Horses are human??

(Horse driving)

Oh black beauty. How I absolutely disliked the movie, but I can't help but get pretty involved when reading this book. It kind of sucks you into this world where horses are thinking what people are thinking. I can't help but to read this book and have it flash straight into thought of the way humans do the same thing and that many of the scenarios in this book feel like they could be used in a present sense. For example, when Black Beauty starts to discuss different types of drivers and he says, "I think I was oftener let out to the ignorant drivers than some of the other horses, because I could be depended on" (Sewell, 111). Here I couldn't help to immediately think of how we drive cars now a days. The ignorant people that are on the roads that just don't give a damn about anyone else or the people who don't even care about their car because if anything happens daddy will buy them a new one. Though this book was written for people who owned horses and was meant to be used as a guide to show how Anna Sewell felt that horses were being treated and how she believed how the horses felt when certain things happen. It was an ever changing world at this point, 1877, and Anna wanted people to understand and feel what horses felt. But I can't help to read this book, and I do get a feeling for how horses felt, but I always draw parallels to what we use in our society between the book.
The relationship between an animal and it's master is a sacred bound that only the two of them know, but usually you can get some kind of feel of it when you are around each other. Animals and humans have a bound that is, to me, very different than a human to human relationship. I think people are so caught up in talking and having their opinion that they don't really get that chance to listen to one another speak and actually take in what the other has to say. In this society, we (humans) are so overwhelmed with our own business that we don't really take the time to think about others views and we rarely listen, and when I say Listen I really mean to sit back not think about anything that is going on in your life and just taking in what the other is saying, we rarely do that cause we are caught up in our feelings and our lives. An example of how this is different between humans and animals is perfectly shared in Black Beauty, when Black Beauty is talking about his new owner Jerry, "In a short time I and my master understood each other as well as horse and man can do. In the stable too, he did all that he could for our comfort. . .Jerry kept us very clean, and gave us as much change of food as he could, and always plenty of it" (Sewell, 138). When I read this page I can see the relationship between what could be seen as owner and property, but more seen as owner and loving "pet". You can tell that the family is suited for helping out with the horses and Jerry knows how to treat his animals with the respect that they deserve. He is very Kantian and believes that he shouldn't treat his animal as a means to his own end. He believes in mutual respect for his horse and the horse shows him respect back. Black Beauty knows when riding that he can trust Jerry and that kind of bond between horse and human is very rarely especially with a horse that has just been traded to a new owner. It usually takes riders years to get a horse to stay with him and get a feel for how the horse rides and vice versa for the animal. If the animal is treated unfairly he will ride unfairly and there will be no bond between horse and rider.
I get so drawn into this book and if I was reading this book back in the late 1800's to early 1900's, I would have a new fine respect for my horse and not just think of them as property. I feel like no a wdays we get so caught up in our "property" that we don't take a step back and think about what we have and what we should have respect for even if we use it as a means to make money.