Chap­ter 5: A Fair Start begins with Black Beau­ty set­tling into his new home under the care of John Man­ly, a ded­i­cat­ed coach­man who resides near the sta­bles with his fam­i­ly. On the morn­ing fol­low­ing Beauty’s arrival, John metic­u­lous­ly grooms him, ensur­ing every inch of his coat is pol­ished, which earns the approval of Squire Gor­don. To eval­u­ate Beauty’s tem­pera­ment and abil­i­ty, the Squire instructs John to take him for a ride across the estate. With delib­er­ate care, John fits Beau­ty with tack that bal­ances com­fort and con­trol, and their ride starts gen­tly before pro­gress­ing to a spir­it­ed can­ter across the com­mon. Beau­ty proves com­posed and respon­sive, even as they pass carts and gun­fire, earn­ing John’s qui­et admi­ra­tion. Their bond begins to form not just through per­for­mance but through mutu­al respect, sig­nal­ing the start of a reward­ing part­ner­ship.

Upon their return, Beau­ty meets the Squire and his wife, who both show inter­est in the horse’s demeanor and abil­i­ties. John express­es con­fi­dence in Beauty’s good nature and strength, and the Squire decides to ride him per­son­al­ly the fol­low­ing day. After expe­ri­enc­ing Beauty’s smooth pace and bal­anced tem­pera­ment first­hand, the Squire is thor­ough­ly pleased. As they con­sid­er what to name the horse, Mrs. Gor­don sug­gests “Black Beau­ty,” a name that suits both his appear­ance and his com­posed, ele­gant nature. The Squire agrees, not­ing the name’s gen­tle and fit­ting tone. It marks not only the nam­ing of the horse but also a sym­bol­ic begin­ning of a life that promis­es fair treat­ment and dig­ni­ty.

Lat­er, John shares the new name with James, anoth­er sta­ble hand, remark­ing on its sen­si­ble sim­plic­i­ty com­pared to the ornate names some­times giv­en to hors­es. Their con­ver­sa­tion drifts to the sub­ject of anoth­er horse, Rob Roy, who trag­i­cal­ly died dur­ing a hunt, and it is revealed that he was Beauty’s broth­er. This news stirs an emo­tion­al reflec­tion in Beau­ty, who rec­og­nizes the loss of con­nec­tion that often comes with being sold or moved. He mus­es on how hors­es, though relat­ed, may nev­er know or remem­ber their kin due to the tran­sient nature of their lives under human own­er­ship. This moment sub­tly intro­duces themes of dis­place­ment and the emo­tion­al intel­li­gence hors­es can pos­sess, which recur through­out the book.

As Beau­ty con­tin­ues to adjust to his new sur­round­ings, his thoughts reveal a deep­en­ing trust in John, whose gen­tle care fos­ters a sense of safe­ty. Every routine—from groom­ing to feed­ing and exercise—is han­dled with thought­ful­ness, rein­forc­ing the val­ues of respect and under­stand­ing between ani­mals and humans. Beauty’s calm­ness is not innate alone but nur­tured by the con­sis­ten­cy of his envi­ron­ment. The chap­ter por­trays a hope­ful begin­ning in con­trast to the hard­ships Beau­ty will lat­er face, empha­siz­ing how good treat­ment lays the ground­work for loy­al­ty and per­for­mance. It’s a qui­et, humane phi­los­o­phy embod­ied in John’s every action.

What makes this chap­ter res­onate is not only the intro­duc­tion of Beauty’s name but the tone of mutu­al appre­ci­a­tion between man and ani­mal. John doesn’t view Beau­ty as a tool but as a part­ner, and that dis­tinc­tion becomes foun­da­tion­al in the horse’s evolv­ing sense of iden­ti­ty. This ear­ly pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence will lat­er serve as a bench­mark for Beau­ty when future cir­cum­stances grow harsh­er. Read­ers are invit­ed to notice how deeply a horse’s well­be­ing is tied not just to food and shel­ter but to how he is under­stood and han­dled. Through these moments, Anna Sewell sub­tly advo­cates for a mod­el of care that val­ues empa­thy over dom­i­nance.

Over­all, this chap­ter sets the tone for a jour­ney defined by how hors­es are treat­ed and regard­ed by those who work with them. It intro­duces a sense of opti­mism and dig­ni­ty that con­trasts with lat­er chap­ters, enhanc­ing the emo­tion­al weight of future loss­es. Through mea­sured sto­ry­telling and sim­ple yet mean­ing­ful inter­ac­tions, Sewell con­tin­ues to build her argu­ment that ani­mals, like peo­ple, respond best when met with fair­ness, respect, and gen­uine com­pas­sion.