Hard Days Continue for New York’s Carriage Horses
On the list of creatures I would rather not come back as in a future life, a draft horse comes up pretty high. And that’s no pun.
With few exceptions, draft breeds are the last of the horses that are still expected, across the board, to work for a living. Work, not as in a typical sport horse’s day: go into an arena for an hour a day and pop over fences, or a cowhorse’s day: move some cattle on what is essentially an all-day trail ride with some fun displays of dominance over another species. Draft breeds work. And to be clear, I suppose in one way I define hard work as being required to do your job on hard pavement. We scream and cry about the footing at showgrounds, racetracks, even hidey-hole corners where we sneak away to longe in private, and yet even at the Magic Kingdom, Belgians and Clydesdales wear steel shoes as they plod up and down the asphalt paving of Main Street U.S.A., posing for pictures during the Main Street Trolley Show and having little princess’s hands waved away by their drivers – “He might bite you, honey!”
Someone once told me Clydesdales don't GROW tails!
Elsewhere, if they aren’t working very hard at entertaining people, draft horses are the darlings of their breed registrations, and look simply beautiful decked out in horse brasses and traditional ribbon braids – what a shame that it’s still a requirement to dock their tails for many classes.
Lucky and still unusual are the draft horses living the pleasure horse’s life. Every now and then, you spot one lumbering over a low fence, or plowing cheerfully through a dressage test. I’ve actually seen a Clydesdale perform a very reasonable half-pass.
And then of course you have the flashy, lightweight ones, like Friesians and those spotty Gypsy Vanners, coasting through life because they’re pretty. I have nothing against them – they’re the lucky ones. It’s the traditional workers of the world – the Belgians, the Clydesdales and their kissing cousins the Shires – who need to unite and strike for fair working conditions. Why shouldn’t we live a life of sport and ease, they should be asking.
In New York City, perhaps more so than anywhere else, the draft horse still leads a hard, hard life. And if Manhattan was hard on drays and carriage horses one hundred years ago, when Broadway was a solid jammed mass of wagons, carriages, stagecoaches, and, alarmingly, pedestrians, all beneath the roaring, sparking terror of the elevated trains – well, the mayhem is slightly more controlled now, but it’s still not a place where most humans wish to spend their days. Imagine how a horse must feel.
Where would you feel more out of place, if you were a horse, then tramping through Midtown, beneath fifty-story skyscrapers and above trembling asphalt roads, shaking as the subways roar just beneath, ears assaulted by the horns of jostling cabs and nostrils burning with the fumes of diesel buses?
One of my first memories of living on the Upper West Side, that green leafy village that lies to the west of Central Park, is sitting in the subway station just below Central Park West, listening to horse hooves clop overhead. It was like hearing the ghost of Old New York. The sound was rapidly blocked, however, by a noise exactly like listening to a space shuttle launch from close by the launch pad – the express train rushing past.
I’m not against horses living in the city, as you well know. I am against straight stalls – and until recently, although I haven’t verified this with my own eyes – New York’s carriage horses have lived in straight stalls. And I am against horses in Midtown. For some graphic and disturbing images that explain why, just click here.
The New York Times has reported several new laws for the NYC carriage horses. They need them – the current laws do not go much further than filling the water troughs that the ASPCA began providing for them in the nineteenth century. And while it is a pretty photo-op to see the horses dripping water from their whiskers on Central Park South, imagine if you will that these horses are permitted to work for up to nine hours a day.
(British Horse Society standards, on the other hand, call for livery horses to work for no more than four. Granted, that is under saddle – but it makes no provisions. A horse might only walk and trot, like the carriage horses, for just four hours per day. And do it, one imagines, on better footing than asphalt.)
Dima Gavrysh for The New York Times
Also frustratingly weird is the provision that basically allows an operator to work a horse until it dies: the horses used may only be between the ages of five and 26. Twenty-six? If a horse’s average lifespan is until 25-30, does that make their retirement age the grave? Although, arguably, like so many horses, the prospects for a retirement in a paddock are so slim, they may as well drop in the traces. Literally.
But speaking of paddocks, they receive five weeks’ paddock vacation per year. I can think of a lot of show horses that once received paddock breaks, before showing became year-round, and I’ll bet they’re wishing they were as lucky as the carriage horses, in this case.
And most importantly, they must be stabled in stalls large enough to lie down in. Now, that does not appear to have been mandated. But I believe the industry standard for draft horses is fourteen by fourteen? That would be a considerable improvement from straight stalls.
It also keeps the horses above 34th Street. I personally have never seen horses south of 34th Street. But 34th Street – that’s Macy’s, Penn Station, and Madison Square Garden – is such a miserable lost-tourist traffic nightmare that it’s entirely possible that I’ve passed through that area and actually not seen the horses for the hordes surrounding them. If it were me, I’d keep the horses in the relative quiet of Central Park, a space so green and leafy I have actually gotten lost in the woods there. (True story.) Horses do not belong in the ugly wastelands of office towers just below Central Park. People don’t belong there. There is nothing there but financial institutions in skyscrapers and large chain hotels for people who did not do their homework when booking. Presumably, the sorts of people who take a carriage ride down Seventh Avenue.
Natalie Keller Reinert
Wow- what a life for those guys. Thanks for getting it down past the superficial touristy aspect of them, which is where my head was at before I read your article, I’m ashamed to say.
Barb Fulbright
April 21, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I’ll try sending this in parts:
While you sound well-meaning, the “facts” that you state here are either misleading, or utterly inaccurate.
The welfare of the horses is what the decent-minded, casual observer is truly interested in, and for good reason. The horse-drawn carriages are a New York City icon; they are ambassadors to our visitors, and the horses themselves are working animals that are entitled to proper care and good handling.
Fortunately, our record reflects exactly that. Our horses lead exceedingly reasonable and content lives. They each receive a superior, formulated diet, occupy roomy box stalls, receive vet & farrier care, and are groomed daily and bathed regularly. This amounts to food, shelter, and medical care – which many CHILDREN in this city do not have.
michaleen
April 21, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Beyond these basics, they are loved and respected by their owners/drivers; they receive affection, treats, and tons of human interaction everyday. Most of our horses are just big treat monsters. And as for working “9 hours a day” – that is the time they spend in HARNESS – not the time they are actually pulling the carriage. The lion’s share of the day they spend standing, eating, or snoozing on the carriage line. And if you think they are tired -I’d like you to ride back to the stable with me one day LOL
Every stable has a sprinkler system in case of fire, and every stable has 24/7 stablemen. We are overseen by 5 city agencies, and not one WEEK goes by (and sometimes, day) that our horses are not checked by the ASPCA or the Dept of Health. (Let’s see Child Protective Services match that record)
The horses receive rotation turnout several times a year on farms in both Upstate NY and PA. *WE*, the industry, codified a MINIMUM in the new law, to help standardize our industry. But 80% of our horses are at rest for MONTHS at a time – for instance, we have two horses, one is at work while the other is in PA for the half the year. The same with the stall size – 95% of our horses have occupied box stalls for YEARS. *WE* were the ones who inserted the minimum size into the bill, so that we could no longer be LIED about by the animal rights brigade. (And BTW, did you know that 80% of all police horses in NYC live in straight stalls?)
michaleen
April 21, 2010 at 8:35 pm
When the time comes, we work hard to retire them to loving, forever homes; some of the owners retire them themselves on privately owned land. The NY Humane Society also has a Carriage Horse Adoption program. I personally have retired 3 horses, one of which is still living the life of Riley after being retired 6 years ago in South Jersey at a bank president’s home.
With regard to traffic – you should know that horses are the most adaptable of God’s creatures. A seasoned carriage horse pays absolutely no attention to regular traffic – it is their normal environment. We use drafts & draft crosses for their temperament, and also the occasional stalwart Standardbred (my personal fave.)
michaleen
April 21, 2010 at 8:35 pm
As far as the horse’s safety:
Our safety record is STELLAR – 68 carriages operating approx 300 days a year /25 years = over 2 MILLION trips in traffic back and forth to the stables. (this does not even include all of the actual rides done!)
We have had THREE equine fatalities due to traffic accidents in those 25 years.
NO equine pursuit can claim a similar ratio (over 1000 horses died onracetracks just since the Kentucky Derby last year – hell, 100 HUMANS were hit by cars and killed in 2008 in NYC alone)
While each of the three horse deaths was a tragedy (I knew each one – Chester ‘85, Tony ‘90, and Spotty ‘07), there is nothing in life with no risk, & certainly not in human/horse activities. Many, many more horses are injured or killed in eventing, jumping, racing, polo, etc. The humaniacs would eradicate all horses in order to eradicate all risk – something I do believe they could live with, & indeed, it’s something that many of them actively seek. They drag out the same ghoulish pics from these accidents on every website & at every demonstration, sometimes even using pictures of dead or injured horses from other parts of the country and saying they were in NYC!
michaleen
April 21, 2010 at 8:36 pm
You said “imagine how the horses feel” in the city.
I don’t have to imagine – I KNOW how my horse feels, just as I am sure you know how your horse feels.
When I open his stall door in the morning and he swings around and nickers, eager to go to work; when he sticks his head right into the collar; when he he champing at the bit and swinging his head around to look at me to say “let’s get going!” when I am hooking him to the carriage; when he dives into his bucket of feed at lunchtime on the carriage line; when he walks peacefully and soundly around the park on a ride; when he demands his carrot at the end of the ride; when he knocks my hat off from behind during the day to get some attention; when my biceps & triceps get a work out holding him in on the way back to stable, with him tossing his head and pawing at every red light; when I rub him down good at the end of the day; when I close the door on his stall at the end of day as he pulls mouthfuls of fresh hay out of his hayrack and settles into his freshly made stall for the night.
Yep, I *know* how my horse feels.
I invite you to read my blog (this website won’t let post a link, seemingly), it is called the TheWhiffleTreeNYC.
michaleen
April 21, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Michaleen,
Thank you so much for commenting, and for taking the time to deal with the site template and do it in pieces. I didn’t realize it had a word limit. Also, you’ll be pleased to know that your link shows up and I’m sure readers will be visiting it, myself included! Again it is http://thewhiffletreenyc.blogspot.com/ (Music, for our at-office readers, so mute before you visit if you don’t want the boss over your shoulder!)
I appreciate your sharing some of the realities of your horses’ lives. I really do wish that the carriage horse industry would work a little harder at P.R. It is very easy to find good reasons not to have carriage horses in the city, and rather less so to find the reasons tohave carriage horses. I believe that I do caveat some of my links with the fact that I have not seen these things with my own eyes – believe me, I’d love to see it myself and set the record straight as an interested bystander. And I have to admit that I am not swayed by the “ambassadors of the city” argument. But all horsemen have had occasion to dislike the ASPCA – and definitely PETA – and we can sympathize with one another in that arena.
An unfortunate number of urban horses still live in straight stalls – thank goodness your horses do not. I’d love to see your stabling, if you ever have the opportunity and can spare a few minutes! And I’m sure the other readers would like to know more about it as well.
I will have to continue to disagree on a few key points – I still think nine hours is a terribly long time – I wouldn’t leave a horse tacked up for nine hours. I do know that trail ride and some livery stables do this. I personally do not like it. And I still don’t think horses belong on the Midtown streets. As I said, though, I do believe they have a place in Central Park.
But thank goodness there are kind people taking care of them at the end of the day!
Thanks again, and please feel free to continue to communicate about the carriage horses of New York City!
Natalie Keller Reinert
April 21, 2010 at 9:18 pm