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My knees took a long time to heal , and the marks on them never went away . People at the White Lion said that Reuben was drunk when he left . My shoe was found among the stones . So everybody knew that the fall was not my fault . Poor Susan cried again and again , “ He was so good ! It was all that drink ! ” She and her six children had to leave their pretty home . X . Going Downhill When my knees were better , they put me in a small field alone . Then one morning dear old Ginger came in . I trotted to her with a happy neigh . But she was not there for pleasure . The Earl’s young son , Lord George , rode her in a hard race , although the groom said she was not well . She hurt her back and her breathing . “ So here we are , ” she said , “ ruined when we are young and strong , you by a drunkard and I by a fool . ” We could not gallop about as we once did . But we were happy together , and we stood for hours under a tree with our heads close together . One day the Earl came into the field with York . He looked at us both and was not pleased . “ My old friend thought his horses would find a good home with me , ” he said . “ Now they are ruined . The mare can rest here for a year . But the black one must be sold . I can’t have knees like these in my stables . ” York knew a man in Bath who kept horses for hire and treated them well . So the Earl sold me to him . “ They’ll take you away , ” said Ginger , “ and I shall lose the only friend I have . ” A week later Robert led me away . We neighed to each other , and Ginger trotted along the hedge and called to me until she could not hear my feet any more . In Bath I became a job horse . A job horse belongs to a stable owner , and anybody can hire him for a day . I was gentle , so I was often hired by people who could not drive . Some held the reins so tight that my mouth hurt all the time . Others let the reins hang loose and never watched the road . One man laughed and talked all the time and did not look at the road . A sharp stone got stuck in my front shoe , but he did not notice . At every step it hurt more . At last he saw that I was lame , but he only used his whip on me . Luckily a farmer rode past . He got down and took the stone out . “ I never knew that horses picked up stones ! ” said the driver . “ Didn’t you ? ” said the farmer . “ Well , they do , even the best of them . Drive him gently now . His foot is badly hurt . ” Later a man called Mr Barry bought me as a riding horse . But he knew little about horses . His first groom stole my oats and sold them . His second groom never cleaned my stable , until my feet became sore and ill . Mr Barry was so tired of bad grooms that he sold me . So I went to a horse fair .
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