Friday, August 8, 2008

WHAT IS THIS?!


Is it a warehouse?

Is it a factory?

Is it a schoolhouse?

Is it a carriage horse stable?

You are correct if you picked the last choice.

Although many people assume the carriage horses live in Central Park - they do not. This is just one of five stables to house carriage horses in New York City, located on W. 38th St. between 11th and 12th Avenue. The others are similar. Horses live on the upper floors and access their undersized stalls by a steep ramp. After dragging tourists around all day, they return to their stall and stay there until the next day. They have no turnout or pasture time.

Life is no walk in the park for NYC's carriage horses.

1 comment:

sorry4myfault said...

Thank you for posting this so that people can get a glimpse of the way New York City carriage horses really live. In these multistory warehouses on the west side, 2 miles from Central Park. Inside the building, the horses have to climb steep ramps -- not good for arthritic old horses. This does not seem like any kind of respite for a horse (probably an old one) that has been working 9 hours or more. It's awful to think of these horses living in such conditions. West Side Livery is one of the worst, and readers can check out that statement because it finds itself in the news quite a bit, almost always for the wrong reasons.