One day, Ginger and I were standing under a tree. She asked me about my life. I told her about my kind master and my mother. Ginger looked sad. “If people were kind to me, I might be good-tempered too,” she said.
Ginger’s life was very different. She was taken from her mother very early. No one was kind to her. The man who took care of her did not love horses. He only gave them food. Boys used to throw stones at the young horses to make them run.
When it was time for Ginger’s breaking in, the men were very rough. They caught her and held her nose very tight. They forced a bit into her mouth. They did not try to be gentle. They only used force.
Ginger was a horse with a lot of spirit. She wanted to be free. She did not like being shut in a stall. She had no kind master to talk to her. There was a man named Samson who was very hard. He had a hard voice and hard hands.
Samson wanted to break Ginger’s spirit. If she did not do what he wanted, he made her run until she was tired. He also drank a lot of alcohol. One day, he put a new bit in her mouth. It was very painful.
Samson hit Ginger with a whip. Ginger became very angry. She began to kick and jump. She had a big fight with Samson. Finally, Ginger threw Samson off her back. Samson fell hard on the ground.
Ginger galloped to the other end of the field. She was hungry and thirsty. The sun was very hot. The spurs (sharp metal points on a rider's boots) had hurt her sides. She stood alone for a long time.
At sunset, the old master came out. He was a kind man with white hair. He spoke to Ginger gently. “Come along, lassie,” he said. He gave her some oats. His voice took away her fear. He saw the blood on her sides and he was very angry with Samson.
The old master led Ginger to the stable. Samson called her a bad animal. But the old master said, “A bad-tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse.” The old master cleaned Ginger’s wounds himself.
He gave Ginger a bran mash (a soft, warm food made of grain). It was very soft and helped her sore mouth. He told the other men to be kind to her. After that, a man named Job trained her. He was very thoughtful and Ginger learned quickly.