. Then, one night Black Beauty nearly died because of Joe’s lack of experience and knowledge.
The Gordons had to leave the country because of Mrs Gordon’s health and sold Black Beauty to Lord Westerleigh at Earlshall Park. Lady Westerleigh was unkind and selfish, and she made her horses wear bearing reins, which was very painful. One day, a groom called Rueben Smith took Black Beauty into town and left him at a stable for hours while he was with his friends. When the blacksmith pointed out that Black Beauty’s shoe was loose, Rueben didn’t care. He whipped Black Beauty and made him gallop much too fast because Reuben was late. Black Beauty fell and Rueben was thrown off the horse and died. After that, Black Beauty was not handsome enough for Lord and Lady Westerleigh because his knees were cut and scarred. They sold him to a London cab driver, Jerry Barker.
Jerry was a very kind man and Black Beauty was happy working for him. But when Jerry’s doctor told him
he must no longer work as a cab driver, he sold Black Beauty. The very nice ladies who bought him had a groom with a deep voice and a beard – it was young Joe Green from Birtwick Park, now a grown man. When Joe realised that the new horse was Black Beauty, he was very happy to see him again. He told the ladies that Black Beauty belonged to Squire Gordon and that he had been the Gordon’s favourite horse. The ladies were very pleased with Black Beauty, too. And once again, Black Beauty found himself in a happy home with kind people.