by Catherine, age 11

My name is Ginger. A lot of you have probably read the classic story about the life of my best friend, Black Beauty. Have you ever wondered what happened to me after I left Black Beauty? Well, here I am to tell you more about my life from when my friend Black Beauty arrived at my stable to when my life ended.

When Black Beauty came, I was a really mean horse. I remember when Black Beauty arrived, he tried to say hi. I swung my head up angrily, but he kept trying to say hi. After that, we were put in a pasture together. I kept kicking at him and biting at him, but it never worked. He still came up to me and tried to be friends with me. Once John, my master’s helper, hooked me and Black Beauty to the cart. I threw my weight into the cart and pulled. They put us in a pasture together again and now Black Beauty kept kicking and biting at me to get my attention, but it never worked.

One night, Black Beauty came home from town in a big storm. John was all wet and cold so he could not take care of Black Beauty. A boy named Joe helped Black Beauty. Joe was not that experienced with horses. He thought Black Beauty did not need a blanket, even though he did. Joe thought that Black Beauty was hot, so he gave Black Beauty cold water. The next day, Beauty was sick. I stayed up all night with Beauty. It made me sad that Beauty was sick. After Beauty got better, they put us in a pasture together and, instead of ignoring him, we ran and played together. That was the beginning of our friendship.

One day our mistress got sick. We had to take her to a doctor specialist. It was far away so we had to stay in a barn that was not ours. Someone was smoking, and when he went to feed the horses he put his pipe on the hay. After he was done he brought the lantern down and knocked down his pipe. He picked up his pipe, but there were still ashes on the ground. The horses smelled the fire that was burning, but the men did not know there was a fire so they still put them in their stalls. The fire kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally, it was so big you could see it from the outside of the barn. People came running from different directions. All the horses were saved.

We were sold to another place. We had never used a neck rein before, but at this place we had to use a neck rein. The rein made it so our head had to be held up. It was very uncomfortable for us, but people said that it looked nice. They kept tightening it. I could not take it any longer, so I reared up and broke part of the cart. After that, the lady never called for me again.

I didn’t pull the cart, so they decided to put me in a race. I was not fit to race, but they raced me anyway. I won the race, but hurt my lungs in the process. After that I could not breathe right.

Black Beauty got sold. It happened so quickly that we didn’t get to say goodbye. A year or so later, we saw each other again. It had been so long that I did not know it was Black Beauty, but she knew it was me. I was too thin so they could not use me to pull cabs anymore. A couple days after that, my life ended.