Black Beauty’s sale to Jerry Barker marks a change from being valued chiefly through visible damage and uncertain market claims to entering a household where careful handling shapes his new work as a cab horse. At the horse fair, his broken knees make prospective gentlemen turn away, while Jerry recognizes the quality of his movement and buys him for twenty-four pounds and ten shillings. The purchase leads directly to London, a new name, and a working arrangement notable for its plain, less restrictive tack.

Background: A Horse Judged by His Condition

Before the fair, Black Beauty had been treated for tender feet while in the care of Mr. Barry. A farrier diagnosed severe thrush and connected it with an uncleared stable. After his feet were cleaned and treated, the farrier prescribed clean litter, bran mashes, some green food, and less corn. Black Beauty’s spirits returned as his feet improved. Mr. Barry, having lost confidence in his grooms, decided to stop keeping a horse; once Black Beauty was sound, he was sold again. The episode establishes that his condition was not fixed: appropriate care could improve it, while neglect had helped make him unwell.

His broken knees also carried a history. After a long, painful healing process, proud flesh was treated and a blistering fluid removed the hair from the fronts of both knees. The wounds healed, but the blemish remained. In the inquiry after Reuben Smith’s fatal ride, evidence included Black Beauty’s shoe, found among the stones, and the horse was cleared of blame. The fair’s buyers nevertheless saw the damaged knees before they could know the history behind them. His seller claimed the marks came from a slip in the stall, but the account does not establish that explanation as true.

The novel’s earlier account of Black Beauty’s life at Birtwick offers a contrast to this commercial appraisal. There, Squire Gordon and his household were described as protecting animals, and the squire and Farmer Grey had worked for years against the use of check-reins on cart horses. In another episode, James Howard’s account of confronting a boy who had hurt flies led to a lesson against cruelty to the weak and helpless. These scenes establish a moral standard in which an animal’s welfare matters in itself. At the fair, by contrast, buyers inspect bodies and test movement, and visible damage can determine whether a horse receives serious consideration.

The Bargain at the Fair

The fair gathers horses of sharply different conditions: young horses and ponies, strong animals showing their paces, and worn or injured horses whose appearance suggests the costs of hard work. Black Beauty is placed with other useful-looking horses, but gentlemen repeatedly turn away when they notice his knees. His seller insists that the blemish was only a stall accident, while the uncertainty of its cause remains unresolved.

The buyers’ manner matters to Black Beauty as much as their examination. Some handle horses roughly, as if they were objects; others touch them gently and pause to pat them. He judges prospective owners by that difference. Jerry stands out as experienced with horses: he handles Black Beauty gently, speaks kindly, and has a clean, fresh smell that the horse associates with neither old beer nor tobacco. Black Beauty responds by reaching his head toward him when Jerry returns, a small gesture that makes the choice of buyer feel mutual rather than purely transactional.

The bargaining gives the purchase its decisive turn. Jerry first offers twenty-three pounds, but the offer is refused. When the hard-faced buyer offers the same amount, Jerry comes back and raises his bid to twenty-four pounds. The seller presses for twenty-five; Jerry answers with twenty-four pounds and ten shillings and will not increase it. The seller accepts, calling the horse a bargain for cab work. The exchange places a price on Black Beauty’s usefulness, but Jerry’s attention to his manner and movement distinguishes his judgment from a sale based only on the seller’s assurances.

From the Fair to a London Cab

Jerry pays on the spot, takes Black Beauty’s halter, and leads him to an inn, where saddle and bridle are ready. He gives the horse a good feed of oats and stays beside him while he eats. Half an hour later they set off through country lanes and roads toward London. The journey ends at dusk amid the city’s streets and gas lamps, at a long cab stand where Jerry greets another driver as governor. The passage from fair to stand is swift, but it makes the consequence of the sale concrete: Black Beauty has been bought for city work.

At home the following morning, Jerry’s wife, Polly Barker, and their daughter, Dolly Barker, come into the yard to make friends. Polly brings an apple and Dolly a piece of bread. Harry Barker has already been helping his father and expects the new horse to prove capable. Jerry does not claim to know how Black Beauty acquired his damaged knees. Instead, he gives him the benefit of the doubt, praises his firm, neat step, and chooses to call him Jack, after the family’s former horse. Polly agrees, valuing the continuation of a good name. The new name signals household welcome, though it does not erase the horse’s earlier identity or the history marked on his body.

A Different Kind of Working Arrangement

The family’s welcome is accompanied by practical attention to comfort. After another horse, Captain, has worked the cab in the morning, Jerry puts Black Beauty into the vehicle in the afternoon. He checks that the collar and bridle fit, then lets out the crupper by a hole or two until the equipment sits properly. Black Beauty notes the absence of a check-rein and curb: his bridle has only a plain ring snaffle. In a book that repeatedly connects equipment and handling with a horse’s experience of work, these details make the new arrangement more than a change of owner.

Jerry’s later conduct as a cabman reinforces, without changing the facts of the purchase, the ethical significance of this first impression. When another man argues that people should not interfere in cruelty, Jerry says that wrongdoing should be brought to light and that those who can stop cruelty but do nothing share responsibility. That later exchange echoes the earlier Birtwick principle that people should intervene against oppression. The sale does not guarantee that Black Beauty will escape hardship, but it gives him a period of work under a driver whose handling, equipment choices, and stated concern for abused horses distinguish him from those who treat an animal’s body merely as a means of earning money.