Chap­ter 3 My Break­ing In marks a piv­otal point in Black Beauty’s young life, describ­ing the tran­si­tion from care­free colt­hood to trained domes­tic ser­vice. This process, known as “break­ing in,” is not about force but grad­ual adap­ta­tion, and in Black Beauty’s case, it was han­dled with patience and kind­ness by his mas­ter. The first steps involve wear­ing a bit and bridle—strange and ini­tial­ly uncom­fort­able objects that restrict­ed his nat­ur­al move­ments. Despite the awk­ward­ness, he endured the sen­sa­tions out of trust for his mas­ter, whose steady hand nev­er used pain as a teach­ing tool. Black Beau­ty notes how impor­tant it was that no harsh words or pun­ish­ments accom­pa­nied these lessons, only calm rep­e­ti­tion and encour­age­ment. It’s through this method that he first begins to under­stand human expec­ta­tions and how to respond gen­tly and obe­di­ent­ly.

As his train­ing pro­gress­es, Black Beau­ty is intro­duced to sad­dles, har­ness­es, and even­tu­al­ly met­al horse­shoes, which bring new phys­i­cal adjust­ments. The shoes feel odd at first—heavy and cold—but they pro­tect his hooves on hard roads, and he soon grows used to them. What’s most strik­ing in this phase is how each les­son is giv­en time to sink in before the next chal­lenge is intro­duced, ensur­ing that fear is replaced by famil­iar­i­ty. His mas­ter allows him to walk with the sad­dle before adding a rid­er, and only when Black Beau­ty moves with con­fi­dence does he expe­ri­ence pulling a small cart. These steps build trust and a foun­da­tion of coop­er­a­tion rather than resis­tance. The grad­ual expo­sure to each part of his work­ing life reflects the master’s under­stand­ing of a horse’s needs, cre­at­ing a bond based on mutu­al respect rather than dom­i­nance.

One of the most vivid parts of the chap­ter is Black Beauty’s encounter with trains. Ini­tial­ly, the thun­der­ing sound and flash­ing motion of loco­mo­tives ter­ri­fy him. Yet his mas­ter delib­er­ate­ly leads him near the tracks mul­ti­ple times, always calm­ly and with­out pres­sure, allow­ing Black Beau­ty to observe and adjust at his own pace. The turn­ing point comes when he notices how cows and sheep remain unfazed by the noise, which makes him recon­sid­er his reac­tion. Soon, the sight of a train becomes just anoth­er fea­ture of the land­scape, not a source of fear. This part of his train­ing demon­strates how ani­mals can adapt remark­ably well when their fears are met with patience rather than pun­ish­ment. It also rein­forces the idea that trust and rep­e­ti­tion are the best tools in help­ing ani­mals feel safe in a human world.

The chap­ter also delves into deep­er themes beyond train­ing mechan­ics. Black Beau­ty reflects on the real­i­ty that not all hors­es are as for­tu­nate to have kind han­dlers. He remem­bers his mother’s advice, warn­ing that although they may serve good peo­ple now, the future might place them in the hands of the cru­el or igno­rant. Her words—that behav­ing with dig­ni­ty and strength is the only defense in a life gov­erned by humans—stay with him. Black Beauty’s aware­ness that his fate depends entire­ly on the char­ac­ter of his own­er intro­duces a sober­ing truth about domes­ti­cat­ed ani­mals. It rein­forces the novel’s cen­tral mes­sage: that the treat­ment of ani­mals is a direct reflec­tion of human moral­i­ty and aware­ness.

More­over, this chap­ter sub­tly cri­tiques the broad­er sys­tem in which hors­es are bro­ken in. While Black Beauty’s expe­ri­ence is gen­tle, it’s made clear that many oth­er young hors­es are sub­ject­ed to fear, force, and pain. The author does not need to describe cru­el­ty in graph­ic terms; the con­trast with Black Beauty’s expe­ri­ence is enough. By show­ing how effec­tive kind­ness and con­sis­ten­cy are, Anna Sewell qui­et­ly under­mines the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for harsh train­ing meth­ods. She ele­vates empa­thy as both moral­ly supe­ri­or and prac­ti­cal­ly effec­tive, appeal­ing to read­ers’ con­science and com­mon sense alike.

Ulti­mate­ly, Chap­ter 3 illus­trates how ear­ly han­dling shapes a horse’s future behav­ior, trust in humans, and even emo­tion­al health. Black Beauty’s good begin­ning sets him on a path to become a reli­able and respon­sive com­pan­ion, high­light­ing the poten­tial in every ani­mal when nur­tured with care. His reflec­tions, though sim­ple, car­ry pro­found insights into how ani­mals per­ceive their world and the peo­ple who shape it. It’s not just about teach­ing a horse to pull a cart or wear a bridle—it’s about earn­ing that animal’s trust and ensur­ing its dig­ni­ty remains intact through every stage of train­ing.