After this I was sent to Tattersalls to be sold; of course I could not be warranted free from vice, so nothing was said about that. My handsome appearance and good paces soon brought a gentleman to bid for me, and I was bought by another dealer; he tried me in all kinds of ways and with different bits, and he soon found out what I could not bear. At last he drove me quite without a check-rein, and then sold me as a perfectly quiet horse to a gentleman in the country; he was a good master, and I was getting on very well, but his old groom left him and a new one came. This man was as hard-tempered and hard-handed as Samson; he always spoke in a rough, impatient voice, and if I did not move in the stall the moment he wanted me, he would hit me above the hocks with his stable broom or the fork, whichever he might have in his hand. Everything he did was rough, and I began to hate him; he wanted to make me afraid of him, but I was too high-mettled for that, and one day when he had aggravated me more than usual I bit him, which of course put him in a great rage, and he began to hit me about the head with a riding whip. After that he never dared to come into my stall again; either my heels or my teeth were ready for him, and he knew it. I was quite quiet with my master, but of course he listened to what the man said, and so I was sold again.
The same dealer heard of me, and said he thought he knew one place where I should do well. twas a pity, he said, that such a fine horse should go to the bad, for want of a real good chance, and the end of it was that I came here not long before you did; but I had then made up my mind that men were my natural enemies and that I must defend myself. Of course it is very different here, but who knows how long it will last? I wish I could think about things as you do; but I cant, after all I have gone through.
Well, I said, I think it would be a real shame[22] if you were to bite or kick John or James.
I dont mean to, she said, while they are good to me. I did bite James once pretty sharp, but John said, Try her with kindness, and instead of punishing me as I expected, James came to me with his arm bound up, and brought me a bran mash and stroked
me; and I have never snapped at him since, and I wont either.
I was sorry for Ginger, but of course I knew very little then, and I thought most likely she made the worst of it[23]; however, I found that as the weeks went on she grew much more gentle and cheerful, and had lost the watchful, defiant look that she used to turn on any strange person who came near her; and one day James said, I do believe that mare is getting fond of me, she quite whinnied after me this morning when I had been rubbing her forehead.
Ay, ay, Jim, tis the Birtwick balls, said John, shell be as good as Black Beauty by and by; kindness is all the physic she wants, poor thing! Master noticed the change, too, and one day when he got out of the carriage and came to speak to us, as he often did, he stroked her beautiful neck. Well, my pretty one, well, how do things go with you now? You are a good bit happier than when you came to us, I think.
She put her nose up to him in a friendly, trustful way, while he rubbed it gently.
We shall make a cure of her, John, he said.
Yes, sir, shes wonderfully improved; shes not the same creature that she was; its the Birtwick balls, sir, said John, laughing.
This was a little joke of Johns; he used to say that a regular course of the Birtwick horseballs would cure almost any vicious horse; these balls, he said, were made up of patience and gentleness, firmness and petting, one pound of each to be mixed up with half a pint of common sense, and given to the horse every day.
9 Merrylegs
One afternoon he had been out with them a long time, and when James brought him in and put on his halter he said:
There, you rogue, mind how you behave yourself, or we shall get into trouble.
What have you been doing, Merrylegs? I asked.
Oh! said he, tossing his little head, I have only been giving those young people a lesson; they did not know when they had had enough, nor when I had had enough, so I just pitched them off backward; that was the only thing they could understand.
What! said I, you threw the children off ? I thought you did know better than that![24] Did you throw Miss Jessie or Miss Flora?
He looked very much offended, and said:
Of course not; I would not do such a thing for the best oats that ever came into the stable; why, I am as careful of our young ladies as the master could be, and as for the little ones it is I who teach them to ride. When they seem frightened or a little unsteady on my back I go as smooth and as quiet as old pussy when she is after a bird; and when they are all right I go on again faster, you see, just to use them to it[25]; so dont you trouble yourself preaching to me; I am the best friend and the best riding-master those children have. It is not them, it is the boys; boys, said he, shaking his mane, are quite different; they must be broken in as we were broken in when we were colts, and just be taught whats what. The other children had ridden me about for nearly two hours, and then the boys thought it was their turn, and so it was, and I was quite agreeable. They rode me by turns, and I galloped them about, up and down the fields and all about the orchard, for a good hour. They had each cut a great hazel stick for a riding-whip, and laid it on a little too hard; but I took it in good part, till at last I thought we had had enough, so I stopped two or three times by way of a hint[26]. Boys, you see, think a horse or pony is like a steam-engine or a thrashing-machine, and can go on as long and as fast as they please; they never think that a pony can get tired, or have any feelings; so as the one who was whipping me could not understand I just rose up on my hind legs and let him slip off behind that was all. He mounted me again, and I did the same. Then the other boy got up, and as soon as he began to use his stick I laid him on the grass, and so on, till they were able to understand that was all. They are not bad boys; they dont wish to be cruel. I like them very well; but you see I had to give them a lesson. When they brought me to James and told him I think he was very angry to see such big sticks. He said they were only fit for drovers or gypsies, and not for young gentlemen.