Since the closing of the Claremont Stables last year the Parks Department has had to haul its horses in a trailer from a stable at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The closing has also greatly diminished the department’s mounted patrol units and rendered scarce one of Central Park’s most charming images, the horse and rider.
To remedy this situation the Parks Department plans to build a one-story brick stable, to house five horses, near the Central Park Zoo, at Fifth Avenue and 63rd Street. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the plan on April 8. Construction of the stable is expected to begin this summer and be completed by the fall.
It is encouraging to note that the Parks Department horses will be cared for in a responsible and humane way, thus sparing the animals the stress of having to be schlepped back and forth to the Bronx everyday. It will also be wonderful to have the animals be more of a presence in the park, one of the lovliest, most pastoral of images of Central Park is a horse and rider ambling gracefully along the bridle path.
The problem is this will present an even more stark and disturbing contrast to the treatment of the carriage horses that glumly trudge along Central Park South less than a hundred yards away. They don’t have to worry about a ride to Van Cortlandt Park, they get to walk back to their garage through traffic. Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?
I don’t understand why such a barbaric practice is considered such a precious tourist attraction. There’s a reason we don’t have cock fights and bear baiting any more in New York – is disgusting and morally wrong to torture animals for our amusement.
Having never happened on this blog before tonight, I began this entry with avid interest, and was delighted to find that a new stable would be built in Central Park for the Parks Dept horses. The more horses around the better, I always say
Imagine my surprise when the entry took a nasty, uninformed turn at the last paragraph.
After 26 years in the NYC Horse & Carriage business, I still cannot wrap my mind around the idea that some people see a horse and rider and think “Lovely!”, but the sight of a horse pulling a carriage has them saying “Aww, poor horse!”. As if a horse would somehow prefer standing & walking around for hours with 150-200 pounds directly on his back than to pull a carriage occasionally throughout the day. Now, don’t get me wrong – both jobs are equally as appropriate for an equine, and neither of them qualifies as ‘heavy labor’ for a horse. And especially these days, any horse with a good job is a lucky horse indeed, with thousands of them across the country being abandoned & sold for slaughter due to the economy & overpopulation. To malign our business in the most general, non-specific way (“the treatment of the horses”?) is at best irresponsible, and at worst the soul of ignorance. What you see as “glumly trudging” is actually a relaxed walk – loose lines, head lowered, slow pace. It’s called taking it easy – the horses know the route, the standard ride is timed so that most horses will walk it in 20 minutes or so. Maybe we should tie their heads up tight with checklines (bearing reins), ask them to collect (unnecessary energy wasted, more difficult for the horse), so that they appear to “strut” to the untrained eye? I think not.
As far as walking back to the stable, we manage just fine: 68 carriages go to and from the stables 4X a day with 2 shifts of horses – no carriage stable is further than a mile, and 3 of them are a 1/2 mile or less, hardly a hardship. As a matter of fact, Claremont was TWICE as far from 59th Street as any carriage stable, exactly 2 miles! Not that that was a hardship, either – if you know horses, you know that is not considered a massive trek, even with a rider on the horse’s back.
Our mix of round, chunky draft horses & sleek standardbreds receive no ill treatment whatever, despite all the many many many gobs of mud in the form of misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies have been lobbed at us by the self-anointed ‘animal rights’ people. They have stables, high-grade food, vet & farrier care, grooming, treats, and the daily affection of both the drivers and the passerby. There are, tragically, children in this city that do not have the comparble amenities that our horses have.
It would behoove you and your readers to base your comments on reality and facts, rather than on misguided emotions, hearsay, slander, and a lack of information.
Thanx for letting me have my say.
Please fell free to visit my new blog!
See you on 59th Street
Shame on the biased writer to slam the carriage horses! As the owner of over 20 Draft Horses in NYC and a stable owner,we have never been cited for animal cruelty.We have been in business over 40 yrs,in the same location,and it never seemed to be a problem going to and from the park thru the local streets.However i would be thrilled if the Prks Dept extended the same courtesy to the Carriage Horses to live in Central Pk.Being closer to our carriage stands and avoid undue traffic would certainly be welcomed by me.Sheep Meadow would be a ideal turnout and could be a tourist attraction in its own to see 200 grazing horses in the middle of the City.
Dear Central Park Blogger.
with all due respect, since when was fairness even been consider in regards to these poor carriage horses.
This carriage horse drawn industry, which joined the Carriage operators of North America in May 15 2008 to “sanitize” and misled the public, does not play fair. Staten Island council member McMahon is the brother of their lobbyist and Bloomberg deputy mayor is the wife of their lobbyist. They have police officers “retired supposedly” as part time drivers. Council Member Gennaro received a lot of contribution from them before he introduced the bill to increase their rates.
Majority of New Yorkers and the ASPCA support the ban and yet the city will not adhere to the authority of the ASPCA. The glazed dispirited look of the carriage horses is a blemish to the city. Anyhow who said horses belong in NYC traffic does not know horses or do not love them. Just because a horse is fat or bloated does not make it healthy. Since when does fat equate to healthy. Look at its legs and eyes. These horses suffer from lameness and are dispirited from their work in NYC traffic. They are tied to the lampposts while their drivers stand along oggling women and chatting up on the phone. Then these horses are in stand-alone stalls and on upper level floors as cargo and not as living beings capable of pain. New Yorkers Do the right thing and help the horses and call your council members to support the ban INTRO 658. Go to the movie blinders in YOUTUBE and see the truth.
Clancy, only 8 years old was found DEAD in the CLINTON STABLES just a few months ago.
ASPCA supports the BAN. have a heart and call your council member to sponsor INTRO 658 and end the cruelty. These horses are not doing well at all in regards to their well being. it is unsafe for them and us to have them in NYC traffic. go to blinders and other movie in youtube and see the truth.
Dear Central Park Bloger
Unlike you, the carriage industry does not permit those to voice the truth on their industry. they don’t permit comments opposing to them on their trailers in youtube and blogs. They have one sided puff pieces published in the NEW YORK SUN editorial sections. AGAIN when has fairness applied in regards to those poor carriage horses.
Congrats to the writer for getting it right–the miserable horse-drawn carriage industry is shameful and the new stable will highlight the glum differences.
Flynn, there you go again with the “at least they have a home” argument; as you mentioned on another site, someone has compared that to the Michael Vick argument (“at least the dogs had a home!”) and both arguments are absurd. Nary an accident? SHAMEFUL! Smoothie, Spotty, Juliet (wrongly identified initially as Rusty…hmmmm, why?), Bud with the bloody gash, and the gruesome list goes on and on… Meanwhile a leading equine veterinarian and consultant to the city, Holly Cheever, DVM, very recently described New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry as “by far the worst in terms of the number of unexplained deaths and the grim conditions under which the horses live and work.” She said, “They are DYING IN UNACCEPTABLE NUMBERS” [emphasis mine]. And that their living conditions are “survivable–barely–but they are never humane.”
Who is telling the lies? New York City residents turn their heads in shame at the sight of this inhumane industry, and the tourists (which are disdained by the drivers) are too naive to know better.
Horse-drawn carriages do not belong on the streets of New York City. I don’t get why this is even a point of contention in 2008.
The Humane Society of the United States supports A FULL BAN also. I wonder why this organization would come to such a conclusion? One reason: abundant evidence that the industry is inhumane and cannot be regulated or made safer.
Horses can never have quality of life in NYC, not in the streets, not in the park, not anywhere in NYC. Horses spook, they spook in the streets and in the park. It is most unsafe and horribly cruel to have carriage horses or riding horses or any horses in NYC.