Black Beauty

A wise horse once told me...

...that a mustang's spirit can never be broken.

That it has the strength of the ocean...

and lives forever, like the wind.

Over the course of my life...

my spirit has been tested a thousand times...

until I discovered a secret that saved me.

And to tell you what it is, we have to start at the very beginning.

The story of a wild horse...

and the girl she loved.

I was born in a golden meadow...

on a bed of soft wildflowers.

My mother showed me our home.

It was endless...

and beautiful.

I was a little shy to meet my family.

There were so many of them.

To prove myself to the herd...

I had to be strong and fast and fearless.

As I got older, I felt a fire rising up in me.

My mother said it was my mustang spirit, and it would always guide me.

She said I should never kick or bite without a good reason,

but always try to be gentle and kind.

My heart ached to explore the world beyond our meadow.

A place nobody could ever take from us.

When I turned two years old, I made a discovery.

Strange creatures were moving onto our land.

It was against the rules to leave the mountains...

but I had to find out where they were coming from.

We gotta find that mustang herd.

There she goes. We're coming back for you, pretty thing!

I knew I had put my whole family in danger.

That night my mother told me a story

about what happens when a horse leaves this Earth.

That she wouldn't always be there to protect me...

but that I shouldn't worry

because when it is a horse's time to go...

it gallops toward the sky,

just as if it can fly.

And that when her time came...

she would always watch over me...

from her bed in the stars.

- -

Whoo-hoo! Ha-ha!

I knew I had made a terrible mistake.

I had led them right to us.

Yeehaw! Yah, yah!

That filly's out of her mind.

It was my first experience with the creatures they called...

humans.

I lost my mother in the stampede.

It was the last time I ever saw her.

And I knew it was all my fault.

I felt hurt and guilty and just so angry.

My mother said a mustang's spirit could never be broken.

But I was beginning to doubt if that was true.

My spirit felt shattered.

Hey. How you doin'?

Well, well, well.

From all the way out east, huh?

Quite the haul.

I drove all the way out from New York.

You gotta get fresh water.

Yeah, I was just about to change it out this morning.

One of my staffers got sick.

How many you looking to take?

Just a few.

Wow!

She's a pretty one.

Yeah, well, that filly's got a horrible temper.

Trust me, you don't want her.

She's a strike horse anyway.

It's leaving this afternoon.

He's adopting 20 of them.

We don't exactly keep a record of where our strike horses go.

Course you don't.

The new man seemed different.

His eyes were softer.

Poor girl.

- You're just frightened. I know. -

And angry, I'm sure.

A lot of personality, all right.

Well-built too. Elegant.

Okay, boys, that's it. Round 'em up.

Hold on. I'll take her.

As we drove away from that awful place,

I had no idea how lucky I was to be one of the few chosen.

Because not many people want a wild mustang to train.

We went down the long gray path for days.

There you go. Buck it out.

Well, she's a gorgeous one, John.

- She is, isn't she? - It's just--

The other ones seem much more decidedly--

Tame?

I was going to say sane, but yes.

Oh! Hey! Oh, God! Oh!

- -

Ah, she'll settle in.

- Trust me. I do.

But the rescues have a time limit here, John.

We both know that.

My first night at Birtwick.

I miss my family.

The other horses were all strangers.

But it was quieter there.

And I could hear a new sound.

Smell salt on the air.

It was peaceful.

And finally, I slept.

I wondered what the new man wanted from me.

He couldn't possibly understand.

All right. In your own time.

The boy and I developed a game.

- We played it together... - Easy.

...each and every day.

Oh!

I always won. -

My mother would not have approved,

but humans had not been kind or good to me.

So why should I be to them?

That mustang's got a real mean streak.

Right now, she's just angry.

Wouldn't you be if a UFO came down and stole you from your family?

Yeah, I guess so.

Still, I don't see how you can break a horse like that.

For her sake, let's try, shall we?

There you go.

I decided humans must be very lazy.

They always wanted to be carried around by something.

Bet you haven't seen one of these in the wild.

The man thought he could outsmart me with his tricks.

Good girl.

But he had underestimated me.

Okay.

One day I got a neighbor.

I liked the fire in her immediately.

She was followed by the funniest little horse I had ever seen.

It looked like he couldn't stop dancing.

I learned that they were called Ginger and Merrylegs.

We eventually became friends, and they turned us out together.

I was so happy to have a family again.

The man who brought me there made his home near my paddock.

Hello. John Manly.

I noticed he was always alone.

What?

- -

Jo.

I'm so ver--

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Call if you need anything.

I would eventually hear from different people at Birtwick...

the girl's parents had died in a car accident.

John was her uncle.

There was something different about the girl.

Something I recognized.

Her spirit seemed broken.

- Jo. -

I'm sorry.

I have dinner on the table.

I'm not hungry.

You have to eat something.

I don't.

Just...

please leave me alone.

It was a few days before I saw her again.

So, I continued my game with the boy.

John decided to play too.

But even with a horse to help him...

he couldn't keep up with me.

Pretty, isn't she?

I didn't mean to scare you.

What's her name?

I haven't given her a name yet.

You know, if you like...

You know, that horse out there, she was rounded up out west.