Ugh. At this point, it probably doesn’t matter if the poor thing dropped dead instantly from an aneurysm or something. The optics are just horrific. I can’t see why anyone would want to continue doing this in the current highly scrutinized, social media-heavy environment.
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Riding horses in NYC, including NYPD horses, are subject to regulations regarding working hours.
https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/description/working-rental-horse-license
Carriage horses shall not work more than 9 hours in any continuous 24-hour period, with a rest period of 15 minutes for every 2 pulling hours. Riding horses shall not work more than 8 hours in any continuous 24-hour period, with a rest of 15 minutes per riding hour. Whenever the air temperature reaches a high of 90°F or a low of 18°F, riding and carriage horses shall not be worked.
Found elsewhere (2024):
Today, the unit, which has about 50 horses, fulfills multiple functions. The “10-foot cops” are regulars at parades, help with crowd control at concerts, protests, and sports events, and serve as a crime deterrent.
As we all know too well, if something is alive, it can die suddenly and unexpectedly. The optics are very rarely pretty.
Hopefully the necropsy will show it was a fluke - like an aortic arch burst. People have heart attacks, strokes, undiagnosed aneurysms burst.
A moment of silence for Lady and condolences to her driver, who is unlikely to be the heartless lawbreaking greedy monster PETA and others are no doubt portraying this person as being.
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When I had horses, I drove them. They were happy in their work. I have seen many working carriage horses in various cities (NYC, Charleston, and a few others), and they have all seemed enthusiastic and were calm, happy horses. I took a carriage ride through Central Park last time I was in NYC, and the horse (in addition to all the others I saw) looked great and acted happy to be out working. The horse was just as relaxed when we were on city streets as he was going through the park.
As @MorganSercu said above, there are strict rules governing carriage horses in NYC, and the owners and drivers treasure these horses. They get vacations on pasture and have good body scores. I’ve been a member in a couple of carriage horse groups to support their right to exist. Horses (like people) can have a sudden health event that has nothing to do with what they were doing at the time. The necropsy should provide more information about this specific incident.
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I don’t know why two people now have said horses can have sudden events that cause death. I am aware… I put “aneurysm” in the OP.
I don’t think it will much matter what a necropsy says in a few weeks’ time. Pictures and videos of another dead horse are all over dozens of media outlets. The necropsy won’t generate more than a small percent of this initial coverage.
I’m fairly agnostic about the carriage horse industry. I think drivers probably really love their horses and try to do best by them. I also don’t think it’s a great life for a horse. I primarily care about what this means for our “social license” in every other corner of the horse world.
Regardless, I don’t think the public will tolerate many more highly visible horse deaths in city streets. We’ll see what happens.
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I add it for any non-horse people who stumble upon this site.
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I spent 6 years as a kid in Chile and Uruguay from 1957 to 1963.
In the cities they still used horses to pull wagons. In the countryside they still used horses for wrangling livestock. In Montevideo Uruguay, the capitol, I could count on 6 horses pulling wagons going by my window most days of the week.
To me horses actually working for a living is not a foreign concept.
The carriage horses I’ve seen in the USA are usually in a little bit better to much better condition than the light draft horses I saw in Chile and Uruguay. The carriage horses I’ve seem in the USA are usually in MUCH BETTER SHAPE than the light draft horses I saw in the poorer South American countries.
I do not understand the horror that a lot of Americans, both horse people and non-horse people, have over horses actually working for their living. To me it is normal.
The clop, clop, clop of shod hooves walking on pavement is ingrained in my brain.
In Montevideo, Uruguay, the capital city of Uruguay, the carters would turn their horses out most nights to forage in the Carrasco suburb, and the horses would voluntarily return to their stable in the morning to get fed and to work another day pulling carts throughout Montevideo. It was a normal life for a horse there.
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A horse that works for a living (with proper care) is most likely better off than the one stalled for 23 hours a day. And I’d rather see a horse pulling a carriage or moving cows than an overweight hunter with a ‘cocktail’ coursing through its veins.
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Maybe we (general) need to not discontinue doing every little thing because some group on social media is clueless but loud and start teaching them about facts, like @MorganSercu’s post so nicely covers.
A well cared for horse with a real job is not a bad thing.
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A carriage driver in Wilmington, NC recently did a small AMA (Ask me anything) thread on reddit - both in the equestrian reddit and another in the Wilmington Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Equestrian/comments/1mf4tq4/im_a_carriage_driver_in_a_major_downtown_area_ama/https://www.reddit.com/r/Equestrian/comments/1mf4tq4/im_a_carriage_driver_in_a_major_downtown_area_ama/
Not the biggest or most thorough AMAs ever, but I still found it interesting. And of course, their experience in a much smaller, lower cost of living city is probably going to be very different from that of a carriage driver and horse in NYC.
I do appreciate that their outfit is a small one and does switch out horses frequently (though the number of horses and the amount of time they’re at the farm with turnout vs working in the city does not entirely make sense to me. But also they’re probably fudging some details to be not immediately identifiable). Taking them at face value, they seem like a reasonably good org that does value their horses.
I think we need more stories like this, with the carriage drivers and owners talking about how they manage the horse with empathy and honesty.
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