues on, the more confined Black Beauty becomes. He comes to not only carry the weight of a saddle or the tension of a bearing rein, but also the pressures of men who cannot or perhaps will not acknowledge his worth. Time and time again, Black Beauty presents the reader with the useleness of abuse and human's disacknoledgment of a horse's capabilities.
When Black Beauty is talking to Max, a horse he shares the carriage with, Max tells him that he wears a tight rein because he "must," but that "it is shortening [his] life"(88). It becomes apparent, almost immediately, that the unnatural circumstances humans inflict on horses does nothing for the animal's benefit. Everything is solely a tradition or form of style. Animals are left to bear the weight of such frivolous ideas of animal beauty created by, but often not felt by, humans.

But perhaps the most important thing to be said about such tight constraints is the effects it comes to have on Black Beauty's soul, as he later comments that the "rein harrassed [him]," often leaving him not only sore, but also "worn and depressed"(89). What seems ironic about the reins he is forced to wear is that they are meant to keep his head high and what they do in return is turn his head low when they are taken off. Black Beauty reminds up thorughout the novel how capable he is of doing what man wants him to without the use of a whip or a rein. When he rides later on with Jerry, Black Beauty comments that he "had a very good mouth -- that is, [he] could be guided by the slighest touch of the rein"(141). He already knows. The use of such artificial tools does nothing but tear at his dignity and the little freedom that remains.

Reading Black Beauty, I cannot help but rememember the first and only time I rode a horse. The entire event, looking back, seems to be just a large miscommunication -- but not on his part. His name was Applejack and he was known to be one of the steadiest, but perhaps most tempermental horses on the ranch. Needless to say, Applejack was not amused by my lack of riding skills. Riding together, it was him who guided me and not me who guided him. If I said go left, he would sharply make a right. If I pulled the rein to stop, he would begin to trot faster. If I wanted to go, he wanted to eat and did not hesitate to bend his head towards the nearest bush for a nibble. For the first thirty minutes of riding, I felt genuinely terrified. Here was an animal -- a creature I had learned somewhere along the way that I was superior to -- and he was controlling me. But the further we traveled onward, the more I came to realize that if I followed his lead, he would take me exactly where I needed to go. He was the smart one.

Not quite how I looked on my first ride, but the horse here looks extremely similar to Applejack

Although I can by no means defend the maltreatment of Black Beauty throughout the novel, I can, at some level, relate to the level of fear towards animals the men who are responsibile for the abuse feel. They are too scared to let go of the reins because it means they have lost their control. Decoratng their horses like Christmas trees with no acknowledgement of the pain it inflicts or the pride it destroys, they choose to deem themselves superior to the animals they so need.

How would humans feel if they were made to wear such heavy straps?

Possibly like they were in a strait jacket?

It seems significant that Black Beauty never expects complete freedom. He speaks against completely "loose reins" for it "spoils"(108) the horse, suggesting instead that a human should pull on the reins with a slight and gentle touch. As Jerry says to the coachmen who condemn his religiousness and respect for the horses they deem lesser, "If a thing is right, it can be done, and if it is wrong, it can be done without; and a good man will find a way"(150). Certainly, then, whips and bearing reins are as useless to a good man as they are destructive to a horse's dignity.